Francois Venter

Francois Venter (19**-).

Biography

Completed his schooling at Noordheuwel High School (1982-1987) and the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Dramatic Art (1989-1993) obtaining a BA (Dramatic Art), and later obtained his Master’s degree in Performance Studies at Wits.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As teacher/coach

Venter has taught at Wits School of Dramatic Art and the Market Theatre Laboratory (inter alia as Diction Coach from 1991 to 2011)

As performer

He has had a role in the film u'Bejani (1997),

As playwright

Francois wrote the one-act plays Woknakwyf! and Kandy en Dagga is Gagga.

As crew member

He built the set for a production of Caritas in 1983 and had a role in Tooth and Nail (NAF 1991).

As arts manager/consultant

Venter worked as South African co-ordinator on the 1994 Dogtroep workshop for the Arts Alive Festival.

He was a founder member of KLAP public performance company in 1995, and was involved in various performance projects in Newtown, the Market Theatre and in downtown Joburg. He also worked as company/stage manager for Junction Avenue Theatre Company, and attended a two-week theatre workshop in Berlin.

In 1996 he worked with street theatre outfit Jungle Performance. In 1997, he was involved in founding the Performance Initiative, and worked on a four-week master class with nine South African artists and Dogtroep in Oudtshoorn. The result of the master class was the creation of the show, Sweet Pham-Pham, which the South African team took on a national tour as the A1 Theatre Company.

Between November 2009 and November 2011 he was also a consultant on theatre spaces for the Steven Biko Foundation and from 2011 onwards worked for the Cultural Programmes Department of the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg.

Sources

https://www.linkedin.com/in/francois-venter-62b51a30/?originalSubdomain=za

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