Julian Seleke Mokoto

Julian Seleke Mokoto (also Julian Seleke-Mokoto) (19**-) is a playwright and theatre director.

Biography

Hailing from Naledi, he spent his youth focused on soccer, but then he was exposed to theatre by a friend whom he accompanied to a performance of Gibson Kente's Things Are Bad Mzala, featuring Eric Sugar Mlangeni and was thus inspired to join a drama group. Once he was cast in a leading role in a performance he was hooked.

From the start he took on multiple duties and by his second stage role (in Khathatso), he decided to abandon soccer.

He then tried his hand at writing plays and came up with a hit called The Cause. A director from Grahams­town was impressed and invited him to their annual festival. He was also invited to take the play to Zimbabwe and Botswana.

After writing, directing and acting in a play called Hold Up The Sun, he decided to quit acting and concentrate on writing and directing. He thus went on to become the director of Abangani Community Arts in Soweto and Abangani Theatre Productions.

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

Among the plays written and directed by Mokoto have been: Shattered Dreams, Mary, the unfaithful Woman, Blind Mind, Tapping Hearts, The Cause, Hold Up The Sun (1995), The Last Mile (1998), Tapping Hearts (2006), Money Maker (2009, revived in 2013), at Mmabana Studio 1, a sexually explicit and very popular play about sex workers. The Lies that Women Tell (2012), with TV personality Nomsa Buthelezi. She Died Dreaming (2013), a play about four women trying to find love, presented by the Playhouse Company at the SA Women's Arts Festival in Durban.

Awards, etc

Winner of two FNB Vita Awards.

Sources

Sisters get a little help from Julian. IOL (7 March, 2006)

Jabu Kumalo, interview in the The Daily Sun, December 2009[1]

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

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