Centre for South African Theatre Research

The Centre for South African Theatre Research (CESAT)

An archive and documentation centre as well as a research facility and clearinghouse housed in the Institute for Languages, Literatures and Arts of the Human Sciences Research Council (1979-1989).

Origins

The centre derives from the National Documentation Centre for the Performing Arts (1971-1978). In 1979, on the retirement of Rinie Stead, the HSRC appointed Temple Hauptfleisch as head and researcher with the commission to expand it into a far more active research centre. It was then renamed CESAT and, while it continued collecting archival material on South African theatre and performance under the curatorship of Astrid Schwenke (née Astrid Schüler) and Joey Fourie, the centre now also undertook a number of specific research projects.

The CESAT Collection

This refers to the vast collection of theatre materials originally collected by the National Documentation Centre for the Performing Arts (1971-1979) and continued by the Centre for South African Theatre Research (CESAT – 1979-1989) at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), but transferred to the National Film and Video Archives in Pretoria in 1989. Later known as the ** collection.

The CESAT Research

The research undertaken included studies by Temple Hauptfleisch and Eunice Reynecke of research methodology in the performing arts (e.g. Hauptfleisch 198* and 198*, Reynecke 198*), studies on the history of theatre (e.g Rinie Stead’s unpublished history of the National Theatre Organisation (1980), Hauptfleisch 1984a, Schwenke, 198*), studies on the sociology of theatre and theatre attendance (e.g Hauptfleisch 198*, 198*, 198*) and source guides on theatre in general and on specific topics (e.g. Viljoen, 198*, Hauptfleisch, Schuler and Van Greunen, 198*). The Centre also undertook focussed research on theatre in education over an extended period, with Paddy Terry and Temple Hauptfleisch as researchers in this field and served as secretariat for the SA Association for Drama and Youth Theatre (SAADYT), editing and publishing the SAADYT Journal for a number of years. Between 1986 - 1987 the Centre also provided the editorial offices for the newly launched South African Theatre Journal (SATJ), founded and edited by Temple Hauptfleisch and Ian Steadman.

The dismantling of CESAT

In 1988 Temple Hauptfleisch left the Centre for an academic position and to found the Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies (CENTAPS) at the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department. Eunice Reynecke briefly took over the headship, but in 1989 the HSRC closed down the centre and transferred the documentation to the National Film Archives in Pretoria as the SACIA collection. The research impetus moved to the University of Stellenbosch and its Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies.

Sources

Hauptfleisch, 1985

For more information

See also: Human Sciences Research Council, National Documentation Centre for the Performing Arts

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