The National Theatre Organisation (In Afrikaans: Nasionale Toneelorganisasie, but perhaps best known by its acronym: NTO) was a state funded organization founded to promote and produce theatre in Afrikaans and English in South Africa. (In reality this more or less implied "among white audiences" at that time, and the concept of "theatre" they espoused was the European one.)

History

Pre-history

Over the years before 1947 a growing number of individuals, organisations and institutions had been agitating for a form of state intervention and the founding of some kind of "national theatre" in South Africa.

The culminating moment came with the advent of a rapidly growing indigenous professional theatre movement in the country, particularly in the years 1936 and 1947, when a strong and concerted thrust towards this ideal emerged. In this period the names of numerous prominent (white) theatre personalities and academics are found in the minutes of meetings and on petitions, among them: Muriel Alexander, S.P.E. Boshoff, F.C.L. Bosman,Hélène Botha,Myles Bourke, P.P.B. Breytenbach, John Connell, Hermien Dommisse, W.J. du P. Erlank ("Eitemal"), Gwen ffrangçon-Davies, Hendrik Hanekom, L.W. Hiemstra, André Huguenet, Margaret Inglis, Donald Inskip, Rayne Kruger, T.H. le Roux. W.E.G. Louw, Nan Munro, Anna Neethling-Pohl, Leontine Sagan and Marda Vanne. Among the organisations that involved themselves in this were FATSSA, the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge ("Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations"). (FAK).

However, given the nature of the society at the time, this push was coming from a very specific segment of the South African population, namely the white "European" citizens. On the other hand there was at this time also another lone, but compelling, voice with different message and interpretation of the notion of a "National Theatre" for the country. The playwright and cultural leader H.I.E. Dhlomo, wrote a series of articles expounding his notion of a national African theatre in **. While interesting at the time, these ideas were really only picked up much later , when Dhlomo's works had regained attention in the late 1970's, notably through the publications of Tim Couzens - when they informed much of the debate surrounding the notion of black theatre and indigenous theatre in the (coming) "new South Africa".

An important step forward came in 1945, when the then Minister of Education, Arts and Science (Mr J.H. Hofmeyr) instituted a commission of enquiry, led by Dr G.W. Eybers (chairman) and J.J.P. O'pt Hof (secretary), to study the educational and social needs of the country after the second world war. The so-called Eybers Commission of Enquiry, into post war social issues that a National Council for Adult Education (NCAE) be founded, under the chairmanship of Dr Eybers.

P.P.B. Breytenbach (principal of a prominent technical school and the founding chairman of FATSSA), was appointed as a member NCAE, and in this capacity persuaded the theatre-loving Dr Eybers to create a sub-committee devoted to theatre matters. The first such committee began work in 1947, chaired by Breytenbach, with Steve Naudé as secretary and Anna Neethling-Pohl of Volksteater, Major Myles Bourke of the UDF Entertainment Unit and Professor Donald Inskip of the University of Cape Town's Little Theatre as members. This committee immediately set about preparing and submitting an ambitious proposal for a sponsorship for all the performing art forms, based on an outline prepared by Myles Bourke, to the council.

In response Minister Hofmeyr, allocated £400 (plus a loan of £3 600) to the Federation of Amateur Theatrical Societies of South Africa (FATSSA), to organise bilingual tours of theatre only, in 1948. This was to be a preliminary experiment.

Founding and early days

The founding of the new company was officially announced on 21 June 1947. There was an outcry from the professional fraternity at the allocation to FATSSA, refusing to be "organized" by amateurs, thus the original idea was scrapped and the sub-committee, still chaired by Breytenbach, was now enhanced by the addition of two professionals, Leontine Sagan and André Huguenet. This committee became a mediatory body for the experiment, and later the controlling body of NTO. In the early days André Huguenet also acted as the Company Manager.

Actual work on productions started with the artistic advisors (Sagan, Neethling-Pohl and Huguenet), going on a national tour in late 1947 to muster support and audition potential performers, and in 1948 the first productions went on tour. (See below).

The administrative structure

The directorate met for the first time in Johannesburg on 7 July 1947 and gradually Breytenbach, Inskip and Bourke took over the day to day running of the organisation. In 1948 the board was enlarged with the addition of more professionals, academics, and representatives from interested parties. Thus Elizabeth Sneddon, Marda Vanne, F.C.L. Bosman, S.H. Pellissier, J.J.P. O'pt Hof (representing the Council) and P.J. Theron (Director of Adult Education) also became members. In 1952, Breytenbach became its full time Director, and also moved to Pretoria, with F.C.L. Bosman taking over as chairman (1952-1953), followed by Geoff Cronjé (1954-1961).

In 1957 a regional office was also established in the Bellville Civic Theatre, in the Cape. Managed by Laurie van der Merwe, it had its own regional advisory board chaired by W.J. du P. Erlank.

The office and production staff

In 1948 Doris Lancaster became the first formal appointment of NTO, as full-time secretary (initially working with Breytenbach in Krugersdorp, before moving to offices in Pretoria in 1950). In 1952, Breytenbach became NTO's full time Director, and also moved to Pretoria. Over the years the staff complement was to include Michal Grobbelaar (technical advisor, 1955-1962, and from 1958 production manager Afrikaans), Victor Melleney (production manager, English 1958-1962), Frank Graves and Doreen Graves (designers), and the press officers Piet Bezuidenhout (Pretoria), Nellie Kruger (Johannesburg) and Muriel Kavanagh (Cape Town).

Marda Vanne was appointed artistic advisor in 1950,

Artistic staff

Directors

Among the directors who worked for NTO on a contract basis were Tone Brulin, Richard Daneel, Johan de Meester, Basil Dean, Gwen ffrangçon-Davies, Leon Gluckman, André Huguenet, John Hussey, Margaret Inglis, Taubie Kushlick, Victor Melleney, Anna Neethling-Pohl, Truida Pohl, Leontine Sagan, Leonard Schach, Marda Vanne, Margaret Webster, Clifford Williams and many others.

Actors

Among the many actors who worked logner term or ad hoc for NTO, were André Huguenet, Siegfried Mynhardt, Leon Gluckman, Frank Wise, Lorna Cowell, Vivienne Drummond, Mathilda Hanekom, Hendrik Hanekom, Enone van den Bergh also known as Enone Murray), Anna Romain Hoffman, Nita Economides, Truida Pohl, Esmé Celliers, Emgee Pretorius, Gert van den Bergh, Oswald van Blerk, Georgie Linder, Lorna Cowell, Vivienne Drummond (also known as Vivien Drummond), Honor Edmonds, Hazel Casson, Mary Mitchell, Cecil Cartwright, Frank Wise, Bob Courtney (also known as Robert Courtney), Pikkie van Niekerk, Berdine Grünewald, Georgie Linder, Nita Economides, Will Jamieson, Pikkie van Niekerk, Japie van Niekerk, Gerrit Wessels, Michal Grobbelaar, Erna Eksteen, Laurie van der Merwe,

Designers and technical staff

Frank Graves (décor), Doreen Graves (costumes), Cecil Pym (décor) Nina Campbell-Quine (décor and costumes)

Funding

The funding also changed as they got under way, the initial loan being waived and becoming a straight grant of £10 000 in 1948 and £15 000 in 1949. By 1957 £10 000 had been added for the development of regional branches. Despite repeated entreaties due to rising costs, the grant of £25 000 remained at that level till the end, with occasional extra allowances of £5 000 for specific purposes.

Offices, theatres and facilities

Starting with offices in Krugersdorp, then temporary offices in Pretoria, before NTO finally purchased the old Marais homestead in Sunnyside, Pretoria, with the intention of ultimately converting it to a national theatre. They moved on in May 1957, and it was officially opened as the head office for NTO on 8 February by Mrs Susan Strydom, wife of the Prime Minister, J.G. Strydom[1].

The conversion to a theatre never happened and PACT eventually sold the building to a consortium to build the Marais Centre, a shopping mall.

In 1955 NTO also purchased the Harmony Hall in President street with a grant from the city council. The hall was converted to an experimental venue, the NTO Kamertoneel, in 1958-9, and in 1959 (after extensive modifications), became the National Theatre Pretoria, renamed the Breytenbach Theatre in 1967. At the same time the house next door was bought by Breytenbach and donated to NTO, for use as its offices, wardrobe, and as a training school (the latter another project that never materialised).

Specific production initiatives

Within this vast programme undertaken by the organization a few specific initiatives stand out over the years.

The bilingual company

In 1949 and 1950 an experiment was made with a bilingual (English/Afrikaans) company, performing a repertory of four plays consecutively. This was not popular and by 1951 the companies had parted company once more, with Afrikaans and English companies touring separately. This would last till the end of the existence of the organisation. Extended tours lasted up to one year at a time, with at times up to five companies on the road. The tours often took on dangerous or sometimes farcical dimensions, hampered by long distances, bad roads in the rural areas, lack of suitable venues, etc. However the NTO visits in remote areas were greatly appreciated.

International engagements

NTO did much to foster international exchange, with Hassan going to Britain in 195*, and a number of companies performing locally under their banner. These include the Flemish national theatre company (1950, 1952), the Hogarth Puppets (1954), John Wright's Marionettes (1956-57), Nederlands Kamertoneel (1959), the Old Vic Company (19**).

Prestige productions

Differences in taste between cities and the towns led to artistic advisor Marda Vanne starting a practice of doing "prestige" productions in the cities from time to time (e.g. Macbeth and Hassan in 1950), though this proved largely uneconomical and did not occur often.

The NTO Kamertoneel

Based on an idea of Kamertoneel (lit. "room theatre", i.e. "chamber theatre")which was brought to the country by visiting director Tone Brulin, the NTO plan was for an experimental company, consisting of a company of young actors, working in a venue housed in the converted Harmony Hall, at 145 President Street , Sunnyside, to produce smaller, more experimental work. The conversion was done by administrative personnel of NTO, led by Michal Grobbelaar, and utilizing private donations. The process started with plans being drawn up in 1957-1958, and actual work beginning on the 14th October 1958.

The theatrical part of the experiment lasted for two years (1958-9), during which they did ** productions of new South African plays or experimental adaptations of international work.

After 1959 the venue was revamped and extended to become the National Theatre, officially opened on 28 June 1960 and intended for use by NTO's main companies. After 1962 it was used by the PACT theatre company and was renamed the Breytenbach Theatre in 1968. After having leased it from PACT for a while, it finally became the property of the Pretoria Technikon drama department in 1997. (Later known as the Tshwane University of Technology or TUT).

For the Kamertoneel productions and other information, see NTO Kamertoneel

The Van Riebeeck Festival

The year 1952 was a period of glory for NTO, with the organization taking control of many of the main celebratory festivities surrounding the Van Riebeeck Festival, including the pageant in Cape Town (directed by Anna Neethling-Pohl). Their experimental theatre project, called Kamertoneel (lit. "Room Theatre"), lasted for about two years (1958-59) in Pretoria and Cape Town, but did some of the most interesting work, including new plays by local authors such as N.P. van Wyk Louw, James Ambrose Brown and Bartho Smit, as well as controversial work by visiting director Tone Brulin.

The NTO schools programme

Another highly regarded initiative was the NTO's schools programme. This started with special matinee performances for schools, begun in 1951, and later - with grants from the various education departments - special performances of selected plays at schools throughout the province. Begun in Transvaal in 1954, this was extended to the Cape Province in 1955 and Natal in 1956. In 1958 Jannie Gildenhuys, Cobus Rossouw and Leonora Nel returned from Europe, filled with ideas about educational theatre culled from Joan Littlewood and others, and suggested the formation of a youth company to do exracts from prescribed works in schools. With a grant from the Cape Province, the NTO Youth Theatre came into being in 1959 and toured schools in Cape with a panel van, doing the same in the Transvaal in 1960. In 1961 two companies were formed, later four. (In 1963 most of these performers were absorbed into PACT.) Kaapland en Tvl het elkeen ‘n Jeugtoneelgroep gevorm en op reis gestuur met oa. Die Bruidskool (Moliere), The Prisoner (Bridget Boland). Nie vir Geleerdes (NP vWyk Louw)

Library readings

Initiated by in the Cape Town region by Laurie van der Merwe, the very popular library readings were offered throughout the province, and after 1957 resorted under the regional office.

The Western Cape regional office

Another kind of initiative was the founding, in 1957, of a regional office in the Bellville Civic Theatre, in the Cape. Managed by Laurie van der Merwe, it had its own regional advisory board and initiated some experimental work as well as the very popular library readings throughout the province. However, this move towards regionalisation signalled a change in fortunes for NTO, with the Cape gradually seeking to secede from the national body, a move which eventually hastened the end of NTO and the founding of the Performing Arts Councils in 1963.

The end of NTO

Gradually in the late 1950s and early 1960s troubles had begun to brew, and by 1961 the long-developing split between north and south had come to a head. This coupled with increasing financial difficulties, rebellion by artists against what they perceived as a bureaucratic control of their lives and art, national catastrophes (e.g. the Sharpeville massacre), etc, all had begun to make the board's position untenable. From 1957 onwards they sought some form of state intervention to clarify matters.

In 1961 the De Bruyn Commission of Inquiry was finally instituted, and studied the situation while all new activities were suspended. The report (never published) came as a bombshell, for it recommended the disbanding of NTO and the founding of four provincial Performing Arts Councils. With no other option, NTO wound up its business and disbanded in June 1962.

In 1963 the new system came into being, with the founding of Performing Arts Councils, Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal, Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State, Natal Performing Arts Council and Cape Performing Arts Board. Most of the facilities of NTO and the remaining staff, were transferred to PACT, with P.P.B. Breytenbach as the first director.

(See further Performing Arts Councils, Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal, Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State, Natal Performing Arts Council and Cape Performing Arts Board. Also South African Committee of Performing Arts Councils (SACPAC). )

Productions

Overview

All in all NTO mounted 103 productions (including children's plays, educational plays, imported and/or sponsored productions, experimental works, as well as repeat productions, etc.) in the period from 1948 to 1962, beginning with Altyd My Liefste (Lessing, directed by Truida Pohl) and Dear Brutus (Barrie, directed by Leontine Sagan), rehearsed and launched by the English and Afrikaans companies at the Little Theatre, Cape Town on 2 and 12 February 1948, and ending with Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet as their final full production in 1961, and with three short plays in 1962 by Theatre for Youth as their swansong.

Of these events, 25 were of indigenous (Afrikaans or English) plays, a number specifically written for NTO by authors such as Gerhard Beukes, Guy Butler, W.A. de Klerk, D.J. Opperman, N.P. van Wyk Louw, James Ambrose Brown, Bartho Smit, Anthony Delius, Dolf van Niekerk and Harold Laite. The list also includes numerous translations of foreign language (and English) plays, a number of them by local author-translators such as Uys Krige, Bartho Smit, Anna Neethling-Pohl, Eitemal, .

Plays produced by NTO

Below a list of the plays produced by NTO in their 15 years of existence, based on a list originally compiled by Rinie Stead (1985b). Most of the plays mentioned went on extended tours of South Africa.

Click on the title of the play in question to go to the entry and read more details about the text and production(s).

1948: Altyd My Liefste (Lessing); Dear Brutus (Barrie), Nag het die Wind Gebring (W.A. de Klerk) and An Inspector Calls (Priestley).

1949: Minnaar onder die Wapen (Shaw), Die Indringer (Brandon) The Glass Menagerie (Williams), The Guardsman (Molnar)

1950: Oupa Brompie (Percival and Hodges), Macbeth (Shakespeare, in Afrikaans, in association with African Theatres), Candida (Shaw), Hassan (Flecker), Vlaamse Nasionale Toneel (visiting company)

1951: Die Vrek (Molière), The Cocktail Party (Eliot)

1952: The Dam (Butler), Die Jaar van die Vuuros (De Klerk), As ons twee eers getroud is! (Beukes), Volpone (Jonson), The Ball at the Castle (Bright), Vlaamse Nasionale Toneel (visiting company)

1953: Twelfth Night (also in Afrikaans as Twaalfde Nag) (Shakespeare), Die Ipekonders (Molière), Die Ryk Weduwee (Uys Krige), Nina, Verlief in Parys (Lengyel), Antigone (Anouilh), The Anniversary (Chekhov), Vlaamse Nasionale Toneel (visiting company).