Cape Performing Arts Board

BEING EDITED

The Cape Performing Arts Board (Afrikaans: Kaaplandse Raad vir die Uitvoerende Kunste) was one of the four state-funded performing arts councils instituted in 1963 to replace the old National Theatre Organization (NTO). Best known between 1963 and 1998 by its acronym: CAPAB (KRUIK in Afrikaans).

In 1999, CAPAB was restructured and renamed Artscape, as was the theatre centre they were housed in (the Nico Malan Theatre Centre).

For more on the history after 1999, see the entry on Artscape

History

Founding (1963)

In 1961, the National Theatre Organisation was disbanded and replaced by four provincial performing arts councils. In Cape Town, the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) was instituted in 1963 with the aim to promote the performing arts in the Cape Province and South Arica. The arts councils received sufficient government subsidies to fund various art forms as well as the operational requirements of the theatre facilities. Staff could be taken into permanent employment.

Opening of The Nico Malan Theatre Centre (1971)

Initially, productions were staged in theatres in Cape Town and in the Cape Province. On 19 May 1971, CAPAB opened its new venue, the Nico Malan Theatre Centre in Cape Town, as part of The Republic Festival. The inaugural performance was scheduled to have been Giuseppe Verdi's Aïda, but the leading singer Emma Renzi fell ill, so the production was replaced by CAPAB Ballet's Sylvia.

Christine, a commissioned work by the Afrikaans playwright Bartho Smit, was to have been the Afrikaans Company's contribution, but the play was banned, so Dieter Reible's experimental and controversial Afrikaans production of Koning Lear was staged instead. Other productions in the opening season were Jean Anouilh's Dear Antoine, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in Afrikaans and Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The opening of this theatre "for whites only" - despite the protests of artists, critics and many of the population - was to be one of the most troublesome issues for the council over the next twenty years, as it was actively boycotted by the Cape non-white population as well as their supporters. It was belatedly opened for all on 21 February 1975 (the Academy Theatre's Who Saw Him Die?), but this had little effect on the boycott, which lasted for many more years.

Dissoloution (1994-1999)

In 1994, government policy changed dramatically. All performing arts boards were transformed to managers of playhouses and the various arts companies had to become independent. CAPAB Drama staged its last production in May 1997 with a final performance of David Mowat’s The Guise, a play which has as its theme the survival of the theatre.

The new organization, Artscape, was launched on 27 March 1999 to replace CAPAB and the Nico Malan Theatre Centre was renamed the Artscape Theatre Centre.

Structure

Management

Registered as a society not for gain, CAPAB was headed by a policy-making council, chaired by the provincial administrator and with representatives of all interested parties, including the province, the city municipality of Cape Town, the department of national education, the business sector as well as representatives of the various performing art forms. Their function was to provide provide artists and artisans with a secure career option, to develop and promote drama, ballet, music and opera by offering audiences in the province with regular professional productions.

General directors of CAPAB included Danie van Eeden (1976-?), Gé Korsten (1985-1988), George Loopuyt (1988-1997) and Michael Maas (1997-1999; Maas was also the founding CEO of Artscape).

CAPAB Ballet (1964-1997)

The CAPAB Ballet Company was formed in 1964. The first ballet master was David Poole, who was appointed Artistic Director in 1969. He retired in 1990. Veronica Paeper was Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer of CAPAB Ballet from 1990 until it closed. During this time, Paeper wrote a number of original full-length and one-act ballets.

In 1997, CAPAB Ballet closed, becoming Cape Town City Ballet, an independent, nonprofit organisation.

• Productions:

CAPAB Drama (?-1997)

The directors/managers of CAPAB Drama included Pieter Fourie (director of Afrikaans drama, 1967-?), Peter Curtis (director of English drama, 1967-?), Johan Esterhuizen (1985-1989), Chris Swart.

CAPAB Drama closed in May 1997.

• Productions:

1960s: CAPAB's first productions were Becket (by Anouilh) and Hedda Gabler (by Ibsen, in Afrikaans) in the Hofmeyr Theatre in November 1963. CAPAB's first production of a South African play written in English was The Year of the Locust by James Ambrose Brown (1966).

1970s: With PACT and the Phoenix Players, CAPAB staged Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena and People are Living There (both directed by Fugard and starring Yvonne Bryceland and Glynn Day at the Hofmeyr Theatre in 1970.

1980s: Dalene Matthee’s Fiela se Kind starring Shaleen Surtie-Richards (1986); Basil Rubin in association with CAPAB staged William Luce’s Zelda at the Adcock-Ingram (August 1987). CAPAB with Volute Productions staged Robert Hewett’s Gulls which Keith Grenville directed (1987).

1990s: Michael Drin’s The Phantom of the Opera (1990).

CAPAB Musicals

Established by George Loopuyt during his time as General Director of CAPAB.

• Productions:

Jesus Christ Superstar (1993); Hair (1993); Evita (1994); Mame (1994)

Collaborations with the other Arts Councils (PACT, NAPAC, PACOFS) also brought several great productions to the Nico Malan Theatre Centre stages, including: The Great Waltz (1987); Singing in the Rain (1988); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1991); A Chorus Line (1992); Oklahoma! (1993); Crazy for You (1995); Queen at the Opera (1995).

They staged My Fair Lady in 1989/90.

CAPAB Opera

Murray Dickie was a former Artistic Director of CAPAB Opera. Angelo Gobbato was appointed Director of CAPAB Opera in January 1989, and continued as Director until 1997, when CAPAB Opera closed (becoming Cape Town Opera, an independent, nonprofit organisation).

• Productions:

1960s: CAPAB's first opera, The Bartered Bride by Smetana, was presented on 8 February 1965 in the Alhambra Theatre.

1980s: Tristan und Isolde (1982)

1990s: Taliep Petersen and David Kramer’s Poison (1992); Jesus Christ Superstar (1996)

CAPAB Theatre Laboratory

Also referred to as the CAPAB Theatre Laboratory or The Lab. Also referred to as the CAPAB Workshop Theatre in some instances.

"One of the prime aims of Theatre Laboratory, presented by CAPAB Drama, is to experiment with different forms of production and staging. It emphasises the actor/spectator relationship. Shedding many of the trappings of conventional theatre, and brings the actor back to basics in order to evaluate his work. The group, founded early in 1971, will present productions in low key ; in direct contrast to, but in association with the high key productions at the Nico Malan Theatre. Acceptance of this theatre (stripped of all that is not essential to it) will, we think, reveal to the actor and the spectator the backbone of the medium and the riches which lie at the nature of the art of acting. We are in too early a state of development of theatre in this country to say how this might develop or in what direction.

• Productions:

The first project from Theatre Laboratory was Orestes by Athol Fugard. This experiment (featuring Yvonne Bryceland, Wilson Dunster and Val Donald) evoked varied and vivid comment from critics and audiences alike. The second project was Strindberg Without Tears.

CAPAB Theatre-in-Education/Youth Company

CAPAB also had a very sucessful theatre-in-education/youth company, founded to do educational work and originally led by Robin Malan (1970-1971), followed over the years by Eileen Thorns and Ivan Abrahams.

Jazzart (1992-1999)

In 1992, after two decades as a privately funded contemporary dance company, Jazzart became part of CAPAB as its in-house contemporary dance company, with Alfred Hinkel as Director. Since 1994 and following the closure of CAPAB, Jazzart (operating again as an independent entity since 1999) has been housed at the Nico Malan Theatre Centre/Artscape Theatre Centre which continues to offer it technical and logistic support, that has proved vital to its survival.

• Productions:

Theatres and other facilities

Nico Malan Theatre Centre

(Also known as the "The Nico" or "Die Nico" in Afrikaans.)

The Nico Malan Theatre Centre (The Nico Malan Skouburg in Afrikaans) was opened on 19 May 1971, to be programmed and managed by CAPAB as a production house with four arts companies – orchestra, opera, ballet and drama. It was named after Dr Johannes Nicholas Malan (better known as Nico Malan), a politician and administrator of the Cape Province (1960-1970). Malan had initiated the building project.

The theatre complex was built on the premises where the Alhambra Theatre (a bioscope, at times also used as theatre) had originally stood. Architecturally and technologically the most advanced of all South African theatres when it was opened, it had been constructed for a massive R12million. It was one of the first theatres in the Southern Hemisphere with electro-mechanical facilities for transporting décor. The theatre was also geared with a computerised lighting system. A fire in the opera houses’ lighting switchboard caused approximately a R1million in damages in 1976.

In 1980, the largest symposium to date, a conference on Disaster Treatment, was attended by a 1400 people. In 1981, an even bigger crowd attended to hear the former South African and Israeli Cabinet minister, Abba Eban, speak.

As an attempt to popularise it and rid itself of the apartheid stigma, it was renamed "The Nico" (with the slogan "The Nico for All") in 19??.

Covering an area of some 14 000 square meters, the Centre consists of the following performance venues and spaces:

• Opera House (seating 1487)
• Theatre (seating 540)
• Arena Theatre (seating 140, built on the side stage of the Theatre, originally as a space to house the work of CAPAB's experimental company, the Theatre Laboratory.)
• Piazza
• Gardens
• Rehearsal rooms
• Parking

Apart from CAPAB's own productions, the Centre also acted as a receiving house for visiting/touring shows by other producers, some of which included: Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show (1992); Pieter Toerien's production of Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Miserables (1996).

In line with the new South African the political dispensation and the concurrent changes, the complex was renamed the Artscape Theatre Centre in March 2001.

Theatre Production (Wardrobe, Design Workshop)

Through the years, CAPAB developed a team of wardrobe experts consisting of designers, seamstresses, milliners, wig makers and costume artists. CAPAB also had a décor studio located at a separate warehousing facility.

Maynardville Open-air Theatre

From 1963 to 1974, CAPAB Ballet performed several ballets at the Maynardville Open-air Theatre in Wynberg. From 1975, CAPAB co-managed the venue with Cecilia Sonnenberg and René Ahrenson, later assuming full responsibility for the venue and staging Shakespeare plays there from 1980 until CAPAB Drama closed in the mid 1990s.

For more information on the venue and all the productions staged there, see Maynardville.

CAPAB East Cape Region

With the restructuring/closure of CAPAB in 1997, the East Cape Region office also closed. The Port Elizabeth Opera House, Guild Theatre and Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra opted to form autonomous Section 21 companies. Staff was either retrenched or relocated to Cape Town.

Port Elizabeth Opera House

CAPAB purchased the Port Elizabeth Opera House in 1967, and refurbished it for use as a base for their work in the Eastern Cape.

For further information, see Port Elizabeth Opera House.

East London Guild Theatre (1986-1997)

On July 1, 1986, CAPAB’s offer to take over the running of the Guild Theatre in East London was accepted and the building was closed in March 1987 for extensive renovations. The revamped venue, fully manned by permanent CAPAB staff, opened on February 29, 1988 with a performance of Carmen by CAPAB Ballet. CAPAB relinquished responsibility for the Guild Theatre in July 1997. It was handed over to the Eastern Cape Provincial Government in April 1998.

For further information, see Guild Theatre.

CAPAB News/KRUIK-Nuus

A bi-monthly newsletter sent to patrons and the media.

Sources

Strindberg Without Tears programme notes

SACD 1973, 1974

Tucker, 1997

Danie van Eeden, 1985.

https://www.artscape.co.za

Artscape. Facebook. 10 June 2022.

https://capetowncityballet.org.za/about/

https://www.guildtheatre.co.za/the-history-of-the-guild-theatre/

https://www.jazzart.co.za/about-us/

PEN South Africa, 28 November 2016, https://pensouthafrica.co.za/three-radio-plays-school-boys-rent-boys-and-klevva-boys-by-robin-malan/

Blanckenberg, E. 2009. The Music Activities of the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB): A Historical Survey. Unpublished Masters Thesis. Stellenbosch University.

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