South African Society Theatre Research

The South African Society Theatre Research (SASTR, 1999-2002) was a short-lived academic association

The society

Founded at the suggestion of Stellenbosch professor Temple Hauptfleisch, who was serving on the board of the International Federation for Theatre Research at the time, and hoped to achieve affiliation with the IFTR for South African researchers through such a local association. Simply put, the newly founded association's aim was to support and promote theatre studies in the country and to this end organized annual conferences on drama, theatre and other performance forms, hosted by the various Universities in the country.

It was for most of its existence not actually a formally constituted association of paid members, but rather a more loosely structured concept, administered by the Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Stellenbosch in association with colleagues at other institutions, with conferences being organized by the relevant host university drama department in each case.

The society held a few conferences over the period of its active existence, inter alia hosted by the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Natal (Durban) and the University of Pretoria, but appears to have ceased to exist after 2002/2003.