Mbongeni Ngema

(1955-) Actor, playwright, composer, director and impressario. Born in Verulam, grew up in rural KwaZulu-Natal and Durban. Became an actor when he as a musician had to replace an ill actor in an amateur play. Then began writing and producing plays in church halls, hospitals, and at private parties in the townships with untrained performers. Joined Gibson Kente’s company as actor. With co-actor Percy Mtwa he then broke away and they then devised the play Woza Albert! (1981) showed it to the Market Theatre where Barney Simon joined them as director and the play went on to fame and fortune.

In 1982 he and Percy Mtwa appeared as actors and interviewees in an episode of the BBC series Everyman devoted to Woza Albert!.

Ngema now founded Committed Artists, for which he went on to write Asinamali (1985), Sarafina (1986), Sarafina II (198*), Township Fever (1990), Magic at 4 am (1990) and The Zulu (2000). Ngema also directed Sheila’s Day, by Duma ka Ndlovu, in 1990 and in 1999 appeared on SABC 2 in the series Saints, Sinners and Settlers as the Zulu king Dingane. In 1993 Ngema was appointed the Artistic Director of Musical Theatre at NAPAC and the same year he began his own recording venture, Mbongeni Ngema Productions, in association with Tusk Music. For NAPAC he wrote and produced the musicals Mama (1995) and Maria-Maria (1996). Virtually all Ngema’s work has been hugely successful, and his plays have raked in awards all over the world, including several Tony Awards. His musical work has been equally successful, earning him inter alia a Grammy Award for his song “Circle of Life” from the musical score for Disney’s The Lion King. Many plays and all his music are on CD , video and film, including a film version of Sarafina. Though much controversy has surrounded him over the years (perhaps most notably the Sarafina II scandal, but also his marriage to Leleti Khumalo in 1991 and his sequestration in 1999), Ngema is nationally and internationally lauded for his contribution to theatre. Besides many individual awards for specific plays, he was inducted as a member of the the “Walk of Fame” , the Playwright’s Sidewalk in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York in 1998. NGEMA, Mbongeni. Together with Percy Mtwa and under Barney Simon’s direction he developed and starred in Woza Albert! at the Laager in 1981. His Asinamali which he also directed was staged at the Laager in May 1985 before going on a world tour and returning to the Market Theatre in December that same year. His musical Sarafina opened at the Market Theatre on 12 June 1987. He starred in Kessie Govender’s Kagoos at the Market Theatre in 1988. His musical Township Fever was staged at the Market Theatre in 1990. His Magic at 4 a.m was staged at the Civic in 1993. * NGEMA, Mbongeni: Associate Director of musicals at Playhouse. 1997 NGEMA, Mbongeni, Asinamali, A Coloured Place, The Playhouse, 1997. Associate Director of musical at Playhouse. 1997

Sources

(Tucker, 1997) [Ntonto Vezi]

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