Federation of Amateur Theatrical Societies of South Africa

The Federation of Amateur Theatrical Societies of South Africa (1938-1969) was an enormously influential bilingual, national organisation, founded at the instigation and under the leadership of P.P.B. Breytenbach of the Krugersdorp Municipal Dramatic and Operatic Society (KMDOS) on 14 December, 1938 by the representatives of twenty amateur dramatic societies. The Afrikaans name for the federation was the Federasie van Amateurtoneelvereniginge van Suid-Afrika, but it was widely known by its acroynym of FATSSA (or FATSA in Afrikaans).

The aim of FATSSA was to promote co-operation between societies; establish scholarship funds to assit promising members in further studies; assist with library facilities, costumes and scenery; encourage the little theatre movement; seek reciprocal membership facilities between societies; encourage playwriting competitions, as well as drama and music festivals; collect royalties on behalf of playwrights.

The first working committee consisted of Breytenbach, Elsie Solomon (Johannesburg), J. Hardie (Boksburg), J. Elwyn Davies (Pretoria), Lionel Bennet (Heidelberg) and Frank Drummond (Krugersdorp), with H. Cranko (Johannesburg) and Frank Rogaly (Port Elizabeth) co-opted later. Although the first twenty societies were all English, many Afrikaans groups later became affiliated. Organised in terms of 30 districts, with district committees made up of representatives of affiliated bodies, and each district represented on the central executive committee. The executive committee would meet at least twice a year, before and after the annual conference, and the conference elected the president, the eight vice-presidents (one for each province, plus the Rhodesias and South West Africa - with Eastern and Western Cape counting as two regions) and the honorary treasurer. The secretary was appointed part-time. From the start Breytenbach was elected president, and was long supported by Muriel Alexander. In actual fact the federation was run by a smaller committee of management. Among their most important contributions were the annual FATSSA Play Festivals they organised over the years, with productions eventueally having to get through district and provincial rounds, to make the finals (held in a different centre each year). The competitions also promoted indiginous playwriting, espcially of one-act plays. (Two collections of Afrikaans plays were published under the auspices of the society for example.) When the decision was made to found the NTO in 1947, FATSSA was given the task to set it up, Breytenbach became its part-time director (In 1952 he took the job on full-time and withdrew from FATSSA). By 1950, 150 companies were affiliated to FATSSA, the annual one-act play competition had attracted 107 entries and more than a thousand actors had participated in the eighteen regional competitions, six provincial and one national festivals. The combined membership totalled around 15000 in all. Added to this, a total of around 500 productions had been staged which had been attended by around 200 000 people. By 1955 however, its end was in sight as a decision was made to decentralise the federation. It disbanded in 1960. **