Isaiah Maishe Maponya

[known as Maishe]. (1951-) Playwright, poet, lecturer, actor and director. The son of a painter in Alexandra township, and when he was 11, they were forcibly removed to Diepkloof under the Apartheid laws. He became an insurance clerk and began writing for the theatre in 1975. Founded the Bahumutsi Drama Group of Soweto, writing and producing his plays for them. In 19** he was awarded a British Council scholarship and visited Britain to observe theatre, including a visit to the Edinburgh Festival. He became a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand Drama Department in 199*. He writes serious political theatre, and calls his plays “theatre of the dispossessed”, believing that theatre is one of the most dynamic ways of raising the consciousness of Black people in South Africa. His plays include The Cry (1975), Peace and Forgive (1977), The Hungry Earth (written and produced 1979, pub 1981, 1984), Umongikazi/The Nurse (1982), Dirty Work (1984, pub 1995), Gangsters (perf 1984, pub 1986), Busang Meropa (1986) and Return the Drum (19**). Also directed other plays, including in 2008*? Place of the Rock – How The Land Was Taken (a one man play, based on the writings of Sol T. Plaatje). During the 1980s the plays were also performed at the Market Theatre, and in 1983 The Hungry Earth played at the National Theatre in London as a platform performance (directed by Ian Steadman), and subsequently toured Britain and Germany along with Umongikazi. Harrassed and intimidated by security police during the Apartheid years, he was for example refused a passport in 1984 to accompany his plays abroad. In 1985 he won the Standard Bank Young Artist’s Award for Drama at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival and in 19** he was appointed as lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Drama. In 2001 he was appointed Director of Arts and Culture, with the Department of Arts, Culture, Technology and Science.

Sources

See Gosher, 1988; Steadman, 19**, Hauptfleisch and Steadman, 1994, Kruger, 199*, et al

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