Council for Culture, Sport and Recreation

Council for Culture, Sport and Recreation, Department of Education and Culture

(Afrikaans: "Raad vir Kultuur, sport en Ontspanning, Departement Onderwys en Kultuur"). Founded by the Minister of Coloured Affairs in September 1967 to advise him on cultural and recreational issues. Individual committees were set up for the various art forms, including one each for Theatre, Ballet, Music and Opera. The Council became operational in February 1968 and advised the Minister, and later the Executive Management of the Coloured Representative Council (??**), on such matters.

Department of Education and Culture Drama Festival

The Drama Festival of the Department of Education and Culture was one of the projects initiated by the Theatre Committee in 1969.

Department of Education and Culture Drama Group

(Some sources refer to it as the Department of Arts and Culture Drama Group)

Founded in 1971 in response to a recommendation by the Theatre Committee of the Council for Culture, Sport and Recreation of the Ministry of Coloured Affairs, that prescribed literary works be dramatised and that the theatre arts be developed and promoted in Coloured Schools. In the initial period (1969-1970) the productions were done by the Performing Arts Councils, but in 1971 the Department formed its own theatre company of professional performers under the leadership of Limpie Basson. (For example, in 1983 this group undertook a drama tour to visit 60 secondary schools for Afrikaans schools and 80 for English schools.) At the same time a series of courses in theatre arts for the development of theatre in the community and the activities of amateur dramatic societies was also begun in 1971, with the first course in directing being added in 1975. Many professional theatre practitioners were brought in to help. They included Pieter-Dirk Uys, who gave lectures on costume at Hewat College in 1975, Emile Aucamp who lectured on the use of lighting and sound, John Caviggia who lectured on the use of stage make-up and Christine Basson, Pieter Fourie and Esther van Ryswyk who lectured on acting.

In 1981 the onus of the work shifted to local theatre Organisations in the provinces, e.g. the Eersterus Performing Arts Council (EPAC) in the Transvaal, Free State and Kimberley region, Youth Reach in the Cape and the Durban Theatre Workshop Company in Natal.

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