Fugard Theatre
A 335-seat theatre named in honour of South African playwright Athol Fugard opened in 2010.
The building
A National Heritage Site today, it is located in the historic Sacks Futeran building, a former textile and soft goods supplier in the early twentieth century, frequented by generations of District Six seamstresses and tailors. This is owned by and forms part of the District Six Museum's Homecoming Centre and it has incorporated the renovated Congregational Church Hall in Caledon Street as its entrance. Construction of The Fugard Theatre was underwritten by it’s founding producer Eric Abraham, and is named in honour of Athol Fugard, South Africa’s greatest playwright. The architect was Shaun Adendorff of Rennie Scurr Adendorff, and care has been taken to preserve this National Heritage Site.
Management
At the helm of the UK-based Portobello is producer Eric Abraham. He heads up Portobello Pictures, an independent film, television and theatre production company with its head office in London and is one of the three managers of the Isango Portobello company, along with Mark Dornford-May en Pauline Malefane. Mannie Manim joined The Fugard team on a full-time basis in January 2010 to work with Georgina Rae (General Manager), Shamila Rahim (theatre manager) and the company in developing The Fugard and the local and international profile of the Isango Portobello Company. At the end of 2010 the relationship between Abraham and his partners in the Isango Portobello company deteriorated and the theatre manager and company company were evicted. In January 2011 Manim also left and Daniel Galloway was appointed General Manager.
Productions
Opened 12 February 2010 with Isango Portobello's The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo followed by an opening season of The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso and a world premiere on March 19 of Athol Fugard’s new play, especially written for the opening, The Train Driver, directed by Athol Fugard. Other productions since include London Road (2010), Broken Glass (2011), The Blue Iris (by Athol Fugard, directed by Janice Honeyman 2012).
Sources
Mariana Malan (Die Burger 23 November 2010), the Cape Argus (23 November 2010)
For more information
See The Fugard website at http://www.thefugard.com/ and the Isango Portobello website at http://www.portobellopictures.com/Isango-Portobello
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