Guide to using ESAT
Aim of ESAT
As pointed out in the Introductory sections (see What is ESAT? and Background, origins and history) the philosophy behind this Encyclopaedia is a simple one: to compile a general, alphabetical reference work on South African drama, theatre and performance, an encyclopaedia of brief introductory entries on a range of topics. The entries are therefore summaries, really only guidelines for further study. Readers are referred to the more comprehensive sources utilised for more information. To this end most entries are also provided with suggestions for “Further reading”, with links to the Bibliography (see A Bibliography of South African Theatre and Performance , which contains a comprehensive list of all the books, journals and articles utilised, as well as the names of other works useful for background reading.)
Structure of the Encyclopaedia
As can be seen from the Contents the encyclopaedia consists of a number of sections.
For instance, to provide a framework within which the individual entries should be read, there is a short introductory overview of South African theatre and performance written by the project leader (see South African Theatre/Overview which is a general outline of the broad sweep of the history of theatre in South Africa, followed by a Chronology of the main cultural, historical, political and theatrical events over the past 500 years (this is provided in diagram form at A Chronology of South African Theatre and Performance ). These have been compiled by the editor, Temple Hauptfleisch, and are thus clearly written from the (inevitably subjective) perspective of the specific author, and are mainly intended to provide persons new to the field with some general and introductory framework from which to start. The overview and chronology introduce some of the more common events, personalities and organisations for the reader, while the chronology in particular seeks to place the events in a historical perspective vis à vis African and international events. Readers already familiar with South African theatre and culture can of course readily skip this section and go directly to the more “objective” individual entries, and make their own deductions and judgements.
The individual entries are the main focus of the Encyclopaedia and its database and everything else in the website is intended to support it.
Arrangement of entries:
Each entry in this database consitutes an unique page, and is reached by
For ease of compilation, the entries have been divided into four general categories, namely (1) South African Theatre Terminology and Thematic Entries, (2) Personalities, (3) Venues, Companies, Societies, etc, (4) Plays and Performances (divided into three sub-sections), (5) Publishers and publications. All entries are are arranged as an alphabetical list within each category and each name servees as a link to the partuicular entry. within each category, based on the first and last names of an individual in the case of the Biographies (e.g "Athol Fugard", not "Fugard, Athol" or "Miriam Makeba", not "Makeba, Miriam"), the full name of the venue, company or organisation (including the relevant articles “A” or “The”: e.g. "The Opera House" in English. This is also done in and Afrikaans with the article "'n" and "Die") and the full title of the play or performance (again with the article , e.g. "The Merchant of Venice"), and the key word in the name of a term or theme in Section 1.
Format of entries:
Within each section the entries themselves are kept brief and to a relatively standard format, though entries in the various sections may differ somewhat. Also, there may be the occasional slight deviation from the general format, where the topic warrants it. In the case of the plays and performances, it may be important to note that they are listed by title (without article) in three basic categories: Plays I : Original South African texts or significant adaptations, Plays II: Significant South African productions of foreign plays and Plays III: Collections of plays containing South African plays. Where possible a brief synopsis of the play follows, with an assessment of its role in South African theatre.
Cross-referencing:
Cross-references between these categories are provided in the entries: All such references are indicated by printing the exact name under which the entry appears in bold. ( E.g. In Section 1: Terminology the reader may find an entry for Improvisational Theatre in which the following might appear: “During the seventies Athol Fugard joined John Kani and Winston Ntshona in a series of improvisational works, starting with The Island…” A reader could then look under “Fugard”, “Kani” and “Ntshona” in Section 2: Personalities, or under "Island,The" in Section 4: Plays for more information. Under each of these in turn the reader might find references to “Improvisational Theatre”, or to one of the other individuals.)
Bibliography and references:
The Bibliography in Part Three, Section 6 consists of all the books consulted in compiling the Companion, plus a general list of works on South African theatre and culture.
[TO BE ADDED]
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