Gcina Mhlophe

(1958-). Actress, writer, charismatic storyteller. (Her name is sometimes wrongly spelled "Gcina Mhlope")

Raised in the Transkei, she learnt storytelling from her grandmother. Went to Johannesburg and worked with Barney Simon at the Market Theatre, helping to create and performing in The Nurse (1982) Black Dog/Inj’emnyana (198*) Born in the RSA which opened at Upstairs at the Market in August 1985 before moving to the main theatre (for which she received an Obie Award). Wrote and performed Have you Seen Zandile?. It also starred Thembi Mtshali and was directed by Maralin Vanrenen at the Laager in February 1986, winning the Fringe Award at the Edinburgh Festival with the play in 1987. She adapted The Good Woman of Sharkville, together with Janet Suzman who also directed this play at the Market Theatre in July 1996. Appeared in the film A Place of Weeping (19**). A much sought after performer of poems, stories and and songs, who heads storytelling workshops for young people and adults under the auspices of the Organisation Zanendaba, of which she is the director. Immensely influential in the re-establishment of the oral storytelling tradition in South Africa as a significant art form. For example in 2005 appeared at the Baxter Storytelling Festival, telling stories and running workshops.

In 2001 she founded the Nozincwadi Books and Story Festival, run under the auspices of her Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust, to encourage young people to start creating their own stories and their own books, so they can have a say in the future of writing and reading in this country. A key feature of the project, alongside Mhlophe's storytelling workshops, is the distribution of books within communities that otherwise would have no access to reading materials.