University of Natal, Department of Speech and Drama

Department of Speech and Drama at University of Natal.

From 1996, known as the Department of Drama and Performance Studies. Incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.

History

In 1949 the University of Natal was the first South African university to accept Speech and Drama for BA degree purposes. Founded by Elizabeth Sneddon, the Department enrolled 7 students in 1951. Sneddon's syllabus, devised after research in Britain and America, was adopted by departments in other institutions.

After extensive revisions to the syllabus, the Department's designation became the Department of Drama and Performance Studies in 1996.

The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity as it was incorporated with the University of Durban-Westville into the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 1 January 2004.

Facilities

The university’s Drama and Performance Studies department is located at the bottom of Jubilee Gardens on the university’s Howard College campus.

The Drama and Performance Studies department comprises 7 buildings, including offices, tutorial venues, a seminar room, a lecture venue, and three theatre spaces.

The department houses:

• The Square Space Theatre – an intimate experimental black box theatre with movable seating
• Studio 5 Theatre – an intimate steeply raked proscenium-style space
• The Pieter Scholtz Open Air Theatre – an outdoor arena space, named after the second head of the Drama and Performance Studies department.

The department also boasts

• a departmental research library holding the Florence Powell Collection, which students may use on site for their research;
• a dedicated LAN for postgraduate drama students located next to the departmental library;
• the Pieter-Dirk Uys archive;
• the Jock Leyden archive;
• a large wardrobe with thousands of costumes that are utilized in productions, in teaching, and are also rented out;
• a fully functional workshop in which the sets for productions are built;
• a properties room housing thousands of objects used in productions and in teaching;
• a dance studio with a sprung floor, which houses the Flatfoot Training Company and is used for dance projects.

Alumni

Alumni who were to be appointed Professors and/or Heads include Roger Orton, David Horner, Devi Bughwan, Lynn Dalrymple, Ian Steadman, Dennis Schauffer, Francois Swart, Gary Gordon, Fred Hagemann, Yvonne Banning, Carel Trichardt and, as successors to Sneddon, Pieter Scholtz (1973-1995) and Mervyn McMurtry (1996-). In Canada, America, Britain and Australia, Azra Francis, Peter Larlham, Michael Barclay, Di James, Robert Gordon and David Ritchie hold similar positions. Performers include Mary Peach, Louis Burke, Carel Trichardt, Ann Wakefield, Lyn Hooker, Eckard Rabe, Dorothy-Ann Gould, Ellis Pearson, Brenda Radloff and, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Richard Haines and Paul Spence.

Productions

1966: The Birds

1974: The Coral King

1975: Miranda and the Magic Sponge

1976: The Incredible Jungle Journey of Fenda Maria

1979: The Reluctant Dragon, The Tickle and Kap the Kappa, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, A Tale of Two Cities

1980: Archy's life of Mehitabel, The Magic Theatre Adventure

1981: The Magic Theatre Adventure

1982: Pappa Mario and the Grande Circus Adventure

1983: The Other Side of the Wardrobe, The Incredible Jungle Journey of Fenda Maria

1984: The Beeple, Booby Beetle and the Protea People, The Butterfingers Angel, The Selfish Shellfish

1986: Tambootie's London Adventure

Sources

McMurtry 2002.

https://dramastudies.ukzn.ac.za/homepage/where-are-we/

Greyvenstein, Walter 1988. The history and development of children's theatre in English in South Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Johannesburg: Rand Afrikaans University.

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