{"id":1838,"date":"2017-06-20T13:59:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T11:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2017-06-20T13:59:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T11:59:40","slug":"sophie-mgcina-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1838","title":{"rendered":"History enriches the future at Sophie Mgcina Award evening"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wits Honours graduate Lesedi job received the fourth Sophie Mgcina Emerging Talent Award at the Market Theatre last night (June 19).\u00a0Photo: Market Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And the winner of this year\u2019s Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award is… Lesedi Job.<\/p>\n

Accepting her award on the Market Theatre\u2019s John Kani stage last night, the Wits Honours graduate broke into song thanking her mother.<\/p>\n

Having performed onstage as part of ensemble production showcasing the tremendous talent in the Market Theatre incubator programme less than an hour before the award announcement, Job thanked the \u201csingle black woman\u201d who \u201cmade me the person I am today\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was the first time in the four-year-existence of the award that it was presented at the Market Theatre, at the culmination of an evening rich in legacy and future promise. The award was previously presented at the Naledi Awards evening.<\/p>\n

Legacy was symbolically represented by the awards being presented on the 41st birthday of the Market Theatre itself, an institution that was the centrepoint of anti-apartheid protest theatre and the development of new talent. Additionally, Living Legends Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya were present. The duo shared the microphone in providing a humurous, unprepared tribute to the Sophie Mgcina they both knew and worked with, while the late Sophie\u2019s daughter and only child, Ali Tsindwa fought to hold back her tears.<\/p>\n

Semenya, who dropped a couple of broad hints that he knew Sophie better, in certain ways, than anyone in the room, said although they grew up on the same street in Alexandra, they only really met each other when they both worked on King Kong \u2013 The Musical.<\/p>\n

Mbulu, who laughingly commented that Semenya\u2019s recollections were \u201ca bit awkward\u201d, recalled meeting Sophie in 1957 when they were both competing in the South African Union of Artists\u2019 talent competition. While Mbulu was a regional winner from Orlando East, Sophie was the winner from George Goch. Mbulu described hearing Sophie sing a popular radio song of the time, called Diana.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when she opened her mouth, I was shocked, because she didn\u2019t sing it in English. She put her own spirit into the song. She sang it in isiZulu.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was one woman in South Africa who understood jazz, it was Sophie,\u201d added Semenya, \u201cshe was something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to the award in Sophie\u2019s honour, Mbulu said it was \u201cthe best thing that has ever happened to South African artists\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were never given these important, important spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

As award winner, Job gets the opportunity to direct a full production on a Market Theatre stage, said Market Theatre Foundation CEO Ismail Mohamed.<\/p>\n

The future promise contained at the John Kani Theatre, was the event also being the official launch of the inaugural Arts Incubator\u2019s Trade Fair taking place at the Market Theatre precinct this week.<\/p>\n

The Trade Fair is the first time the six state-funded performing arts institutions of Artscape, Performing Arts Centre of the Free State (Pacofs), SA State Theatre, Durban Playhouse, Market Theatre and Windybrow Arts Centre have ever got together to share ideas, experiences and showcase the talent developed under the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) Incubator Fund.<\/p>\n

DAC director-general Vusithemba Ndima, who had watched eight of the Market Theatre\u2019s incubatees raise the audience to their feet with a mixture of song, dance and monologue centred around the pain of dispossesion and inequality, pierced with flashes of bittersweet humour, said there were moments he had to hold back his tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I felt I was almost in a therapy session,\u201d said the D-G whose department had provided R1.2m in funding for the inaugural Trade Fair. \u201cI could feel the difficulties of the day falling away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trade Fair, which formed a \u201ccollective think tank\u201d and was \u201ca path-breaking exercise at an artistic level\u201d, was all about sharing best practice and identifying areas of collaboration, said Ndima.<\/p>\n

The last speaker at the rousing event, Market Theatre Council chair Kwanele Gumbi, did not shy from politics.<\/p>\n

While thanking Ndima for his department\u2019s support, he said what he really wanted to see was DAC officials watching productions and seeing what South Africa\u2019s artists were doing.<\/p>\n

And artists, said Gumbi, needed to challenge the state, which he made clear he believed was in dire straits.<\/p>\n

Speaking without a script, he urged artists to \u201cnot let things get any worse than they already are\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not be passive, or you will have no country left. You\u2019ll have democracy but you will be enslaved in that democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

With June 16 still fresh in the country\u2019s mind, Gumbi received the youths\u2019 finger-clicking approval as he said: \u201cYou thought \u201876 was political? Smell the coffee! It\u2019s more political now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the best chairperson\u2019s speech I\u2019ve ever heard,\u201d said Mannie Manim, who co-founded the Market Theatre with Barney Simon in 1976.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And the winner of this year\u2019s Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award is… Lesedi Job. Accepting her award on the Market Theatre\u2019s John Kani stage last night, the Wits Honours graduate … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[459,769],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}