Cape Town’s Magnet Theatre has been a force in South African theater for three decades, a crucial space for theater, education, performance, and community throughout a turbulent period in South African history. Offering a dialogue between internal and external perspectives, as well as perspectives from performers, artists, and scholars, this book analyzes Magnet’s many productions and presents a rich compendium of the work of one of the most vital physical theater companies in Africa.
300 pages | 16 color plates, 24 halftones | 7 x 9 | © 2015
Co-published with Unisa PressLiterature and Literary Criticism: Dramatic Works
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Plotting the Magnetic Field: Origins and Trajectories
Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger
Production History
PART ONE- Concepts: Making Space for Ideas
Colour Photographs: 1987 2009
Chapter 2: Making Space for Ideas: The Knowledge work of Magnet Theatre
Mark Fleishman
Chapter 3: An Activist Company Inventing a Future:
A Conversation with Neo Muyanga
Chapter 4 'Being There': The Evolution of Performance Aesthetics from
Medea (1994 96) to The Magnet Theatre 'Migration· Plays (2012)
Miki Flockemann
Chapter 5: The Full Gamut of an Ideal Company:
A Conversation with Jay Pather
Chapter 6: The Implacable Grandeur of the Stranger: Ruminations on Fear
and Familiarity in Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger] (2010)
Anton Krueger
Chapter 7: Theatre That Can Organize. Mobilize. Conscientize:
A Conversation with Mandla Mbothwe
PART TWO - Collaboration: Making Space for Empbodied Practice
Colour Photographs: 2010 2015
Chapter 8: Performing the Language of the Body in My Mother Tongue:
A Conversation with Faniswa Visa
Chapter: 9 Magnet Theatre and the Moving Body
Jennie Reznek
Chapter 10: Ideas Dying to be Born: A Conversation with Craig Leo
Chapter 11: The Creative Flow of Arresting, Exquisite Fabric:
A Conversation with Illka Louw
Chapter 12: Embodied Practice that Troubles Fixed Narratives of Identity,
History and Memory
Yvette Hutchison
Chapter 13: Magnet's Recipe for Considered. Conscious Theatre-Making:
A Conversation with Frances Marek
Chapter 14: The Performance Labours of Magnet and Jazzart’s Cargo (2007) 203
Megan Lewis
PART THREE - Community: Making Space for Cultural Interventions
Clanwilliam Photoessay
Chapter 15: Making Space for Community: Magnet Theatre 'Intervenes' in
Khayelitsha
Gay Morris
Chapter 16: Vividly Feeling the Extremes of Being in the World:
A Conversation
Chapter 17: By Telling Stories We Can Learn Something from Life:
A Conversation with Thando Doni
Chapter 18: Catalysing a Community: Magnet's Clanwilliam Community
Intervention Project
Lavona de Bruyn
Chapter 19: Bursting the Bubble of Play: Making Space for Intercultural
Dialogue
Elliot Leffler
Chapter 20: Keeping Theatre Alive in the Community:
A Conversation with Zwelakhe Khuse
Chapter 21: Magnet Never Forgets its People:
A Conversation with Nolovuyo Sam
Magnet Funders
Index
Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger
Production History
PART ONE- Concepts: Making Space for Ideas
Colour Photographs: 1987 2009
Chapter 2: Making Space for Ideas: The Knowledge work of Magnet Theatre
Mark Fleishman
Chapter 3: An Activist Company Inventing a Future:
A Conversation with Neo Muyanga
Chapter 4 'Being There': The Evolution of Performance Aesthetics from
Medea (1994 96) to The Magnet Theatre 'Migration· Plays (2012)
Miki Flockemann
Chapter 5: The Full Gamut of an Ideal Company:
A Conversation with Jay Pather
Chapter 6: The Implacable Grandeur of the Stranger: Ruminations on Fear
and Familiarity in Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger] (2010)
Anton Krueger
Chapter 7: Theatre That Can Organize. Mobilize. Conscientize:
A Conversation with Mandla Mbothwe
PART TWO - Collaboration: Making Space for Empbodied Practice
Colour Photographs: 2010 2015
Chapter 8: Performing the Language of the Body in My Mother Tongue:
A Conversation with Faniswa Visa
Chapter: 9 Magnet Theatre and the Moving Body
Jennie Reznek
Chapter 10: Ideas Dying to be Born: A Conversation with Craig Leo
Chapter 11: The Creative Flow of Arresting, Exquisite Fabric:
A Conversation with Illka Louw
Chapter 12: Embodied Practice that Troubles Fixed Narratives of Identity,
History and Memory
Yvette Hutchison
Chapter 13: Magnet's Recipe for Considered. Conscious Theatre-Making:
A Conversation with Frances Marek
Chapter 14: The Performance Labours of Magnet and Jazzart’s Cargo (2007) 203
Megan Lewis
PART THREE - Community: Making Space for Cultural Interventions
Clanwilliam Photoessay
Chapter 15: Making Space for Community: Magnet Theatre 'Intervenes' in
Khayelitsha
Gay Morris
Chapter 16: Vividly Feeling the Extremes of Being in the World:
A Conversation
Chapter 17: By Telling Stories We Can Learn Something from Life:
A Conversation with Thando Doni
Chapter 18: Catalysing a Community: Magnet's Clanwilliam Community
Intervention Project
Lavona de Bruyn
Chapter 19: Bursting the Bubble of Play: Making Space for Intercultural
Dialogue
Elliot Leffler
Chapter 20: Keeping Theatre Alive in the Community:
A Conversation with Zwelakhe Khuse
Chapter 21: Magnet Never Forgets its People:
A Conversation with Nolovuyo Sam
Magnet Funders
Index