ENGAGING with the new emerging urban youth culture is the 15th annual Pansa Young Performers Project, entitled Soldiers in the City.
Running until Sunday at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, the production examines the overt culture of the new generation which includes rhyming, beat-boxing, urban dance, music and public artwork such as graffiti.
Written and directed by Themi Venturas with Iain “Ewok” Robinson as the creative consultant, Lucky Cele as co-writer, Daisy Spencer as choreographer, Des Govender as vocal coach and Dawn Selby as musical director; it features a cast of 25.
Soldiers in the City centres on two best friends (both good poets) who compete in an underground slam poetry challenge and realise that words can be sharper and more dangerous than swords and forgiveness and loyalty more valuable than glory.
Venturas chatted to Tonight about the themes and issues the production touches on.
“It deals mainly with the tribulations and aspirations of a group of young students and how they can also get sucked into the under-belly of urban tricksters and con artists. It touches on many of the typical youth issues and feelings about South Africa and the world,” he shares.
Explaining how the concept was developed, he reveals that he has always been intrigued by the emergence of the urban youth culture: “During the past eight months, we have experienced quite a resurgence of youth issues, with the #Rhodesmustfall campaign and others arising on campuses in South Africa. In the past eight years, there have been a plethora of movies like the Step Up series and 8 Mile which starred Eminem that have been very popular among audiences both young and old.
“So when I hooked up with my buddy Ewok and started jamming with the idea of a musical about rap battles, we came up with the concept for Soldiers in the City. Daisy, Des and I searched for the music we wanted to include and slowly the full idea began to gel. I also brought in Lucky Cele, whose work in Mashu the Musical was really impressive, and he worked up all the gangster scenes.
“So now we have a hip show that includes amazing ‘rap’ and slam poetry, an array of great musical numbers beautifully sung and choreographed and a moving story about two South African friends.”
As for the talent on board this year, the cast were selected through open auditions which were held in April with the aim to showcase the best musical-theatre high school performers of KwaZulu-Natal. Commenting on the qualities considered during the selection process, he says: “The cast are as good as we’ve had. Musical theatre requires that the young performers be a triple threat. They have to be able to sing, dance and act.
“They arrive at the auditions and immediately do a rigorous dance and singing audition. After this, we make the first cut and out of 300-odd kids who came to audition, we end up with about 80. We then take them through an improvised acting audition during which we examine their ability to work in a group, the level of their creativity and, finally, if they can perform in a way that is authentic and truthful. After all this, we ended up with 23 of the best the region can offer based on those who came to audition.”
In terms of the music featured in the production, the song list includes Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars; Seasons of Love from the musical Rent; Roar by Katy Perry and more. The poetry for the “rap” battles has been written by award-winning artist, Ewok. “When we set out on this journey, Daisy, Des and I made a wish list of many of the songs we would like to see in a musical.
“Once the concept for the show was sketched, we looked at our wish list and determined which songs we might be able to use. We also involved the cast in the selection and quite a few of the songs were their suggestions as well.”
As for the production, the director says it’s a fast-paced show full of excitement, amazing choreography and beautiful singing with an innovative set and state-of-the-art audio-visual programming and mapping.”
l The production runs until Sunday at the UKZN Sneddon Theatre. Booking is through Computicket or Shoprite Checkers.