Last week, several Arts Incubator Programmes were launched by the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) around the country.
Speaking at the Cape Town launch at Artscape Theatre, DAC acting director general, Vuyo Jack, spoke about the programme in economic terms, emphasising the need for business model development in the arts.
He said the department view the incubators as a platform for emerging artists to start new works, but admonished potential participants to pitch their works carefully: “If a piece doesn’t resonate with the local audience, then it won’t on a regional or national level,” said Jack.
“We have to develop business models and create venture capital,” he added.
The programme should run for three years, with a new cohort of artists identified every year.
Artscape acting CEO, Marlene le Roux, said they identified their first participants through the theatre’s in-house development programme which runs at their Resource Centre.
Tag Changers, Theatre Through Motivation, Tiervlei Cultural Arts Development Organisation and Unmute Dance Project will embark on an accelerated set of master classes and workshops which should culminate in a production each.
“It’s about using Artscape’s resources, but teaching them about being a company and professionalising each production… to help them become fully fledged companies that are independent,” said Le Roux.
“Artscape is not a producing house, but the different programmes will be based here. So, you need to access it, we cannot access it on your behalf,” she addressed the artists.
The Playhouse in Durban will also use their existing eight-week long Community Arts Mentorship Programme and annual Actors Studio and Playhouse Dance Residency to target already identified artists. The Residency already leads to four contract performances, participants in the Actors Studio feature in existing seasons at the theatre and the mentorship programme is aimed at community performers who want to bridge the gap to professional theatre.
The Market Theatre in Joburg have not yet identified programme participants, but their proposal is to draw from their database of emerging community theatre practitioners. They want to identify writers and directors from 10 groups to undergo a week-long boot camp of master classes conducted by industry specialists. Then further mentorship should result in 10 plays to be presented during the week-long Zwakala Festival which takes place in the second half of the year.
The Windybrow Centre for the Arts Theatre in the Joburg CBD have outlined their strategic objectives, but not yet identified participants. Their programme will seek out participants between the ages of 18 and 35, especially female artists. They want to offer one-on-one mentorship over a four-month period towards the staging of a developed script, which should result in the creating and staging of five new works a year.
At the State Theatre in Pretoria, programme curator Sithembiso Blose says they have identified their mentors and will host a master class at the end of this month for people from their independent development programme – In the Spotlight – to submit proposals.
They also hope to include people on their database in the master classes, but only those active in the industry “who have experience. Professional artists who need that extra push,” said Blose.
They will use one theatre director affiliated to the State Theatre, three independent business mentors, a choreographer and one musician as mentors and hope to start at the beginning of next month. They want to target at least three theatre groups, three dance groups and five bands or musicians in their first phase.
Jerry Mofokeng, artistic director at Pacofs in the Free State, says they are concentrating on dance, drama and music. “We want to destroy this culture of ‘you have been running around for six years with the same play, putting forward proposals because you can’t do anything else’,” said Mofokeng.
They will use mentors to work with chosen groups to mount a production that they didn’t enter the programme with – it has to be something new in a different style to what the artists are used to working in.
He envisages musicians will each record a new song in the Pacofs studios and present a concert at the end of the year.
“Basically, what we want to do is remove this ceiling of people locked into the proposal cycle with the same productions. Even the actors, they must work in a different style of acting and the writers must try something different,” said Mofokeng.
Pacof’s closing date for submissions is Saturday and only professional artists need apply. They want to produce six productions by the end of October to be staged through November.
Other incubators will be announced later, but the proof in the three-year long programme will already be seen in the next few months as these particular theatres start to deliver on the actual productions, or not.