Zabalaza has one overall vision: that young people from every community in South Africa have the chance to use their talent, energy, education, and enthusiasm to work in and strengthen the performing arts in South Africa.
The Zabalaza Outreach and Development Programmes have become a pivotal platform for emerging theatre practitioners in South Africa. Its impact on the local theatre industry has been profound, serving as a critical incubator for artistic talent and innovation.
Zabalaza, redesigned in 2011, focuses on the career development and training of young, burgeoning artists from Cape Town and the surrounding peri-urban and rural areas. It has been instrumental in successfully assisting young theatre-makers in growing from relative obscurity to accoladed professional careers. Zabalaza participants continue to find work as theatre-makers across the country and abroad.
We believe that the key to progress within the arts industry depends upon granting talented, skilled arts practitioners access to opportunities and training to assist and encourage their creative and entrepreneurial skills. This will help them to both take advantage of and create employment opportunities for themselves and other artists through leadership positions as directors, playwrights, producers, and managers.
The strategies that have proven effective in reaching this vision are:
Empowering young people to take control of their own careers and futures. We encourage the training of new directors, scriptwriters, arts administrators and producers. More importantly, we must provide these developing artists with opportunities to exhibit their work nationally
Cultivating new audiences by taking the performing arts to local communities and breaking through racial, cultural and economic barriers through the creation of work that broadly relates to various audiences. Creating work that can be showcased nationally, across Africa as well as internationally and through the provision of surtitles for works in indigenous languages.
This initiative encourages entrepreneurship and supports fledgling arts organisations. It will go hand in hand with the development of new paying audiences, as these organisations will have to be largely self-sustaining to avoid an industry implosion such as that experienced over the past few years due to their dependency on external funding.
The Zabalaza Outreach and Development Programmes are dedicated to harnessing the transformative power of art to address pressing social issues. By creating works that humanize complex emotions and open space for meaningful dialogue, Zabalaza positions art as a catalyst for positive change. Each production is more than a performance; it is an invitation for communities to reflect, connect, and take action. This commitment to socially engaged art has the potential to inspire individuals, uplift communities, and spark enduring social transformation, reminding us of the power of storytelling to shape a better future.
Over a 12-month period, young and emerging theatre-makers are taken through an extensive process of workshops, skills development, auditions, performances and, finally, rehearsals and performances at the Baxter Theatre Centre for the Zabalaza Theatre Festival. Skills development and transferral of knowledge occur throughout every facet of the programme. Participants constantly receive instruction and guidance from the Zabalaza facilitators. The main festival, as a culmination of the year’s work, serves as a performance platform and a testing ground for the skills that participants have acquired over the year.
The Zabalaza Outreach and Development Programmes have been instrumental in successfully assisting young theatre-makers to grow from relative obscurity to accolated professional careers. Three examples are Thando Doni (GIPCA Emerging Director’s Bursary), Khayalethu Anthony (Winner of a 2015 Fleur Du Cap Award for The Champion and Philip Dikotla (Fleur Du Cap winner – Best Performance in a revue, cabaret, or one-person show 2014). These are the standout stars of the programme but are by no means the only successes. Hundreds of young people from the Zabalaza programme continue to find work as theatre-makers in one form or another across the country and abroad on an ongoing basis.
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