In 2020 the Eyesizwe Mining Development Trust approved a grant of R7,000,000 for the Ditshomo Mentorship Programme to be disbursed over 3 years from 2021 -2023.

The Ditshomo Mentorship Programme had 2 components.

1. Professional Productions - A capacity building programme aimed at mentoring talented and aspirational young theatre practitioners to hone their voices and fulfil their dreams through professional mentorship.

2. Schools Outreach Project – A project which engages with Grade 11 & 12 learners to appraise them of the possibilities of ‘behind the scenes’ careers in the performing arts industries that does not involve performance on stage. The Ditshomo Schools Outreach involved 55 learners in Grade 11 & 12 each year from selected schools in the greater Johannesburg area. Learners were given orientation and skills training on career opportunities in the theatre world beyond just the performance level. This introduced them to the various theatre-making processes and roles assumed by creative teams responsible for staging professional theater productions

Various productions premiered through the Ditshomo Programme

Dusk

Dusk was a new South African work by Mark Scheepers that premiered at the Market Theatre in August 2021. Set on a farm in Limpopo Dusk is a dramatic mystery of murder and memory. Tessa is a former actress who gave up her career to devote her life to her family and their farm. When her eldest son, Chris, returns from university, Tessa’s carefully ordered life is thrown into chaos and tragedy unfolds.

A year later, Tessa is visited by KG who grew up on the farm and was the childhood friend of Chris. KG has come to find out what happened to his friend. As Tessa struggles with paranoia and psychosis, it becomes clear as events unfold that there are darker issues at play.

Dusk stars Michelle Douglas and Loyiso MacDonald and is directed by award-winning Palesa Mazamisa. Michelle Douglas has previously starred in productions such as Green Man Flashing, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and The Revlon Girl. Loyiso MacDonald is best known for his role as Ntando Sibeko in the soap opera, Isidingo. He has also appeared on stage in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Othello.

Dusk launched a series of new commissioned works that were staged during the 2021/2022 season as part of the Market Theatre’s commitment to finding new theatre voices and creating new local works. Dusk was performed at the Mannie Manim Theatre from 6 – 29 August 2021.

I am a Woman

I Am A Woman was an original new one woman play by novelist Nthikeng Mohlele, set in contemporary and cosmopolitan Gauteng. The piece was anchored around the themes of love and belonging, female identity and feminist sentiments about the place of women in a modern South Africa. It was also about tragedy and loss, and about the interplay between personal and societal tensions. The central premise of the play was an existential examination of the hearts of humans; what it means to love, to have a meaningful life and how fate and chance can either enrich or derail personal dreams and agency. The play was motive, philosophical, humorous and often deadpan. It featured a tour de force performance by the highly talented Nqobile Sipamla

Ruined

Set in a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined followed Mama Nadi, a businesswoman who was trying to stay afloat in a world torn apart by civil war. The war had ravaged her country, and especially the young girls who had literally been torn to pieces by soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Mama Nadi took ’damaged’ girls into her brothel/bar and profited from them, but she also protected

them from the brutality of the world outside her doors. Amongst Mama Nadi’s charges were Josephine,

the daughter of a chief whose town was destroyed and who was raped by rebel soldiers; Salima, who

was taken by rebel soldiers, who had killed her baby and took her as a prisoner-of-war before making

her pregnant; and Sophie, a young girl who had been ‘ruined’ by sexual violence

Khongolose Khommanding Khommissars (KKK)

The KKK was a new South African play by J Bobs Tshabalala (Standard Bank Young Artist Winner 2020). It was directed by The Theatre Duo - Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana (Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winners 2022). The cast consisted of highly talented performers - Lebohang Masimola, Moagi Kai, Xolile Gama, Tshireletso Nkoane and Anelisa Phewa.

The creative team included: Ketsia Velaphi – Assistant Director; Denis Hutchinson – Lighting & Set Designer; Lethabo Bereng – Costume Designer; Jannous Aukena – Sound Designer; Nikki Pilkington – Projection Designer and Ernest ‘Ginger’ Baleni – Movement Design. The Market Theatre received a Supporting Grant from Business & Arts South Africa which was dedicated to marketing KKK. The Theatre Duo received funding from the National Arts Council. KKK performed in the John Kani Theatre from 26 July – 6 August 2023.

Karatara

Karatara is a South African work by Wilken Calitz and Shaun Oelf. Karatara is based on the ‘Knysna fires’ of October 2018 which devastated a community, claimed 7 lives, and ruined hundreds of homes and the land of the Outeniqua-Khoi leading to more cases of homelessness and poverty. Karatara debuted at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) in 2022 where it won Best Debut Production. It has also won a Fiësta Award for Best Design and Fleur Du Cap Awards for Best Lighting and Best Sound Design.

The Terrified Talabalushi

The Terrified Talabalushi is a children’s musical theatre piece by Megan Choritz with Omphile Molusi as dramaturge and director. The creative team consists of: Set Designer - Megan Miller; Costume Designer - Onthatile Mathsidoso; Lighting Designer - Hlomohang Mothetho; Choreographer - Teresa Phuti and Music Director/ Composer and Performer - Volley Nchabeleng.

The Terrified Talabalushi performed from 25th November – 17 December 2023 in the Mannie Manim.