Two weeks — that is all a group of talented Masiphathisane Senior Secondary School pupils had to rehearse their stellar theatre performance.
But that was all the time the bright sparks from the school in Motherwell needed to perfect it and trump their peers from nine other schools to bag a total of R47,000 in cash prizes at the inaugural Udumo One Act Play Competition for High Schools.
Before the competition, which was held in Gqeberha, the Masiphathisane pupils only knew about acting through what they saw on the television and read about in their creative arts books.
Yet, their performance put them among the three finalists, alongside two other Bay schools — Framesby High and Kwazakhele’s Qaphelani High.
In a rousing finale on Saturday night, the Masiphathisane pupils went on to beat the other two schools, claiming a R30,000 cash prize for the best play, R6,000 for best script, R5,000 for best director and R3,000 each for best actor and best actress.
The best director and best script prizes went to Masiphathisane’s drama mentor, Lungelwa Magqamfana, while grade 11 pupils Samnkelo Mbali and Amahle Mahauza, both 17, were crowned best actor and best actress, respectively.
The pupils’ winning play, I Over Covid, is about their personal challenges at the height of the pandemic.
Magqamfana said some pupils shared about losing loved ones to the coronavirus while others told of how they went to bed on empty stomachs when they could not attend classes during the lockdown, missing out on the meals they normally received through the school nutrition programme.
“These kids come from different backgrounds and have all sorts of challenges that they are dealing with,” she said.
“Most of them have no-one to open up to.
“Having them share their stories for this play was a way to get them to release their emotions.
“Even getting them to commit to rehearsals was a challenge because they have a lot going on.
“We had about two weeks to rehearse together because it was hard to get everyone to commit.”
Magqamfana, a Motherwell playwright and actress, is a former Masiphathisane pupil who returned to her alma mater to give back by training pupils in drama.
She said the pupils did not have drama classes in school and only depended on theory in their creative arts class.
“Drama isn’t really taken seriously in our schools,” she said.
“It is often misunderstood by teachers and parents, so kids never get the support they need.
“These kids are brilliant — they could go even further with the support of teachers and parents.”
Magqamfana said she sometimes had to take the pupils to an empty field to rehearse because they had no rehearsal venue.
She said she had a drama programme with Masiphathisane pupils at the school in 2020 before the lockdown but many had since left the school.
The competition was hosted by Stageworld Theatre School, a department of the Mandela Bay Theatre Company, at the Opera House over a week in August.
At Saturday night’s finale, Lwazi Jabavu, of Sophakama Senior Secondary School in New Brighton, was named the best supporting actor while Sinothemba Yene from Mzamba Comprehensive School in Bizana was crowned best supporting actress.
A teacher from Motherwell’s Ndyebo Senior Secondary School, Lynette Zukiswa Songca, walked away with the R2,000 innovation prize.
The competition’s elimination rounds were adjudicated by actress and drama teacher Sharon Rother, actress and director Marelize Booyens and playwright and actress Nobesuthu Rayi.
They were joined by Gqeberha-born SA Film and Television Award-winning actress Masasa Mbangeni for the finale evening.
“The adjudicators, educators and enthusiastic audience members were unanimous in their request that the competition should become an annual event in the performance calendar of the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex,” Stageworld Theatre School principal Marlene Thomasse-Pieterse said.
“A country without the arts is one without soul.”
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