So the Festival of Arts – formerly ‘Festival of Fame’ – was great. From the 6th to the 10th of March, I performed The Dark Ages to scores of school audiences and what a treat it was!
Yho guys, I can safely say it’s been the most enjoyable run since the first stint at the National Arts Festival. The week-long schools festival brings audiences from all over Joburg in a feast of theatre and – for the first time – a dash of stand-up comedy too.
I love the honesty of young audiences. Most times, I find that if they’re genuinely not moved or engaged, you tend to pick that up pretty quickly. My venue was The Space at the National School of the Arts and it was great connecting with full houses each time.
Why so enjoyable? Maybe because the show had no choice but to grow. The music-playing section had to be cut (no keyboard/piano), so the comedy had to stretch by around 10 minutes.
It was SO fulfilling diving back into my past to dig out new jokes and tags to those that were in the original version. Again and again, the audiences connected with the truth of the show and the gags had new life.
I can’t wait to keep bringing work to this festival.
The festival led me to another interesting thought: what about more schools festivals? There are quite a lot of them around the country and I think it would be an interesting way to share the story and make new connections.
Some of my performer friends have had amazing runs at the National Schools Festival – which takes place straight after the main Arts Festival in Grahamstown – and I’m quite keen.
I’ll keep you in the loop of more developments on the comedy and acting front.
Stay tuned…
-Tyson
Tyson Ngubeni 