Taare Dance Troupe will form part of the Artscape’s 50th birthday celebrations.
Established as the Nico Malan Theatre in 1971, the Artscape will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a line-up of traditional African music, acrobatics, jazz, drama, dance, theatre entertainment and exhibitions throughout the year.
The anniversary celebration kicks off on Saturday March 20 with an opening concert, directed by Basil Appollis, and featuring Artscape Theatre’s associated companies, including Cape Town Opera, JazzArt, Unmute Dance Company, Cape Town City Ballet, the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Zip-Zap Circus, and Cape Town performers including Dizu Plaatjies, Vicky Sampson, Hilton Schilder, Zinzi Nogavu, Sylvia Mdunyelwa, Diana Ferrus and Nicola Hanekom.
The concert will be recorded at the Artscape and screened to audiences through the Artscape YouTube channel, free of charge.
Artscape CEO Marlene le Roux, said: “When I think of this building and the theme we have chosen to celebrate its golden jubilee, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, I am reminded that the Nico Malan just five decades ago opened its doors, excluding the largest section of the population, as if we just didn’t exist, treating us like the second-class citizens the Apartheid regime believed us to be. And yet, here we are, in 2021, in all our glory, telling our stories on the very stages that alas were denied us when it first opened its doors.
“That is what this building represents: the evolution of a species, the struggles of stalwarts, the wherewithal of those who helped to bring us to this point in our history. And it is to them that we give thanks as the building turns 50.”
The theatre was named after the former National Party administrator of the Cape Province, Dr Johannes Nicholas Malan, who initiated the project.
It was managed by Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) as a production house with four arts companies for orchestra, opera, ballet and drama and initially opened to “whites” only.
This apartheid policy received widespread objection from several quarters and after enormous pressure, in 1975 it became the first South African theatre that the Apartheid government, through a permit system, allowed all races onto its premises. On 11 March 1978 the then Nationalist government abolished its legislation that barred mixed race audiences in theatres and mixed race casts in productions. By 1994, the South African government policy changed dramatically and transformed all performing arts boards to playhouses.
The theatre was renamed to Artscape and replaced CAPAB on March 27 2001 and opened up all other art genres to performers and patrons from all walks of life.
It currently remains as an agency of the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, while the building itself is the property of the Western Cape Government.
Celebrations will continue throughout the year with showcases such as Joyous Choirs, a mass choir presentation in celebration of choirs from the Western Cape Province, and an outdoor community concert to be staged on the piazza in front of the building.
The journey from Nico Malan to Artscape will be documented with virtual audio-visual exhibitions and tours of the building to inform audiences and for patrons to experience the long history of the building, and learn of icons and employees who played a part through the highs and the lows of the past 50 years.