These four young directors will be given a platform to write, direct, cast and perform their plays during the year, under the mentorship of the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, with technical assistance from the Baxter Theatre Centre. The bursary is specifically designed for emerging theatre directors who have had some experience in directing, with a passion to launch a career as a theatre director.
Gumede recently completed a BA in Dramatic Arts at Wits University, majoring in Directing, Performance and Writing. His directing credits include The Complete Works, Can Themba's Crepuscule, the main production of the Highfield Theatre Festival, When We are Naked, Finding Nemorena, Tilt (due to premier at PopArt in 2012), Paul Slabolepszy's Over the Hill and MidWinter.
Marelic received an Honours Degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand, with a research project centred on semiotics in directing for theatre. She has performed at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown on several occasions including in a one woman show which she wrote and directed. She devised and directed her own work, Waiting for Jack, which has had numerous successful runs. Her most recent direction is an African story, Flames on Manhood Mountain. She was awarded the Percy Tucker award at Wits for Best Director in 2011, and has worked with the likes of James Cunningham, Gerard Bester, Gys De Villiers, Dr. John Kani and Warren Nebe.
Elliott grew up in Cape Town and in 2010 received a Master's Degree in Drama from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Her dance theatre work frequently investigates performer presence, with choreography that investigates ideas and form through bodily artistic expression. She has taught at the Rhodes Drama Department, choreographed and performed for the First Physical Theatre Company and presented works in theatre and dance annually at festivals around the country. In 2006, she received the Jonathan Marks Prize for Choreography; in 2010, Spyt, which featured her choreography, won an Anglo-Gold Ashanti Fyngoud prize for Best Production at
Aardklop; Loss and Having won a 2011 Standard Bank Ovation Award for Excellence, and she was recently nominated for a KykNet Fiesta award for Proximity Loss and Having.
Multi-talented theatre-maker Doni learned his craft at the Media and Arts Access Centre (AMAC) and with Magnet Theatre. He has performed extensively with Magnet Theatre, including with The Grave, Trojan Horse Story, Looking Inside, national tours of Inxeba lomphilisi and Ingcwaba lendoda lise cankwe ndlela; in Nicola Elliott's Proximity, Loss and Having, and at the Bushfire Festival in Swaziland. Doni has also worked with the Actors Voice Theatre Company, Masibambisane Youth Theatre Organisation, Emlanjeni Theatre Productions, and the Manyanani Entertainers. The Capetonian is a resident actor at Bonfire Theatre Company. Nominated as Best Director at the Baxter's Zabalaza Theatre Festival in 2011, Doni won Best Director in 2012 for Mhla Salamana.
