DRAMATIC ARTS GRADE 12 SELF STUDY MATERIAL-2020 THIS RESOURCE PACK BELONGS TO NAME: _____________________________________ 1 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 Dear Grade 12 learner This self-study resource pack is compiled to enable you to continue your studies while you are away from classroom contact sessions. If you work through the pack diligently, it will equip you with the relevant knowledge to prepare for the year ahead. There is curriculum content as well as past papers which I hope will be of benefit to your individual need. Best wishes for the year ahead. Dr P Gramanie 2 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 TERM 2 Topic 5: Prescribed Play Text 2: South African Text (1960 -1994) SOPHIATOWN by JUNCTION AVENUE THEATRE COMPANY Background/context: social, political, religious, economic, artistic, historical, theatrical, as relevant to chosen play text Background of the playwright / script developers Principles of Drama in chosen play text such as: plot, dialogue, character, theme Style / genre of play text Staging/setting Techniques and conventions Audience reception and critical response (by original audience and today 3 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 SOPHIATOWN by JUNCTION AVENUE THEATRE COMPANY “The city that was within a city, the Gay Paris of Johannesburg, the notorious Casbah gang den, the shebeeniest of them all.” Background and context of Sophiatown Social Sophiatown was a suburb in Johannesburg and is also known as Kofifi or Softown. Sophiatown was different from other South African townships and was the only freehold township at the time which meant that black residents could purchase and own land. It was the epicenter of politics, jazz and blues during the 1940s and 1950s. It was vibrant and often dangerous and violent but also a place where people of all races met, drank in shebeens and talked politics, poetry and life. Sophiatown was like a melting pot churning out intellectuals, poets, writers, musicians and gangsters. It produced some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians and artists. People such as: Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Bishop Desmond tutu, Can Themba, Don Mattera, Ruth First and Father Trevor Huddleston. Sophiatown had character, unlike most townships it was not owned by the Johannesburg municipality and so it never acquired the ‘matchbox’ look synonymous with town planning during this era. The houses were built according to people's ability to pay, tastes, and cultural background. Some made of brick and others corrugated iron and scrap metal. As mentioned before, Sophiatown was alive with music, dance, drinking, philosophical and political talk. This all set against a backdrop of lawlessness and murder. Sophiatown embodied the best and worst of South African culture. Apart from turning out some of south Africa’s most influential writers and intellectuals it also famously boasts the creation of the internationally acclaimed musical “King Kong” which was based on a Sophiatown legendary boxer, the musical starred Miriam Makeba and ran on the west end for two years. Sophiatown was also steeped in gangsterism which emerged out of the poverty of the area. These gangsters were city bred young men who spoke Tsotsitaal – a mixture of 4 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 Afrikaans and English and were hardened criminals and very dangerous. Russians, Berliners, Gestapo, Americans and the Vultures- were all names of Sophiatown gangs. Interestingly the Gestapo and Berliner gang named themselves as such as a reflection of their admiration for Hitler as he took on white Europe. Political Sophiatown was one of the oldest black areas in South Africa and was at its peak in the 1940’s and 1950’s and its political background falls into pre-apartheid and apartheid South Africa. The term Apartheid was introduced in 1948 as part of the election campaign by DF Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party (HNP – 'Reunited National Party'), however racial segregation had been in force for many decades in South Africa. From the Afrikaans word meaning 'separation' apartheid was a social philosophy which enforced racial, social, and economic segregation on the people of South Africa. Sophiatown was unfortunately doomed for destruction. The Apartheid government saw the Township as a threat, as it was a place in South Africa where the walls of division that the government were so carefully creating, did not apply. Races mixed freely and ideas and opinions abounded. And so, to quell this so-called threat the government passed the Group areas act which basically made the destruction of Sophiatown and the segregated relocation of its inhabitants into a matter of central government vision and strategy. Sophiatown residents united in protest against the forced removals; creating the slogan: Ons dak nie, ons phola hier (We won't move). Father Trevor Huddleston, Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph and Ruth First played an important role by becoming involved in the resistance. However, it has been argued that the resistance was not completely united as some tenants who lived in extremely cramped conditions and were charges extortionate prices thought they may be better off once relocated. However, many people of the township relied on Sophiatown for their daily living- house owners and gangsters among them. Whatever resistance there was fell short. Two days before the removals were scheduled to take place, 2000 police, armed with automatic rifles, invaded Sophiatown and started moving out the first families. The armed resistance was nowhere to be seen. That first night, in the pouring rain, 110 families were moved out of Sophiatown to the new township of Meadowlands- in Soweto and the area formally known as Sophiatown, that vital city that had in many ways broken the shackles of subjugation and the walls off separateness was re-named: TRIOMF.The name Triomf creates a sense of anger in me and I’m sure in the uprooted residents of Sophiatown themselves. The National government it seems found it a triumph over an assumed threat based on prejudice and hate whereas what it really was; was the destruction of something beautiful and unique. 5 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 Historical The land where Sophiatown grew from was originally bought by a man called Hermann Tobiansky. Sophiatown was named after his wife Sophia and some of the streets were named after his three children. However, the distance from the city center was seen as disadvantageous and after the City of Johannesburg built a sewage plant nearby, the area was even less attractive to prospective white buyers. By the late 1940s Sophiatown had a population of nearly 54 000 Black Africans, 3 000 Coloureds, 1 500 Indians and 686 Chinese. People Miriam Makeba A Grammy award winning singer and civil rights activist. In the 60’s she was the first African artist to popularize African music in the U.S. She was an activist against the Apartheid regime and as a result the Nationalist government revoked her citizenship and right of return to South Africa. Can Themba. Dubbed ‘the Shebeen intellectual’, whilst living in Sophiatown he wrote the Suit. He also won short story competition for Drum magazine, and after the destruction of Sophiatown he fled to Swaziland. His Works out-lawed by the Apartheid government. Can Themba was an alcoholic who ended up drinking himself to death. Something his friends likened to a slow suicide. 6 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 Hugh Masekela A famous trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and singer. After the Sharpville massacre he left South Africa. He is highly successful and among other things has collaborated on Sarafina, featured on Paul Simons Graceland tour and played in King Kong the South African musical. He Returned to S.A in the early 90’s. Don Mattera Don Mattera has written poetry and an autobiography, called Memory is the Weapon. He has written plays and children stories. He was awarded the Steve Biko Prize for his autobiography. Mattera has worked as a journalist on The Sunday Times, The Weekly Mail, the now Mail & Guardian and The Sowetan. He is a popular motivational speaker and is often invited to be a Master of Ceremony in different functions. He holds an honorary Doctorate (Dlit) degree in Literature from the University of Natal. He has received fellowships from Sweden and America. Masekela continues to work with street children in the Eldorado community. He is also Muslim. Ruth First Born to Latvian Jewish immigrants. She was a vigorous Political activist against the Apartheid regime and after the Sharpville massacre, when South Africa was in a state of emergency, First was banned, unable to attend meetings, publish or be quoted. She was then imprisoned and put into isolation for 117 days without charge. She was the first white woman to be detained under the ninety-day detention law. In 1949 she married Joe Slovo, a Jewish South African anti- apartheid activist and communist. First went into Exile in London in March 1964. And was later assassinated by order of Craig Williamson, a major in the South African Police, on 17 August 1982, when she opened a letter bomb that had been sent to her university. 7 | Page Dramatic Arts Self- Study Resource Pack Grade 12 Father Trevor Huddleston English born and raised, Huddleston was sent to the CR mission station in Rosettenville in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1943. As the Priest-in-Charge of the CR’s Anglican Mission in Sophiatown and Orlando, Huddleston ministered in the townships between 1943 and 1956. With the passing into legislation of the Group Areas Act in 1950, Huddleston, along with Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph and Ruth First became involved in protests against the forced removals in Sophiatown.