04May
ELECTROSONIC AND THE NEW FUGARD THEATRE IN CAPE TOWN
Electrosonic is proud to have supplied and installed equipment in many of South Africa’s theatres in the past, but one of the highlight has been their recent involvement in the conversion of two warehouses and a church hall into the new Fugard Theatre in Cape Town’s District Six.
The new theatre is also the new home of the Isango Portobello Company which was formed in 2007 by South African producer Eric Abraham, opera star Pauline Malefane and theatre and film director Mark Dornford-May. The company is regarded as the largest black theatre company in the world and is best known for its film production of ‘U-Carmen Ekhayelitsha’ and its stage productions of ‘The Mysteries’ and ‘The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo’, which won the coveted Olivier Award after its run in London’s West End.
Soon after local theatre legend Mannie Manim received the news that the Fugard Theatre project had been given the green light, he was in England on tour with ’The Mysteries’. “For years I’d been trying to get to PLASA, and it just so happened that I was in London at the time, was given tickets to the exhibition, and chanced upon Bruce Schwartz at the Martin Professional stand.
Beginning with renovations in August last year, it took only 6 months for the construction team (Architect Shaun Adendorff, Project Manager Selwyn Greenhill and Building Contractor Peter Truter) to turn the old Sacks Futeran building and the hall of the decommissioned Congregational Church in Caledon Street into a characterful theatre with foyer space, rehearsal studio, dressing rooms and offices. Mannie contacted Electrosonic and Robbi Nassi took charge of this project.
“In terms of the lighting, Robbi understood my vision for the theatre from the outset and was always enthusiastic, encouraging and collaborative - even when he arrived in Cape Town to see the building and had to stand in a hard hat with rain pouring in through the roof.
Many people who saw the place in the beginning just didn’t understand what we were trying to do and threw their hands up in despair. Robbi said: ‘It looks fantastic and very exciting!’ We immediately started planning the lighting and he would email me with different ideas and suggestions.
He was truly a friend of the project, not just someone supplying equipment, I have known Robbi for some time, and I was delighted to be able to get him involved in the team creating the new theatre” said Mannie.
The final equipment list included a 96-way Strand wall rack with a 200-96 way patch panel manufactured by Electrosonic, 3 x Martin Mac 700 Profiles, 12 x Selecon Acclaim Zoomspot Profiles, 3 x Helvar Digidim 16A dimmers, all the lighting bars, and a CM Lodestar winding system for the side bars. Also included in the installation was a DMX network for providing data to the scrollers and moving lights from the control desk in the auditorium. House lights were set up to be controlled from both back stage and the lighting control room, and were programmed by Kobus Visser from Electrosonic.
Keith Pugin and Omar Sharfoodeen, the manufacturing and installations team from Electrosonic, undertook the installation. “It was quite a job installing the side bars and winches, connecting the winches to the bars to suspend them and terminating all the wires so they could be picked up by the house electrician, “said Mannie.
“ The Electrosonic team was fantastic – always diligent and good-humoured, and I so appreciate our long-standing and reliable relationship.”
Long-standing relationships are the cornerstones of Mannie’s illustrious career in South African theatre. His name is linked to almost every notable theatre and production over the past 50 years as either administrator, producer or lighting designer, from small beginnings as an usher at The Brooke Theatre in Johannesburg at the age of 15.
“I was an usher part time until I matriculated and went to work at a very large firm with the intention of becoming a Structural Engineer. After three months, my greatest achievement was having designed a handrail around for the Dorman Long stand at the Rand Easter Show.
It was very disheartening. Perhaps if I’d been with a smaller outfit my life would have taken a very different path, but as it turned out, I went to visit the guys at the Brooke one Saturday and as I opened the door to the office, Brian looked up and said “Ah, we’ve been expecting you back. Can you start work on Monday? You’re going on tour.”
As Touring Stage Manager at only 17, Mannie was thrown in the deep end and had to learn to swim fast. “We were setting up the stage at the Alhambra Theatre in Cape Town when the African Consolidated Theatres lighting technician, Bill Merrington, asked me ‘Where do I put the lights?’ That was the moment that marked the start of my career as a lighting designer.”
In the years that followed, the positions Mannie has held include Administrative head of PACT Drama, co-founder and Managing Director of the Market Theatre, Director of Performing Arts Administration at Witwatersrand University and Director and CEO of the Baxter Theatre Centre.
He has served on the boards of the Market Theatre Foundation, the Theatre Managements of SA, the Civic (now the Joburg Theatre), the State Theatre in Pretoria, the Maynardville Theatre Trust, the Suidoosterfees, and as Chairman of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown,Mannie has also garnered a multitude of awards – both local and international - including being the winner of the first Vita Award for the Most Enterprising Producer and 10 times winner of the Vita Best Original Lighting Award.
He received the Shirley Moss Award for the Greatest Practical and Technical Contribution to Theatre in South Africa and the South African Institute of Theatre Technology Award for Outstanding Achievement. He has been honoured with the title Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres by the French government, received a gold medal for Theatre Development from the South African Academy of Arts and Science, and been awarded a Naledi Lifetime Achievement Award by the South African Theatre Managements Association.
After 10 years at the Baxter, Mannie left at the end of last year to take up the challenge of developing and programming at the new Fugard Theatre, named in honour of South Africa’s most famous and prolific writer, Athol Fugard, who was hailed by Time Magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.
Mannie’s relationship with Athol Fugard began in the seventies with the productions of ‘Boesman and Lena’ and ‘People are Living There’ at the Alexander Theatre, and he has since lit and produced the first performances of all Athol Fugard’s plays in South Africa.
Naturally, the opening season of the new Fugard Theatre had to include a Fugard play - in this case his latest masterpiece, ‘The Train Driver’, which the author claims to be his best play, and his last.
“In the early days it used to take Athol two years to write a play, then later he was producing two plays in a year, but ‘The Train Driver’ has taken him 10 years to write,” said Mannie. “It is a harrowing fictional account based on the true story of a woman who committed suicide with her 3 children on railway line in Cape Town.”
The Fugard Theatre opened on 12th February to an audience of theatre luminaries and cabinet dignitaries, including its namesake, Athol Fugard, and the new theatre’s patron, Trevor Manuel, former SA Finance Minister and current Head of the National Planning Commission and a key member of President Jacob Zuma’s government.
The audience included The Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, The Minister of Culture, Lulama Xingwana, and Tokyo Sexwale , Minister of Human Settlement as well as a who’s who of Cape Town. And also Winston Ntshona, Janet Suzman and Alan Rickman.
After the performance there were speeches by Mark Dornford- May, Artistic Director, Eric Abraham, the sole funder of the project , Athol Fugard, Pauline Malefane one of the founders of Isango Portobello - the resident company - and Trevor Manuel.
Everyone present agreed it was a very special night in the history of theatre in Cape Town.
Soon after local theatre legend Mannie Manim received the news that the Fugard Theatre project had been given the green light, he was in England on tour with ’The Mysteries’. “For years I’d been trying to get to PLASA, and it just so happened that I was in London at the time, was given tickets to the exhibition, and chanced upon Bruce Schwartz at the Martin Professional stand.
Beginning with renovations in August last year, it took only 6 months for the construction team (Architect Shaun Adendorff, Project Manager Selwyn Greenhill and Building Contractor Peter Truter) to turn the old Sacks Futeran building and the hall of the decommissioned Congregational Church in Caledon Street into a characterful theatre with foyer space, rehearsal studio, dressing rooms and offices. Mannie contacted Electrosonic and Robbi Nassi took charge of this project.
“In terms of the lighting, Robbi understood my vision for the theatre from the outset and was always enthusiastic, encouraging and collaborative - even when he arrived in Cape Town to see the building and had to stand in a hard hat with rain pouring in through the roof.
Many people who saw the place in the beginning just didn’t understand what we were trying to do and threw their hands up in despair. Robbi said: ‘It looks fantastic and very exciting!’ We immediately started planning the lighting and he would email me with different ideas and suggestions.
He was truly a friend of the project, not just someone supplying equipment, I have known Robbi for some time, and I was delighted to be able to get him involved in the team creating the new theatre” said Mannie.
The final equipment list included a 96-way Strand wall rack with a 200-96 way patch panel manufactured by Electrosonic, 3 x Martin Mac 700 Profiles, 12 x Selecon Acclaim Zoomspot Profiles, 3 x Helvar Digidim 16A dimmers, all the lighting bars, and a CM Lodestar winding system for the side bars. Also included in the installation was a DMX network for providing data to the scrollers and moving lights from the control desk in the auditorium. House lights were set up to be controlled from both back stage and the lighting control room, and were programmed by Kobus Visser from Electrosonic.
Keith Pugin and Omar Sharfoodeen, the manufacturing and installations team from Electrosonic, undertook the installation. “It was quite a job installing the side bars and winches, connecting the winches to the bars to suspend them and terminating all the wires so they could be picked up by the house electrician, “said Mannie.
“ The Electrosonic team was fantastic – always diligent and good-humoured, and I so appreciate our long-standing and reliable relationship.”
Long-standing relationships are the cornerstones of Mannie’s illustrious career in South African theatre. His name is linked to almost every notable theatre and production over the past 50 years as either administrator, producer or lighting designer, from small beginnings as an usher at The Brooke Theatre in Johannesburg at the age of 15.
“I was an usher part time until I matriculated and went to work at a very large firm with the intention of becoming a Structural Engineer. After three months, my greatest achievement was having designed a handrail around for the Dorman Long stand at the Rand Easter Show.
It was very disheartening. Perhaps if I’d been with a smaller outfit my life would have taken a very different path, but as it turned out, I went to visit the guys at the Brooke one Saturday and as I opened the door to the office, Brian looked up and said “Ah, we’ve been expecting you back. Can you start work on Monday? You’re going on tour.”
As Touring Stage Manager at only 17, Mannie was thrown in the deep end and had to learn to swim fast. “We were setting up the stage at the Alhambra Theatre in Cape Town when the African Consolidated Theatres lighting technician, Bill Merrington, asked me ‘Where do I put the lights?’ That was the moment that marked the start of my career as a lighting designer.”
In the years that followed, the positions Mannie has held include Administrative head of PACT Drama, co-founder and Managing Director of the Market Theatre, Director of Performing Arts Administration at Witwatersrand University and Director and CEO of the Baxter Theatre Centre.
He has served on the boards of the Market Theatre Foundation, the Theatre Managements of SA, the Civic (now the Joburg Theatre), the State Theatre in Pretoria, the Maynardville Theatre Trust, the Suidoosterfees, and as Chairman of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown,Mannie has also garnered a multitude of awards – both local and international - including being the winner of the first Vita Award for the Most Enterprising Producer and 10 times winner of the Vita Best Original Lighting Award.
He received the Shirley Moss Award for the Greatest Practical and Technical Contribution to Theatre in South Africa and the South African Institute of Theatre Technology Award for Outstanding Achievement. He has been honoured with the title Chevalier des Artes et des Lettres by the French government, received a gold medal for Theatre Development from the South African Academy of Arts and Science, and been awarded a Naledi Lifetime Achievement Award by the South African Theatre Managements Association.
After 10 years at the Baxter, Mannie left at the end of last year to take up the challenge of developing and programming at the new Fugard Theatre, named in honour of South Africa’s most famous and prolific writer, Athol Fugard, who was hailed by Time Magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.
Mannie’s relationship with Athol Fugard began in the seventies with the productions of ‘Boesman and Lena’ and ‘People are Living There’ at the Alexander Theatre, and he has since lit and produced the first performances of all Athol Fugard’s plays in South Africa.
Naturally, the opening season of the new Fugard Theatre had to include a Fugard play - in this case his latest masterpiece, ‘The Train Driver’, which the author claims to be his best play, and his last.
“In the early days it used to take Athol two years to write a play, then later he was producing two plays in a year, but ‘The Train Driver’ has taken him 10 years to write,” said Mannie. “It is a harrowing fictional account based on the true story of a woman who committed suicide with her 3 children on railway line in Cape Town.”
The Fugard Theatre opened on 12th February to an audience of theatre luminaries and cabinet dignitaries, including its namesake, Athol Fugard, and the new theatre’s patron, Trevor Manuel, former SA Finance Minister and current Head of the National Planning Commission and a key member of President Jacob Zuma’s government.
The audience included The Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, The Minister of Culture, Lulama Xingwana, and Tokyo Sexwale , Minister of Human Settlement as well as a who’s who of Cape Town. And also Winston Ntshona, Janet Suzman and Alan Rickman.
After the performance there were speeches by Mark Dornford- May, Artistic Director, Eric Abraham, the sole funder of the project , Athol Fugard, Pauline Malefane one of the founders of Isango Portobello - the resident company - and Trevor Manuel.
Everyone present agreed it was a very special night in the history of theatre in Cape Town.
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