For the sixth consecutive year the AFDA Cape Town Live Performance School once again sees graduates named for the Fleur du Cap Most Promising Student Award. Congratulations to Katherine Sharp and Ketsia Velaphi. AFDA has received two nominations each year since 2018 and three in 2021 and proudly acknowledge our previous winners of the award Luntu Masiza (2018) and Nancy Sekhokoane (2019).
More exciting news is the nomination of AFDA alumna Berenice Barbier in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role as ‘Honey’ in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. AFDA Screen Acting lecturer Gerald Rudolf also gets in on the act with a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role as ‘The Lobster Man’ in Neon Smoel.
”We are prouder than ever that our list of Live Performance Fleur du Cap nominees extends to staff as well this year! Screen Lecturer, Gerard Rudolf is nominated here for his stage work. Graduating students, Ketsia Velaphi and Katherine Sharp are deservedly recognized as most promising student nominees and alumnus Berenice Barbier, in her first professional production is nominated for supporting actress.” says Head of AFDA Cape Town Live Performance School, Liz Mills
Now in their 58th year, the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards are South Africa’s most prominent and longest running awards of their kind and Fleur du Cap nominees or winners are always proud to highlight this award on their biographic and promotional material.
The theatre fraternity managed to raise the curtain on an impressive 59 productions eligible for consideration in 2022, despite still being hampered by Covid-19 restrictions in the first part of the year.
Nominations were made by the panel of judges across 21 competitive categories. The names of the winners will be revealed at a red-carpet, open-air celebration at the Oude Libertas Amphitheatre in Stellenbosch on the evening of Sunday, 26 March. On the same occasion, the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement and Innovation in Theatre Awards will also be announced. Every category winner will receive a sum of R15 000.
Panel chair, Africa Melane, says: “Theatre audiences in Cape Town and surrounds were treated to extraordinary creativity in 2022, with theatre demonstrating the breadth and diversity that the sector has to offer. Theatre-makers showed great resilience in yet another difficult year of producing and mounting outstanding work.
“The industry is grateful to the public for supporting the arts, returning to theatres in their droves, hungry for a live theatre experience.
“These shows helped us to experience deep-seated emotions and change our perceptions of the world, as well as better understand the struggles and successes of other people and cultures. They reminded us that we are not alone. With these nominations, we celebrate and honour the sterling work showcased.”
Melane explains that in the category for Musicals and Music Theatre productions, there will only be awards for Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor. This is attributed to the limited number of musicals and music theatre productions that were staged.
Tracey Saunders, overseeing the evaluation of all student productions for awards, says: “It’s been a delight to watch students return to full-time study on campus after the Covid-enforced break. Their enthusiasm shone through on stages at all of the tertiary institutions.
“Students staged 70 productions ranging from a few large-cast extravaganzas to small, intimate pieces and several in between. Increasingly, students venture beyond acting to hone their talents in writing, directing and the technical craft required to stage work. These multi-talented and disciplined young people, 185 of them to be precise, were the focus of much deliberation. Ten nominees have deservedly earned their places on this list. With a cohort of such disciplined and talented students, the future of the creative industry in South Africa looks bright.”
The student institutions represented are Act (Cape Town), AFDA, CTDPS, LAMTA, Magnet Theatre, Northlink College, University of Stellenbosch and the Waterfront Theatre School.
Audiences will be able to tune in for a livestream of the event from 18:00 on 26 March. Details will be released via social media, closer to the time of the event.
