South African State Theatre

The South African State Theatre was built by Performing Arts department of the Provincial Council of the Transvaal.[i] Botha, Lötter and Partners as well as Daneel and Smit architects were hired to design and construct the theatre.[ii] The concept of the theatre was to draw in state funding and support for professional theatre. It was registered as a non-profit government company.[iii]

The first director the theatre was Rodney Philips.[iv] The production that opened the theatre on the 23rd of May 1981 was Applause – directed by Anthony Farmer.[v]

In June 2000, the South African State Theatre was closed by the Minister of Arts and Culture due to financial difficulties and corruption investigations.[vi] A month later a new board was put together with Welcome Msomi as the chair.[vii] The facilities were hired out to production companies and the government reduced funding to merely maintenance of the building.

The South African State Theatre re-opened officially on the 4th of April 2001, with a musical evening directed by John Kani. In December 2001, a new CEO was appointed – Michael Lovegrove. Under the new management the theatre began hosting a variety of productions to capture and maintain relevancy for South Africans at the time.[viii]

The South African State Theatre is an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture and is reliant on public funding. It boasts of seven venues of use; the Opera House seating 1327, the Drama which seats 712 people the Studio which seats 150, the Momentum which is for experimental theatre work, the Rendezvous which seats 260, the Transvalia which seats 110 and the Arena, seating 200.[ix] The theatre building itself is multipurpose and hosts a wide range of productions such as opera, ballet, musicals, drama, cabaret as well as children’s theatre.[x] It is noted for having held world class productions such as The Swan, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music and Sarafina!.[xi] It also has the largest exhibition of Ndebele art.[xii]

End Notes

[i] “State Theatre”, The Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance, 5 December 2015, http://esat.sun.ac.za/index.php?title=South_African_Theatre/Bibliography. ↵

[ii] Ibid ↵

[iii] Ibid ↵

[iv] Ibid ↵

[v] Ibid ↵

[vi] Ibid ↵

[vii] Ibid ↵

[viii] Ibid ↵

[ix] Ibid ↵

[x] “The South African State Theatre, Pretoria”, South Africa, Accessed 18 April 2017, http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-the-pretoria-state-theatre. ↵

[xi] Ibid ↵

[xii] “The South African State Theatre”, Pretoria, Accessed 18 April 2017, http://showme.co.za/pretoria/events-entertainment/the-south-african-state-theatre/. ↵