sa theatre is rocking!

listenin to: music off vanessa's ipod

cue... need i say more. for those of you out-of-towners, cue is the newspaper of the national arts festival and the place where i work for the 10 days of the festival. we began publishing yesterday and although i logically know we are only at the start of the festival, my creaky body feels like heavy set cement as i drag myself out of bed, and make my way to the newsroom for another day. there are so many stories to tell from this time in town but i wont, ill save it for later.

last night, after we had finished laying out and meeting deadlines etc etc, my editor came up to me and thrust a ticket for opening night for the main theatre production at this year's festival: sizwe banzi is dead. i was ready to drop dead but found it impossible to turn down the offer, and from my editor of all people :) it starred south african legend john kani and winston ntshona. i walked away from the play with so many ideas about what it was about: pre democracy, humour, great sadness, life.... and dreams and life without dreams. it was tactfully and yet brutally honest about how the more things change, the more they actually stay the same. as the opening crowd stood up to give the 2 actors a standing ovation, i felt extremely bloody lucky to have watched acting of such a calibre and priveleged that their thoughts, ideas and dreams were able to come my way. wow... it was a goose bump moment.

will blog more about the fes and these amazing south african talents... as the days go by. the festival runs until saturday, 8 july.

today i like: a gorgeous second editon of our paper and learning from production hiccups
today i dislike: i need a holiday... maybe a visit home