Playscript Series

Short, Sharp & Snappy 1 and 2: Southern African plays for high schools

2011-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Short, Sharp & Snappy1 and 2: Southern African plays for high schools compiled by Robin Malan and Colleen Moroukian, published by Junkets Publisher
ISBN for No. 1: 978-0-9869875-9-5
ISBN for No. 2: 978-0-9870182-1-2
Publication-date: 1 December 2011
Price R140.00

In 2010 Junkets Publisher put out a call for short plays suitable for performance or rehearsed reading in high schools, i.e. for students aged 13 - 19.

57 plays were submitted. Of these, a few disqualified themselves by being over the word-limit or unsuitable to the specified age-group.

The standard was so high that compilers Robin Malan and Colleen Moroukian decided that there was material easily good enough for two volumes. Junkets Publisher will now publish the two volumes simultaneously.

Contents

No. 1:

Rob K Baum: The Opening
Margaret Clough: Ghosts in the Supermarket
M Cassiem D'arcy: Samson, the Storyteller
Ashraf Johaardien: Miracle
Pter Krummeck: The Future is Now
Andre Lemmer: Playing in the Park
Omphile Molusi: For the Right Reasons
Barry Morgan: Letter to D
Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala: Faith in Love
S M Norman: Tariro on Top
Cassandra Puren: To Care for You Always
Caitlin Spring: The Search
Gisele Turner: Woof Woof

No. 2:

Martin Hatchuel: David and Bruce
Suenel Holloway: Cry Sis! Identity
Monti Jola: The New Struggle
Andre Lemmer: Thabo and the Tar Man
Kirsten Miller: Remember Joe
Omphile Molusi: Daddy Comes Tonight
Renee Muller: HOP-House Dance
Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala: The Bicycle Thief
M Andries Phukuntsi: Love Secondary
Renos Nicos Spanoudes, Dean Salant, Gav Rubin, David Wein: Child's Play
David Stein: The Goliath Project

The playwrights ...

range from experienced writers for the stage to those for whom this is their first play

in age they range from 16 to 77

they come from a wide spread of places in Southern Africa, from Kwekwe to Simon's Town, from Olievenhoutbosch to Schoenmakerskop

The plays concern a wide range of themes and issues, including:

bullying in schools

life in a small South African town

an abandoned baby left in a window

slave stories and a traditional African folk tale

dysfunctional familes

love blossoming despite difficult situations

dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace

HIV teaching in the classroom

caring for children with disabilities; or infected with HIV

the hazards of having a bicycle

... and even ghosts in a supermarket

Clearly, these two volumes will prove valuable for everyone involved in drama, theatre arts and performing arts in all high schools and teacher-training institutions. School libraries, university libraries and public libraries will be very interested to have them.

To order and for further information, please contact Junkets Publisher at email info.junkets@iafrica.com or telephone +27 (0)21 448 7186 or cell +27 (0)76 169 2789

Enquire about the special Early-Bird pre-order scheme.

The Collected Series No. 1

S.A. Gay Plays 1: the Artscape Dublin Festival Plays

compiled by Robin Malan

ISBN: 978-0-9869875-7-1

Price: R 160

This is an anthology of the five plays that the Artscape New Writing Programme toured to the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival from 2006 to 2010.

Contents:

Ashraf Johaardien: Happy Endings are Extra

Juliet Jenkin: The Boy Who Fell from the Roof

Pieter Jacobs: Dalliances

Fiona Coyne: Careful

Gideon van Eeden: Myth of Andrew & Jo

Playscript Series

2008-03-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

SEE ALSO OUR OTHER SITE
Junkets Publisher, at http://junketspublisher.blogspot.com/

Robin Malan: The boy who walked into the world

This play is a stage adaptation of the novel The Story of Lucky Simelane (see below). Included in this volume are notes for teachers and community directors on presenting the play, as well as activity exercises for students.

ISBN 978 -0-620-388733-0 / 97806203887330

Playscript Series No. 1
Junkets Publisher

A young man walks into the police station of a small country town. Lucky has been brought up in a small rural black community. But is he really black? ... Issues of identity and belonging crowd in on Lucky, who is thrown off balance by the publicity surrounding him, yet enjoys the attention and sudden ‘celebrity’ this brings. In the end, who is Lucky? And can Lucky cope with being Lucky?

The novel The Story of Lucky Simelane is published by Jacana Media

Karen Jeynes: Everybody Else (is fucking perfect)

Karen Jeynes's play won the Best Writer Award, the Audience Award and the Award for Best Director in the 2005 NLDTF/PANSA Contemporary Theatre Festival (Comedy). Its first performance in the Sanlam Studio of the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town took place on 7 February 2007.

This volume serves as both programme for that presentation and as complete text of the play.

ISBN 978-0-620-38067-6 / 9780620380676

Playscript Series No. 2
Junkets Publisher

Juliet Jenkin: The Boy Who Fell from the Roof

Part of the Artscape New Writing Programme

Playwright Juliet Jenkin deftly enters the world of the teenage pysche in this story of a remarkable friendship, that between Simon and Georgina; as well as Simonb's life-shifting encounter with a post-graduate mathematics student, Leonard, with whom he falls in love.

Nominated for Best Play at the Dublin Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival 2006.

ISBN 978-0-620-38958-7 / 9780620389587

Playscript Series No. 3
Junkets Publisher

Omphile Molusi: Itsoseng and For the Right Reasons

THIS PLAYSCRIPT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS SOUTHERN AFRICA.
GO TO http://www.oxford.co.za/

Itsoseng is a play for one actor, exploring the fortunes and personalities of a South African township before and after the 'miracle' of the 'new democracy' of 1994.

For the Right Reasons is a short play written especially for schools about the aspirations and frustrations of ex-township students who now live in the suburbs, and township students who travel by train each day to attend school in the suburbs.

Omphile Molusi was the first recipient of the Brett Goldin Bursary Award in 2007. He spent a month working with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. In this volume he writes about his time there.

Itsoseng has been presented in 2008 at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, the King Dome Pleasance Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival, the Soho Theatre in London, and the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, Ireland.

ISBN 9780620406727

Playscript Series No. 4
Junkets Publisher

THIS PLAYSCRIPT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS SOUTHERN AFRICA.
GO TO http://www.oxford.co.za/

Nadia Davids: Cissie

THIS PLAYSCRIPT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS SOUTHERN AFRICA.
GO TO http://www.oxford.co.za/

'The play powerfully conveys the magnitude of the events of the times in which Cissie Gool lived, the significance of what she achieved as a political leader and as a woman, and the impact of her ability to galvanise people in unpredented ways. ... The weaving of documentary fim and theatrical styles invites a rich interplay of fact, fiction, dialogue and character. At times the script captures breathtaking tragicomic moments ...' - Theresa Edlmann, Cue, Grahamstown, 27 June 2008.

Cissie was first presented by the Baxter Theatre Centre and Nadia Davids in association with the National Arts Festival at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, 3-5 July 2008; and then enjoyed a season at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town, 9-26 July 2008.

ISBN 978-0-620-41389-3 / 9780620413893

Playscript Series No. 5
Junkets Publisher

THIS PLAYSCRIPT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS SOUTHERN AFRICA.
GO TO http://www.oxford.co.za/

Posted by Playscript Series at 3:43 AM 0 comments

2008-03-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

Out of Bounds
by Rajesh Gopie

Rajesh Gopie, Durban-born actor and writer, takes us into the life and times of a South African Indian family. He brings to life some 28 characters in this thought-provoking play that both wounds and heals the human heart and ultimately celebrates family - here and everywhere.

ISBN 9780 620 41648 1 / 9780620416481

Playscript Series
No. 6

Dalliances
by Pieter Jacobs

Janet is looking for love. Leo and Janet are friends. Ken is involved with Andy. When Ken meets Leo in a supermarket, the lives of these four characters intersect with extraordinary results. Dalliances is a complex moral tale reflecting a world in which everything is possible but ...

Dalliances won five awards and nominations at the fifth International Dublic Gay Theatre Festival in 2008.

ISBN 978-0-620-42031-0 / 9780620420310

Playscript Series
No. 7

Sister Breyani
by Malika Ndlovu

What happens when five sisters get together over a weekend for the first time in three years, lugging with them all the baggage which siblings carry? Is this a recipe for disaster or could it contain all the ingredients for a lovely pot of breyani?

ISBN 978-0-620-43788-2 / 9780620437882

Playscript Series
No. 8

MacBeki
by Pieter-Dirk Uys

Pieter-Dirk Uys has taken his inspiration from William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth and structured a satirical play around it, with the focus on a familiar local political setting, enriched by many laughs. Unlike Shakespeare, Pieter-Dirk Uys does not spill any blood in his play. He spills the beans. He challenged poltical correctness and sycophantic denialism. He makes us laugh at the transparency of the ruling elite who lie to protect themselves at all costs and so dig an ever-deeper trench in which they inevitably will fall. MacBeki is a comedy. It is a farce to be reckoned with.

ISBN 978-0-620-43621-2 / 9780620436212

Published by Peninsula in association with Junkets Publisher

The Return
by Fatima Dike

What happens in a settled parental home in Langa in the Western Cape when son Buntu returns after eighteen years in the United States? Will his African American wife find common ground with Mama and Tata? Will Buntu find relief from the nightmares troubling him? The play explores both the humour and the tragic reality of a South African family in this time of varying and challenging transitions.

ISBN 9780 620 44290 9 / 9780620442909

Playscript Series
No. 9

The Crossing and The Bicycle Thief
by Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala

A young man finds himself in a situation that seems hopeless – he sees no future for himself in a country on the edge of disintegration. The young man was Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala, and the country was Zimbabwe. This solo presentation tells the story of what he decided to do in order to achieve his objective, which was ‘life in abundance’. The Bicycle Thief is also included in this volume.

ISBN 9780 620 44291 6 / 9780620442916

Playscript Series
No. 10

Green Man Flashing
by Mike van Graan

[Cover Image to follow]

It is six weeks before the country’s second elections in 1999. Gabby Anderson, a white personal assistant, alleges she has been raped … by her boss, a black, high-profile government minister with an impeccable anti-apartheid struggle record. Sent to persuade her not to go through with the charges is Gabby’s former husband, Aaron Matshoba, the party’s major trouble-shooter.
How do past tensions between Aaron and Gabby affect the situation? What does Inspector Abrahams know that will impact on Gabby’s attitude? How will her lawyer and long-time friend Anna advise Gabby, and why? What will Gabby be offered in exchange for dropping the charges? What will she decide?
Green Man Flashing is a fast-paced political thriller that takes on the challenge of deep moral and political questions for which there are no ready answers, and certainly no easy ones.
In a remarkable instance of life imitating art, the events depicted in the play were to become real-life drama in all the South African news media.
After Athol Fugard’s early work, Mike van Graan is South Africa’s finest working playwright.

ISBN 978-0-620-45825-2 / 9780620458252

Playscript Series
No. 11

Lord Hamlet

text by William Shakespeare
collaged by Robin Malan

[Cover Image to follow]

This collage puts onstage one actor speaking the words of only one character, Hamlet, from Shakespeare’s play of the same name.
So here we have Hamlet crystallised, Hamlet himself, by himself, being himself, speaking himself, revealing himself, through the medium of one particular actor, guided by one particular director, with one particular compiler shadowly in the background.
The question then for you, as audience, as reader, is: Whose Hamlet is this? Shakespeare’s? The actor’s? The director’s? The compiler’s? Yours?

Robin Malan has book-ended his collage with an Introduction that examines some British and South African productions of Hamlet; then some views on the character by actors and writers; as well as some interesting facts and figures about the play and the character.

ISBN 978-0-620-45210-6 / 9780620452106

Playscript Series
No. 12

Iago's Last Dance
by Mike van Graan

[Cover Image to follow]

Iago's Last Dance is a trilogy of betrayal and vengeance, set against the backdrop of South Africa's HIV/Aids pandemic. Each play has a different set of three characters, to be played by the same three actors. Each title bears the initial letter that spells out 'HIV': Heartbreak Medea, Iago's Last Dance and Valiant Spartacus.

ISBN 978-0-620-45826-9 / 9780620458269

Playscript Series
No. 13

London Road
by Nicholas Spagnoletti

[Cover Image to follow]

Stella is a Nigerian immigrant who lives in Sea Point in dodgy circumstances until ... enter Rosa.

'... a mature and touching exploration of friendship between an elderly Jewish woman and her Nigerian neighbour.' - Marianne Thamm

ISBN 978-0-620-45827-6 / 9780620458276

Playscript Series
No. 14

The Quiet Violence of Dreams

from the novel by K Sello Duiker
adapted for the stage by Ashraf Johaardien

The play traces the turbulent life of a young graduate adrift in an unwelcoming world, searching for friendship.

'... Tshepo finds himself, much as the nation-state, born of violence, violation and male-directed brutality.' - Sam Raditlhalo

ISBN 978-0-620-48153-3 / 9780620481533

Plyscript Series
No. 15

The Train Driver
by Athol Fugard

[Cover Image to follow]

Published by The Fugard Theatre in association with Junkets Publisher

ISBN 978-0-9869750-0-4 / 9780986975004