As The Market Theatre Foundation pursues a bold archival strategy to secure its legacy, it continues to treat its most important resource – employees – as custodians of its decades-long institutional memory.
One of the anchor points for The Market Theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations, said Artistic Director Greg Homann, is honouring the many people who have embodied the ethos of the space, across its hierarchy. “It took brave theatre-makers, volunteers, workers and patrons to hold space for a truly free, democratic, non-racial South Africa while it was still just a dream, so that when it became a reality, we all knew its familiarity,” Homann noted as he unveiled the 50th anniversary artistic programme.
The Market Theatre was just about two decades old when Motlalepule Makhate, in her late twenties, walked down its corridors to train as a stage manager. Thirty years later, now as a Senior Stage Manager, she beams with joyful pride for still being here as The Market Theatre marks 50 years of fearless storytelling. In her signature sense of humour, she quips that she has become something of an ancestral figure, which – jokes aside – is a testament of the organisation’s intentional retention of great talent.
Motla points out the wealth of memory that she carries as she reflects on what The Market Theatre’s 50th birthday means for her. “It means I hold significant institutional knowledge and cultural DNA. It is a testament to longevity and a positive career choice for me who was given an opportunity to pass on the skill to young, up-coming, future stage and production managers.”
It’s a rare moment, she notes, to be part of making history at the very same institution that provided her with security and growth for many years.
“My interpersonal skills improved,” she says when asked about her best highlights, further citing “opportunities to study” as one of the many ways The Market Theatre Foundation has impacted her.
She wishes people could understand that working behind the scenes isn’t as easy a job as it seems. In practice, it requires a detail-oriented, highly organised and flexible person.
“You need to grow an extra layer of thick skin, a lot of patience and calmness, discipline, time management. Communication is very vital (verbal and writing). You must be able to think on your feet and troubleshoot, be a team player and able to organise and lead, work on a very difficult and challenging task, and be able to work under pressure.”
For a career so grounded, it’s difficult to shortlist one’s favourite shows of all time. But Ways of Dying, through which Motla had her first international tour to Amsterdam, and the star-studded The Suitcase, are top of her mind.
Another standout moment for her is when she, in 2013, technically led more than five productions to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda as MTF’s acting production manager.
“It was challenging though, but also fun. Wonderful lessons were learnt. I travelled with colleagues that always do a great delivery of different tasks, professionally and effectively.”
Throughout his 25 years of excellent service at The Market Theatre Foundation, Floyd Dlamini has been climbing the ladder – sometimes literally – to becoming one of the institution’s living libraries in its 50th birthyear.
The Market Theatre Foundation returns to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda with two compelling productions – The Cry of Winnie Mandela and Children of the Buffalo Thorn Tree – that interrogate memory, power dynamics, how history is remembered and which voices are heard. Presented as the country marks the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, both works grapple with the ongoing work of transformation, the power of representation and the place black women and young people have in history.
