The Market Theatre Foundation stories
Theatre Think Tank Examines Women’s Portrayal On Stage
The Market Theatre Laboratory presents their next Theatre Think Tank instalment, with a focus on women as active participants during live theatre performances. Titled Her Lens: Provocations from the Female Audience, this free event will take place on Sunday 24, August 2025 in the Ramolao Makhene Theatre, Market Square, Newtown, at 2pm.
It will be curated by conversationalist, podcaster and content creator, Mathabo Tlali.
Held in commemoration of Women’s Month in South Africa, this Theatre Think Tank will examine how women are portrayed in, and actively react to, theatre productions. Bringing together multimedia and talk show formats to produce an interactive experience, the Theatre Think Tank aims to centre the gaze of women not as characters, muses, subjects, or side notes, but as engaged participants during performance
Speaking on the upcoming Theatre Think Tank, curator Mathabo Tlali says: “If art is a mirror, this conversation turns it toward the audience and asks: What do you see—and what do you wish we’d notice? This is an invitation to those who mould women through their craft to sit, assess and reflect on the sociological and psychological implications of our creative work.”
Mathabo is the founder of Zazi Creative, a production and creative strategy studio. Her work sits at the intersection of performance, audience, corporate and civil society, where she uses storytelling to advocate for a connected and thriving African creative industry. Whether through her travelling podcast You Need Art & Art Needs You, her stage performances, or creative campaigns, she brings people and purpose together through art.
The Market Theatre Foundation Appoints New Chief Financial Officer
The Market Theatre Foundation (MTF) is excited to announce the appointment of Devi Padayachee CA (SA) as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective from 11 August 2025.
Selected from a competitive pool of candidates, Devi’s appointment signals MTF’s ability to attract the best talent in the market—illustrating our status as an employer of choice.
Devi is a high-performing chartered accountant with vast experience across diverse industries, including the public sector. Among others, she was the CFO and Acting CEO at Ekurhuleni Housing Company, successfully leading the municipal entity’s turnaround strategy, achieving clean audits, designing innovative ways for increasing revenue and cutting costs, while significantly reducing audit findings. Her excellent record at Ekurhuleni Housing Company distinguished her as an exceptional public servant with strong competencies in public financial management and a deep love for serving communities.
As an iconic cultural institution, MTF is committed not only to bold storytelling, but also good governance guided by strong internal controls, financial sustainability, creative models for revenue generation. Devi’s background in public service will ensure that the organisation maintains its healthy financial status and meets its targets, while her experience in international financial reporting will be of great value to its internationalisation efforts.
The Market Theatre Foundation’s First Open Day to Ignite Young People’s Creativity
The Market Theatre Foundation (MTF) is looking forward to its first ever Open Day, to be held on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September 2025 in Newtown, Johannesburg, starting from 10:00 to 14:00 on both days.
The purpose of the Open Day is to create awareness about the various courses offered at MTF’s two industry-acclaimed educational units, The Market Photo Workshop (MPW) and The Market Theatre Laboratory (The Market Lab).
For almost 40 years, The Market Lab has produced highly sought-after talent for the film, television and theatre industry, while MPW is one of Africa’s leading schools of photography and visual storytelling that can boast an equally long track-record across four decades.
100 Years of Kippie Moeketsi: Celebrating a Music Genius and the Father of South African Jazz
The Market Theatre Foundation is honoured to celebrate the musical and cultural legacy of alto saxophonist and jazz musician, Jeremiah “Kippie” Moeketsi, who would be turning 100 on 27 July 2025. Curated by award-winning writer, author and journalist, Sam Mathe, the two-fold celebration will include a book discussion in Kippies as well as a free jazz concert at The Market Theatre.
For the first activity, Sam Mathe will discuss his seminal work, ‘From Kippie to Kippies’. The title is inspired by Kippie Moeketsi’s extraordinary career, as well as the vibrant Newtown jazz club – Kippies – named after him. This path-finding publication traces the footsteps of South Africa’s jazz movement, profiling key players and developments across four generations.
‘From Kippie To Kippies’ is a timely and affirming addition to the ever-changing contemporary landscape, documenting the resilience of various artists as they rose – and continue to rise – from a history of pain and discrimination. In the process, the book casts light on South Africa’s musical creativity, which has often been condemned to the periphery.
Hey Hillbrow! Come Out To Play—The Streets Are Calling
The Windybrow Arts Centre, a division of The Market Theatre Foundation, and its partners are proud to present the sixth iteration of its annual parade, Hey Hillbrow! Let’s Dlala!
Fun, joy and creative energies are set to fill the inner-city of Jo’burg this Africa Month as Hey Hillbrow! splashes the neighbourhood with colourful visuals and alters the soundscape with exciting frequencies. The parade, which cuts through Hillbrow and Doornfontein, takes place on 24 May 2025. It starts at 10am from The Windybrow Arts Centre, followed by a music concert featuring Thamsanqa Vuthela Band, Mozambique’s The Dizzy Brains and Styles Da Deejay of The Creators Room.
Launched in 2017, Hey Hillbrow! is a celebration of the possibilities that public performance brings to public space—to spread energy, laughter, surprise and provocation, and to make visible the wonderful work that several organisations and individuals have continued to do in impacting inner-city communities and spaces. It is once again curated by Tamzyn Botha, alongside Daniel Buckland and The Windybrow Arts Centre.
MTF’s Africa Month Curation Explores Place, Heritage and Migration
The Market Theatre Foundation (MTF) has curated a compelling and exciting artistic offering in commemoration of Africa Month across The Market Photo Workshop, The Market Theatre Laboratory, The Market Theatre, and The Windybrow Arts Centre, reaffirming its commitment as a proudly African storyteller. The curation leans into the complex themes of ancestry, belonging, place, migration and heritage.
As a precursor to the Africa Month programming, The Market Photo Workshop, a visual literacy and photojournalism division of The Market Theatre Foundation, co-curated an exhibition titled ‘Afrikan Stories for Social Change’ in Ghana, in collaboration with Thrive Africa. Held from 14 – 16 April in 2025, this exhibition set the tone for the rest of the MTF’s Africa Month commemoration.
The Market Theatre Puts the 10th Anniversary of #FeesMustFall Under The Spotlight
The Market Theatre is set to mark the 10th Anniversary of #FeesMustFall with two bold productions: “The Fall” and “The Good White”. The plays will individually explore this watershed period in post-apartheid student activism from different perspectives.
Throughout their runs, starting from 9 April 2025, audiences will be guided down the past decade to the first #RhodesMustFall protest at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that sparked similar protests against colonial monuments on campuses nationwide, ultimately dovetailing with the #FeesMustFall movement that called for free, quality and decolonised education.
The staging of these plays brings the achievements of the Fallist movement under examination, as thousands of disadvantaged students still struggle to afford the rising – instead of falling – fees of higher learning, including the costs of accommodation, transport and food.
Tshiamo Mokgadi leading the Market Theatre Foundation – a contested space with a rich legacy – into the future
When the public talk about the Newtown Cultural precinct, they often refer to it as the Market Theatre Precinct, even though the area is a home to other institutions, such as museums and dance institutions. And one should not fault the people, as the Market Theatre is an iconic space with a rich history that is recognised both locally and internationally due to its role in the struggle for freedom for South Africa.
The Market Theatre Foundation is the legal entity that runs the four business units under it, namely the Market Theatre, Windybrow Arts Centre, Market Photo Workshop and Market Theatre Laboratory.
Market Theatre Foundation appoints Lekgetho Makola as the new Chief Operations Officer
Greg Homann is committed to creating artistic programmes that speak to current issues
Now approaching its 50th anniversary, The Market Theatre Foundation is a space that in the height of apartheid was a pain to the apartheid rulers. It created a defiant theatre experience that during times of state censorship, was the newspaper of the day, offering an opportunity for audiences to probe their socio-political conditions.
Market Photo Workshop, a renowned photography school attracting students from the African continent and the rest of the world
One could tell that the community, those passing by on the main street where the gallery is situated and the neighbours, were all curious. This is because in this neighbourhood, it is unusual to see a bus load of strangers, especially an assortment of visitors, some with cameras strapped on their shoulders, some carrying note books and whipping out phones from their pockets to capture all the action. Certainly the crowds were no tourists, but locals.
The Market Theatre Laboratory, a school that gives access to young theatre makers to learn and experiment with new ideas
Head of the Market Theatre Laboratory, an institution within the Newtown cultural precinct otherwise known simply as The Lab, Cherae Halley,has a simple way of defining what the theatre learning institution is: “It is a space for young theatre makers to upskill and experiment through our three different programmes – through the two year full-time course, which is quite competitive and we can only take 20 students per year, through the Ramolao Makhene Theatre space
Transforming the lives of the youth within its surrounding community of Hillbrow
Right at the core of Hillbrow’s vibrant community, amid the all-pervasive poverty and inner-city degradation, stands the brightly restored Mock – Tudor style mansion, now home to the Market Theatre Foundation’s, Windybrow Arts Centre. When you speak to Gerard Bester, Head of the Centre, about the role it plays in the area, he becomes animated. This is because it is more than just a classic arts institution. Whether by default or design, it is vital to Hillbrow, it is the artistic heartbeat of this community, and its contemporary existence is inextricably tied to the fate of Hillbrow.
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