Cohort: Non current staff
Margie Pankhurst (Administrator) graduated from UCT with a Performer’s Diploma in 1983. She worked as an actress both in Cape Town and Johnannesburg, also as an Actor’s Agent and she owned her own Casting Director’s business for nine years. Margie worked for Artscape between 2005 and 2009, when she joined Magnet Theatre.
Thando Doni (Training Assistant), multi-talented theatre-maker, learned his craft at the Media and Arts Access Centre (AMAC) and with Magnet Theatre. He has performed extensively with Magnet Theatre, including with The Grave, Trojan Horse Story, Looking Inside (commissioned by the Human Rights Media Centre), national tours of Inxeba lomphilisi and Ingcwaba lendoda lise cankwe ndlela; in Nicola Elliott’s Proximity, Loss and Having; and at the Bushfire Festival in Swaziland. Doni has also worked with the Actors Voice Theatre Company, Masibambisane Youth Theatre Organisation, Emlanjeni Theatre Productions, and the Manyanani Entertainers. The Capetonian is a resident actor at Bonfire Theatre Company. Nominated as Best Director at the Baxter’s Zabalaza Theatre Festival in 2011, Doni won Best Director in 2011 for Mhla Salamana and GIPCA director’s bursary winner in 2012. Most recently he has directed the play Passage and is a training facilitator in the Magnet Theatre Training and Job creation program.
Zwelakhe Khuse (Culture Gangs Fieldworker) from Khayelitsha graduated from University of Cape Town Drama School in 2009. His career in drama started while in high school as a member of the Iselwa Lisizwe Theatre group. He was introduced to Magnet theatre through the Community Groups Intervention (CGI) workshops facilitated by Mandla Mbotwe. In the CGI he performed in the plays “The Tears of our Ancestors” and “3 Rats” (2007 and 2008) and Isivuno Samaphupho. At UCT he acted in the Shakespeare play “Love Labours Lost”, (Studio, 2011) and directed an untitled movement piece. He has also worked as director in the Magnet Theatre Educational and Job Creation program directing the plays Forgotten Citizens in 2012 and Waiting in 2013. Zwelakhe has worked for Magnet Theatre from 2012 till now as the facilitator in the community groups in a project Culture Gangs.
Anelisa Dlaku (Intern) is 23 years old and lives in Delft South. She was a member of the Rainbow Arts Organisation, and a Magnet Theatre trainee in 2012/13. She had a baby in 2012 and started to split her training between office duties and performance skills classes. She is now doing a Management Assistant short course at the College of Cape Town.
Asiphe Lili (EPWP Intern) is 22 years old, from Khayelitsha. She studied drama and design in Chris Hani Arts School and matriculated in 2010. She became an intern in Sweetor clothing in 2011. Her interest in drama started in high school where she was a member of Iqhude theatre productions. She became part of the Magnet Theatre training programme in 2012 and had performed in productions such as running with goldfish and gift wrapping the sea, Tree/Boom/Umthi and Heart of Redness. She graduated in 2013 the same year she became a member of UKAO Theatre Company under the leadership of Bulelani Mabutyana. For UKAO she performed in Blood Stain and Secret Flames. Asiphe is now an EPWP intern in Magnet Theatre focusing on stage design, stage light, facilitation and stage managing.
Luvo Tamba (Early Years Company) is a professional performance artist who was trained at Magnet Theatre from 2008-2010 and has since performed in a multitude of productions that have travelled within South Africa and Europe. Some of his earliest works include his debut at the Infecting the City Festival in Mandla Mbothwe’s ‘Ingcwaba lendoda lise cankwe ndlela’, and performances at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and Baxter Theatre Centre in ‘Inxeba Lomphilisi’ directed by Mandla Mbothwe and Faniswa Yisa. In 2011 he joined the Isango Ensemble and performed in an adaptation of Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ which toured to Italy, Germany, Russia and the Shakespeare Festival in London. His first encounter with theatre for young audiences was in the Isango Ensemble’s ‘Aesop’s Fables’ (performed at the Hackney Empire Theatre in London) which inspired his interest to create further work in this genre.
Siphenathi Mayekiso (EPWP Intern) grew up in Philippi, Cape Town. He matriculated in 2009 from Athlone School for the Blind and two years later he joined the Magnet Theatre training programme. After graduating in 2013 he joined the Garage Dance Company in Okiep for intense workshops under the tutelage of Alfred Hinkel. As a freelancer he did some puppetry work for UNIMA South Africa, facilitated workshops for the Magnet Theatre Culture Gangs Project, stage managed various productions and performed in a short film, Nommer 27,that scooped two awards in the Kyknet Silver Screen by Gambit Films. He has performed in theatre works such as Dark Cell (2015) by Themba Mbuli and s Marat/Sade (2017) by Jaco Bouwer.
Sivuyile Dunjwa (EPWP Intern) hails from Khayelithsa and has been involved in drama from a young age. He won the Best Actor awards in 2007 and 2008 at the Artscape High School Drama Festival. He graduated from New Africa Theatre Academy in 2010 and Magnet Theatre in 2013. He has acted in Iphi Izombi directed by Robin Denault, Eleven forty-one directed by Clare Stopford, Thabo Mbeki and Other Nightmares directed by Tshepo Wamamatu and Blood Stain directed by Bulelani Mabutyana. As a trainee in the Magnet Theatre Fulltime Training and Job Creation programme he performed in running with goldfish and gift wrapping the sea, Heart Of Redness directed by Mark Fleishman and Tree/Boom/Umthi directed by Jennie Reznek.
Koleka Putuma (Early Years Company) is a Performance Poet, Facilitator and Theatre Practitioner who graduated with a BA in Theatre & Performance at UCT. Her work has travelled to Scotland, New York and around South Africa. She has been featured on BBC Radio 4, BBC focus on Africa, Badilisha Poetry X-Change and TedX Cape Town Women. In 2014 she was nominated and voted to represent the Western Cape at the Slam For Your Life competition at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, where she was crowned South Africa’s First National Slam Champion. During her time at UCT she directed An Endless Echo (2013), For God’s Sake (2014), an adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Miracle’, Mbuzeni (2014) and UHM (2014) which was awarded Best Student Writing at the NAF Student Festival in Grahamstown and showcased at the Artscape Theatre in December 2014. She has been nominated for the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Directors at the 2015 Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards. She has headlined at SliPnet’s Inzync Poetry Sessions, Word N Sound Poetry and Live Music Series and at Off The Wall. She is a resident poet of the collective Lingua Franca and Co-Founder of newly formed theatre companies Velvet Spine and The Papercut Collective
Jason Jacobs (Early Years Company) is a graduate theatre maker from UCT who has produced a range of work that contributed to his success, which includes stage management for Aja Marneweck’s ‘Plot 99: The 21st Century Prophecy Show’(2011) and Sandra Temmingh’s ‘Mirakel’(2013). He also performed alongside Sjaka September in ‘Ouma’ at both Out the Box Festival and KKNK in 2013. He was co-designer for ‘Uhm’ and also portrayed the role of Sol Plaatje. ‘Uhm’ received best writing at the National Arts School Festival and was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for best new director. His recent production was an Afrikaans physical theatre piece titled ‘Kalahari Swan’ inspired by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Jacobs wrote, directed and performed in this production. Jacobs is very passionate about community development in the West Coast and Northern Cape. He recently founded KleiSand, a youth theatre arts movement based in Cape Town, with the hopes of reaching out to these communities.