The courses will be on Saturdays as they shall travel from Johannesburg. The first will be a general course covering: voice, movement, speech, breathing, physical theatre, use of space, acting, theatre etiquette, a small portion to directing. The second course will only be for playwrights and directors. Both courses will be run by highly qualified professional theatre actors, directors, teachers sourced by Patroness Dorothy Anne Gould, who is renowned locally and abroad, her husband Michael Maxwell – a Naledi Award winner and very highly qualified in these fields as well as the technical side of theatre- lighting, sound and so on, and any professional assistants they bring with.

In order to run a festival, to be known as The Sancta NW Province One-Act festival (sponsored by The Arts and Culture Trust - ACT ), Sancta are inviting playwrights to send in a minimum 10 page typed script – listing the characters together with a synopsis of the rest of the play so that the professionals can read the play and see “if it is possible for the production to reach the stage”. Once they have chosen the plays, the second course will only be for these plays, who must perform it at the second workshop as far as they can and they will be each given a two hour session with the mentors to assist them with ideas on how to take the play to finality for the festival.

This 10 page start script must be sent to Sancta no later than Wednesday, 22 January to Noel McDonald - either by fax to 086 673 3193 or email preferably to [email protected]. The scripts will then be read and a decision made on the six plays for the festival. There will be no entry fee as the project is being sponsored by ACT, but the groups will have to join Sancta at a cost of R100 per group and transfer the funds to their bank account: Sancta, Std Bank Rivonia acc 022999124 code 001255 and send their deposit slip with their scripts. No late entries will be accepted.

Sancta will also have a two day technical rehearsal in the theatre run by the festival co-ordinator and the plays will each have a two hour technical rehearsal on the Monday and Tuesday. The festival will be Wednesday to Friday, and on the Friday night, the best three plays will be chosen to re-perform on the Saturday night at the final gala award evening. The plays will be adjudicated every night by highly qualified adjudicators with a verbal adjudication at the end of the evening the plays were seen. Written critiques will be provided later. After the plays have been seen on ginal night, the nominees for 24 awards will be announced at interval, after which there will be an award ceremony - with certificates, cups, medals and photos and the three winning plays will be announced in order of merit.

For more information, phone Noel McDonald on 083 309 4315 or Phestus Keoagile Motshabi on 076 090 0380. Alternatively, email [email protected].