Firstly, Warona Seane has been appointed as artistic manager at the Soweto Theatre.

Seane is an accomplished director and actor in film, television and theatre. In 2002 she won the Fleur du Cap Award for the Best Performance in Theatre/Revue/Music For Colored/Girls who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, directed by Lara Bye. She was also nominated for two Naledi Awards: in 2006 Best Actress for Nongogo and 2008 Best Supporting Actress for The Lion and the Jewel. She also starred in several TV series on SABC: 90 Plein Street, Zabalaza and The Borrowers.

Seane is as comfortable on stage as she is behind the scenes. As a director she is best known for her amazing production of Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed and Antonio David Lyons’ We Are Here. Seane most recently directed The Mountaintop, a production that was crowned with the Olivier Award in 2010 for best new play on the London stage. It was also staged on Broadway.

Seane, who resides in Soweto, and has a passion for developing emerging theatre talent as well as story-telling, is very excited about her new role. She hopes that it will contribute towards building the arts, focus on social cohesion, job creation and continue to include previously disadvantaged groups. She says “I do what I do for the love of stories and the many mediums with which they can be told. I do what I do because the modes with which stories are told shift and are diverse, yet powerful in the assistance of our understanding of our interpretations and perspectives on life. It is important to aid the development of new work and provide space for the constant evolution of expression in order to keep theatre alive in our country.”

The second appointment is that of Bridget Mashika as chief operating officer. This formed an important part of implementing the merger of the three city owned theatres: Joburg City Theatres (JCT).

Mashika was appointed on 1 July, a position which entails administration and co-ordination of the internal operational activities in accordance with the company’s policies, goals and objectives. In this new role she leads and directs the following functions and/or business units of the theatres: commercial operations such as catering, hospitality and ticketing; human resources; customer services; buildings and security; governance and compliance; Soweto Theatre and Roodepoort Theatre.

Mashika is a BCompt graduate with experience in compliance, governance, finance, risk management and auditing gained from the private and public sector. She joined Joburg Theatre (then known as The Johannesburg Civic Theatre) in August 2007 as Supply Chain and Asset manager, a support management position and within six months of being with the theatre was promoted to the position of deputy finance manager.

She is passionate and shares the company’s vision of supporting and encouraging a vibrant, economically inclusive and multi-cultural arts and culture activities focused on youth development and her successes and growth within the company testifies this. “I am very excited about my new challenge and look forward to working with the new CEO of JCT Xoliswa Nduneni-Ngema, the Board and the entire JCT family.”