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Magnetising book attracts award

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The Hiddingh-Currie Book Award for Academic Excellence 2017 has been bestowed upon book editors Professor Megan Lewis and Dr Anton Krueger for Magnet Theatre: Three decades of making space, which was published by Unisa Press and international co-publishers, Intellect.

The book met the Hiddingh Currie Award criteria, which are academic work of the highest quality that contributes to the understanding and development of the discipline, and the work addresses a specific need in society. Krueger received the award at the Research and Innovation awards ceremony on 2 March 2018.

Magnetising theatre-making

Cape Town’s Magnet Theatre has been a positive force in South African theatre for three decades, a crucial space for theatre, education, performance, and community throughout a turbulent period in South African history. Offering a dialogue between internal and external perspectives, as well as perspectives from performers, artists, and scholars, this book analyses Magnet’s many productions and presents a rich compendium of the work of one of the most vital physical theatre companies in Africa.

The theatre is known for extensive community work in South Africa: and has played a direct role in bringing about social healing among different racial groups and across political and sociocultures. These works were simultaneously theatrical and pedagogical, involving public performances as well as cultural interventions as part of outreach programmes, including educational workshops around the pressing issues of xenophobia and migration. The extensive use of workshop techniques by the Magnet Theatre means that a democratic process of shaping the drama and arts field of study.

Lewis is assistant professor of theatre history and dramaturgy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Krueger is associate professor in the Department of Drama at Rhodes University in South Africa.

*Submitted by Innocentia Swanepoel

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Publish date: 2018-03-13 00:00:00.0

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