The Isango Ensemble (isango meaning "gate" or "port" or "gateway" in Xhosa and Zulu) is a Cape Town-based theatre company led by director Mark Dornford-May and music directors Pauline Malefane and Mandisi Dyantyis. It was established in 2000, when Dornford-May and conductor Charles Hazlewood travelled to South Africa to form a lyric theatre company for the Spier Festival; most of the company members are drawn from the townships around Cape Town. The company's work focuses on re-imagining classics from the Western theatre canon, finding a new context for the stories within a South African or township setting and developing new productions based on South African issues, stories and novels.
The legacy of South Africa's past has led to enormous gulfs in the world of education and Isango Ensemble strive to bridge this divide. Due to Isango's position and location, they provide a training and educational facility for both staff and community alongside their production work. Isango's work with young people has brought a sense of belief, aspiration and knowledge into the townships. It has done this by enabling them to transcend the limits of their environment and yet remain proud of their culture and their heritage.The reality of life for many in South Africa is tough and for some of them a genuinely fragile existence. However, Isango never appeals to their audience as victims based on the performers’ backstories but as equals; proud of their work and the community they represent.
In 2001 two of the ensemble's first stage productions toured from Spier Festival in Cape Town to Wilton's Music Hall in London. From there The Mysteries - Yiimimangalisa transferred to West End and uCarmen was performed at many of the world's major arts festivals. Other stage work includes co-productions with the Young Vic of The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo, featuring Mozart's score transposed for an orchestra of marimbas, and A Christmas Carol – Ikrismas Kherol. These won several awards, including The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo winning an Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival and the Globes de Cristal for Best Opera Production following a sold-out season at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The Magic Flute – Impempe Yomlingo also played a season in the West End. In 2009 Isango played a second West End season of The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso. In the summer of 2012, La Boheme – Abanxaxhi, a unique partnership with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, played at Hackney Empire in London for five weeks. Also in 2012, the company created a new stage version of Shakespeare's Venus & Adonis in partnership with Shakespeare's Globe.
In 2013, the company returned to Shakespeare's Globe with Venus and Adonis and finished editing their new film Noye's Fludde.
2014 saw the company tour the US to universal critical acclaim with sold-out performances and produced another feature film Breathe - Umphefumlo, which had its premiere at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival and has a special gala screening in South Africa in March 2015, hosted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In 2016, Isango Ensemble adapted Jonny Steinberg's book A Man of Good Hope in co-production with the Young Vic, the Royal Opera, Répons Foundation, BAM and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. The show ran for two months at the Young Vic in London in Autumn 2016 and then played at BAM, New York City's most prestigious international house in February 2017, Hong Kong Arts Festival in February 2018 and in Europe in May/June 2018 at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen in Germany and Bergen International Festival in Norway. In 2019 the production toured Adelaide, Auckland, several cities in France and the United Kingdom at the Royal Opera House.
Isango also adapted Fred Khumalo's book Dancing the Death Drill about the sinking of the SS Mendi in 2019 and premiered SS Mendi – Dancing the Death Drill at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, in London in May 2019. 2019 also saw Isango present productions in Norway in June (St Matthew Passion) and Australia (St Matthew Passion and SS Mendi - Dancing the Death Drill) in early September. Isango then undertook a multi-city tour of the US for nine weeks between late September and mid-November, visiting cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York with productions of Aesop's Fables, A Man of Good Hope and The Magic Flute - Impempe Yomlingo.
Isango since it was formed has toured to Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Martinique, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Turkey, UK and the United States. Many countries and cities being visited several times.
Films created by Mark Dornford-May and the ensemble include u-Carmen eKhayelitsha, Son of Man, Unogumbe – Noye’s Fludde and Breathe – Umphefumlo. The films have met with popular and critical acclaim, playing at festivals including The Berlin International Film Festival, LA Pan African Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and others in Australia, the US, the UK, Europe and Africa. They have won the Golden Bear at The Berlin International Film Festival as well as several Best Feature Awards.
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor, theatre director and narrator. He has directed on stage and radio, and worked as an actor in theatre, film, television, and radio. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Leonard Bast in the Merchant Ivory film adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel Howards End (1992), and was later nominated for the Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of the title role in Rupert's Land (1998). In 2010, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jeffrey Skilling in Lucy Prebble's Enron. He has appeared as reciter with orchestras and performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 2002. He has narrated several documentary series, including five for the BBC about the Second World War.
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Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
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Noye's Fludde is a one-act opera by the British composer Benjamin Britten, intended primarily for amateur performers, particularly children. First performed on 18 June 1958 at that year's Aldeburgh Festival, it is based on the 15th-century Chester "mystery" or "miracle" play which recounts the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark. Britten specified that the opera should be staged in churches or large halls, not in a theatre.
Mary Zimmerman is an American theatre and opera director and playwright from Nebraska. She is an ensemble member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Manilow Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, and also serves as the Jaharis Family Foundation Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.
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Charles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood is a British conductor. After winning the European Broadcasting Union conducting competition in 1995 whilst still in his twenties, Hazlewood has had a career as an international conductor, music director of film and theatre, composer and a curator of music on British radio and television, Motivational Speaker and founder of Paraorchestra – the world's first integrated ensemble of disabled and non-disabled musicians. He was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in May 2019 and became Sky Arts' Ambassador for Music in January 2021. In 2023 Hazlewood was recognised for his 'outstanding contribution to the musical life of the UK' when awarded the Sir Charles Groves Prize by music charity Making Music.
The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), launched in 1973, is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city by presenting leading local and international artists in all genres of the performing arts as well as a diverse range of "PLUS" and educational events in February and March each year.
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Mark Anthony Dornford-May is a British theatre and film director, now based in South Africa.
The Magic Flute is a musical theatre work adapted from the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opera of the same title by Mark Dornford-May, with words and music by Mandisi Dyantyis, Mbali Kgosidintsi, Pauline Malefane and Nolufefe Mtshabe. Mozart's score is transposed for an orchestra of marimbas, drums and township percussion. The musical, set in contemporary South Africa, re-interprets the story from a South African perspective, telling of Prince Tamino's quest to rescue Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night, from the Priest of the Sun.
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The Fugard Theatre, also known as The Fugard, was opened in the District Six area of Cape Town, South Africa, in February 2010. The Fugard Theatre, as an artistic producing and receiving house, closed permanently in March 2021. After commissioning and underwriting the construction of the theatre in 2009 and 10 years of philanthropic support and producing involvement, the founding producer of the Fugard, Eric Abraham, returned the building that housed the Fugard Theatre complex to its freehold owner, the District Six Museum. The building was handed back with two fully equipped auditoria – the Main Theatre and The Sigrid Rausing Studio – in the hope that it will be able to be used for the financial benefit of the Museum and the memory of District Six and its community. The theatre reopened in 2022 as the District Six Homecoming Centre, a cultural venue for events and theatre productions.