How can a cardboard box transform into a mask or a character when worn by a performer? What kind of quality or tension can an inanimate object on stage bring to a performance? And how does this change once the object is activated by the performer?

From 26 to 28 July 2022, SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea hosted a mentorship with William Kentridge titled Performing the Object: Props, puppets & masks. Taking place at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, the mentorship saw 15 participants who work across the realms of visual art and performance, exploring the performative possibilities of the object on stage.

During this mentorship, participants investigated, among other things, the relationship between the object, what the actor can do with it and what the object demands. Over the course of three days, explorations into inadvertent masks, the anxious object, costume as character, predictable and inappropriate sound, the speed of an object and its plea for stillness, the miniature and the gigantic, the grammar of the object, and the object as heroine were all unpacked, tested and played with on stage.

While there was no expectation to produce or perform finished plays or ideas, a number of short-form, experimental performances emerged from the mentorship. Some of these ideas may develop and take on different shapes outside of The Centre, while others may remain once-off experiments on stage. All of them, though, serve the purpose of exploring and experimenting with the notion of performing the object.

CREDITS:

William Kentridge is the co-founder of The Centre for the Less Good Idea and is internationally acclaimed for his drawings, films, theatre and opera productions. Kentridge's method combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre, and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, yet maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty.

The participants of the Performing the Object: props, puppets & masks mentorship were Richard ‘Specs’ Ndimande, Natalie Paneng, Nthabiseng Malaka, Teresa Phuti Mojela, Qondiswa James, Yonela Makoba, Calvin Ratladi, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Nava Derakshani, Indalo Stofile, Daniel ‘Stompie’ Selibe, Masesi Hlatshwayo, Jeremy Nedd, Sboniso Thombeni & Gabriel Marchand.

Athena Mazarakis is the Momenteur for the SO Academy

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi