Methodist Church Hall • Cnr Milton Road and Wesley Street • Observatory • 7925 • Cape Town

The Yvonne Banning Reading Room

Applications for the 2023 programme are now closed.

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The Reading Room

The Reading Room is a new project of Theatre Arts for established and emerging writers, directors, actors and theatre-makers as well as students of theatre. It is a programme designed to offer a vibrant space where artists of varying experience can huddle together over a cup of tea, both over zoom and in the theatre for robust discussion, engagement and the exploration of play texts, old and new, much like an old-fashioned Book Club. The Reading Room aims to inspire Writers to write and Directors to direct. And to develop a dynamic and contemporary collection of plays for the use of the Cape Town theatre community.

The Reading Room is putting out a call for six Curators. The Reading Room will host a playreading on a late Sunday afternoon every second month of 2023, and applicants are invited to pitch a theme with a list of playtexts that will form the basis of the staged readings and the conversation. Curators are encouraged to consider a director that they would like to work with for the staged readings. Curators can use playwrights, nations, themes, history, ideas and concepts (for example) to group texts to provoke engagement and conversation. For inspiration, the Yvonne Banning Reading Room will be open on Saturday 29th of October from 9-2pm for browsing and inspiration.

Each selected curator will be given a budget of R5000 to curate the evening.

Profit will go towards the purchasing of new texts for the Yvonne Banning Reading Room.

Questions can be addressed to Caroline at caroline@theatrearts.co.za

Proposals to be emailed to caroline@theatrearts.co.za by Friday 11th November 2022.

Ensure your proposal includes:

  • Which play texts you would like as part of the curation
  • Which director you would like to work with
  • What the themes | conversation points are that you would like to facilitate conversation with audience / participants
  • How you would like to structure the evening
  • Budget breakdown
  • Which month(s) you would like for you reading (January, March, May, July, September and November)
  • And lastly, for dreaming purposes, three play texts you would like to see in the Yvonne Banning Reading Room.