Vuka Actor in August

AUGUST'S FACILITATORS

Cultivating Joy as a Radical Act of Resistance

Andrew Buckland

After tripping and falling into theatre as a student in 1974, Andrew has been active both as a theatre maker and as an actor performing in a range of theatre, film and television roles in both classical and contemporary genres. Highlights include three Fringe First Awards from the Edinburgh Festival, and the role of Sgt Pepper in the Las Vegas production of LOVE The Beatles for the prestigious Cirque du Soleil in 2008/2009. During his 49 year career he has also developed a reputation for creating an extraordinary range of cutting edge original work including The Ugly Noo Noo, Between The Teeth, Bloodstream, Feedback, The Well Being. These plays, together with his performances in Monday after the Miracle, Fuse, Breed, Crazy in Love, Tobacco, The Inconvenience of Wings, Endgame and Firefly, have garnered a significant list of national and international awards including the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1986. 

Between 1992 and 2017 he played a key role in the Drama Department of the University Currently Known as Rhodes when he retired and was named Associate Professor Emeritus.  

Andrew continues to engage strongly in the creation of new works and is also a member of the creative team which devised a new work with the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus Company in Cambodia for the Global Arts Corps. 

His on screen work includes leading roles in the telenovella Legacy for Tshedza Films, Catching Feelings by Kagiso Lediga and he has also received international acclaim for his role as Gerald in the feature film The Fragile King directed by Tristan Holmes which is now released through Amazon Prime.

His recent performance work includes leading roles in Hold Still by Nadia Davids for the Baxter Theatre, Oedipus at Colonus for Magnet Theatre, The Life and Times of Michael K for the Handspring Puppet Company and the Baxter Theatre, directed by Lara Foot which has toured internationally, Firefly devised in 2021 and directed by Sylvaine Strike, for Fortune Cookie Theatre, Unruly directed by Neil Coppen for Empatheatre, The Fool’s Guide …to living and dying… commissioned by the KKNK and directed by Janet Buckland. This production nominated for 3 Kanna Awards, and winner of Best Performance by a lead actor (male).

Iman Isaacs

The Business of Being an Actor

Khanya Ngcuka

Khanya Ngcuka is a theatre director, performer, writer, facilitator and teacher from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. She obtained her training at Rhodes University in Makhanda, where her research focus was on socio economic injustices in relation to alcoholism within the township context. She is interested in how social problems and realities, can be  transformed on stage in non-didactic manner. In her work, Khanya sees theatre as a tool for social justice and change. 

Awards Khanya has won include, three Standard Bank Ovation awards in the silver and bronze and blue categories at the National Arts Festival.  And the Rhodes University top 100 Leadership award in Arts, Sports and Society. She has additionally done work with Magnet Theatre, Nelson Mandela Bay Theatre and Theatre Arts.

Jefferson Tshabalala -  Artist. Entrepenuer. Teacher

Jefferson Bobs Tshabalala is a multiple award winning South African creative who works as an Artist, Entrepreneur and Teacher. He is a published author, with three titles to his name: Khongolose Khommanding Khommisars, Ekasi Lam’: An Ode to Kwaito Un-Owed to Kwaito, and Poet.O.Type

He was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist of the year Award for Theatre (2020), the Arts and Culture Trust ImpACT Award (2020), and has garnered numerous other accolades for a multitude of his creative endeavours. In 2023, he appeared as the leading star of the Netflix film - Big Nunus Little Heist (for which he earned a nomination for Best Male Lead at the NAFTA Awards 2024), and in the same year, he received the Naledi Theatre Award for Best New South African script for his sketch come play Khongolose Khommanding Khomissars. 

In his capacity as an educator, he has held lecturer/guest lecturer posts at The University of the Witwatersrand, University of Stellenbosch, University of Cape Town, The Market Theatre Laboratory, AFDA JHB, and the University of Johannesburg. 

Tshabalala has been Head Writer for the South African Music Awards (SAMAs) - for four years, has directed and starred in the South African Comics Choice Awards - for three years, and has Hosted/Curated content for the South African Hip Hop Awards - for four years.  He was also the writer and director of the 2025 iPendoring Awards, where he also previously appeared as writer performer for two years. 

He is the founder of Ub’Dope Shishini (Pty) Ltd, a business divided into two units – “Ub’Dope Designs” and “Seen Pha”. Ub’Dope Designs is the creative wing (Live. Screen. Music. Literature. Boardgames). Seen Pha is the clothing wing (Fashion. Lifestyle. Culture).

At Ub’Dope Shishini, Tshabalala drives the goal to produce the finest in African Creative Art, serve it proudly to Africans, then export its genius generously to the world stage.

Caroline Calburn

Caroline Calburn initiated Theatre Arts (as it is now known) in 2009 after a long history in theatre in which she has been a performer, theatre director, educator and facilitator in both universities and communities, working at a local, national and international level. Theatre Arts, as it is now known, its ethos and its programmes, is a culmination of this experience.