Survival

Keenan Tyler Oliphant (he/him) is a Theatremaker and Director from South Africa. Keenan’s work is in the lineage of the communal theatre-making and storytelling traditions of South Africa. As a Theatremaker Keenan recalls his traditional Southern African storytelling lineage by simultaneously exchanging with histories and futures to create spaces of healing, investigation, mourning and celebration through performance. Selected directing credits include Heather Christian’s TERCE: A Practical Breviary, Will You Come With Me? (PlayCo May 2022), Jeesun Choi’s To the Ends of the Earth (JACK), Jay Stull’s The Singularity Play (Havard TDM; Alliance Theatre Reading) Sam Grabiner’s People on Earth (Columbia University), Vivian Barnes’ Intro To (Ensemble Stage Theatre), Live from Mount Olympus Podcast (The Team), Kyk Hoe Skyn Die Son [Look at How the Sun Shines] (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks) and Self-Combustion of a 30 Something Year Old... (New Ohio Producers Club). Keenan has developed work with Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, The Vineyard Theatre and more. Keenan is an alumnus of the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow (2020-2021), the Drama League Directing Fellowship (2021-2022) and Columbia University MFA in Directing for Theatre program.

Joanna Ruth Evans (they/them) is a South African theater artist and performance scholar working in New York and Cape Town. They are a PhD candidate in performance studies at New York University, where they research the intersections of improvisational performance practices and environmental relation across Southern Africa and the Southern United States. Joanna's creative practice is organized around collaboration and open-ended inquiry, and their plays have toured throughout South Africa, as well as to international festivals in Italy, Germany, Iran, Hungary, Réunion and the United States. Their scholarship has been published in TDR: The Drama Review; Women&Performance: a journal of feminist theory; Performance Research; and, Ecumencia. Joanna holds a BA in Theater and Performance from the University of Cape Town, and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.

David Glover (he/him) is a Barrymore Award winning actor, poet, playwright and director from Philadelphia. He is drawn to telling needed stories that challenge comfort and press at the potent roots of trauma and healing. Select theater credits include: The Wanderer (Chain Theatre), My Favorite Person (Istanbul Fringe), The Fever (National Tour), In the Penal Colony (NYTW). The revival of The Escape; Or, A leap for freedom (the first published play by an African American.) American premiere; The View (Lenfest Center) & The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (Inis Nua). World premiere; The Brother Sister Plays trilogy (Temple University). His artistic body of work centers identity, history, and home with a focus on the complexities of Black life, love and liberation. His debut book of poetry Beneath My Body Armor (2023) is available wherever you buy books.

Fana Kekana (he/him) was born in Alexandra Township, Gauteng before immigrating to the United States in 1977. He was a member of Workshop 71 Experimental Theatre and Gibson Kente Productions and participated in the devising of Survival and Small Boy. He began in South Africa, performing in I Believe and Too Late. In the US, he performed in Riverdance and Asinamali on Broadway. Off-Broadway and Tour credits include: Poppie Nongena (Obie for Ensemble), Woza Albert (HBC tour), Jika, Mahlomola, Buwa (Harari, Zimbabwe). He's also done work in the music business, including vernacular translation and background vocals on Stevie Wonder's album, In Square Circle, on the track "It's Wrong (Apartheid)." Additionally, he was co-anchor on Global Vision's South Africa Now, a news and entertainment program which aired on PBS in the late 80s to early 90s. He would like to thank Joanna for bringing new life to this piece, as well as National Black Theatre and PlayCo for facilitating this event!

Namisa Mdlalose (she/her) is a Fleur Du Cap award-winning actor who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. Namisa now lives in Boston, MA, USA. As a performer, she has been directed under Gerry McIntyre (The Full Monty), Sharrifa Ali in the workshopped play Hero, Jonathan Munby (King Kong), Janice Honeyman (The Color Purple), Janice Honeyman and Timothy Le Roux (Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs Pantomime) and Matthew Wild (Kinky Boots). She recently starred in her first film directed under Charl-Johan Lingenfelder for A Christmas Chorus. As a theatremaker, she wrote, performed and collaborated with theatre maker and director Qondiswa James in the stage play Cwaka. This was staged and performed at the Theatre Arts Admin in 2020. Namisa has also gone on to collaborate with Director Shelley Lothian to write and star in their own experimental film Girl. The project walked away with an Ovation Award from the 2020 National Arts Festival. Namisa graduated from University of Cape Town with a degree in theatre-making.

Seth Sibanda (he/him) was born in Alexandra Township, South Africa. In 1971 he co-founded the Experimental Workshop '71 where he co-authored and performed in Crossroads, Smallboy and Survival which later toured the US. He also played a lead in Gibson Kente's musical How Long. His other credits include Broadway: The Song of Jacob Zulu, West End: Poppie Nongena, Off-Broadway: Survival, Poppie Nongena, Halala, Amiri Baraka's Tarzan and the boys, and Brightness Falling. Regional: ACT-San Francisco: Dark Sun, Center Stage- Baltimore: (understudy) My Children My Africa. New Mexico Rep, Edison Theatre -St. Louis and Princeton Rep: Bloodknot. Northlight Theatre, Berkeley Rep and Act in Seattle: Born in the R.S.A.  Steppenwolf: The Song of Jacob Zulu. Whole Theatre: Boesman and Lena. Mass Rep: Master Harold and the boys. Festivals: Berkshire, Edinburgh and Perth Festival. TV and Films: Law & Order,  C. A. T. Squad and Gold.

Vuyo Sotashe (he/him) is a young South African jazz vocalist gradually making his mark in the New York jazz scene. Sotashe moved to the NYC in 2013 after being awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to pursue Master of Music (Spring 2015) at William Paterson University. Since then, he has gone to win first prize at the very first Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Vocal Competition in 2014, and performed on the festival's main stage in February of 2015. More recently, he won the Audience prize award and placed second overall at the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in 2015, held at the annual Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Sotashe is also the winner of the biggest music scholarship competition in South Africa, the South African Music Rights Foundation Scholarship, where he performed for the former South African President Thabo Mbeki. Vuyo Sotashe is currently performing around New York City with the praised drummer Winard Harper, who has performed with the likes of Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, and many other legends in jazz.

Sarah Samonte (she, her) is a Filipina American Theater and Event Production human. Born in NYC, raised in the desert of Arizona, based in Brooklyn. Recent credits: O.K. (PSM, WP Theater), Fouad of Nazareth (SM, Noor Theatre), Terce (ASM, Here Arts), Healing Shipment (PSM, La Mama), Thurgood Marshall Legacy and Legends Gala (ASM, Eventique), Society (SM, Williamstown) while being a resident Stage Manager experimenting at the Mercury Store.

Mark Smith (he/him) born 1956, befriended James Bertholf (aka Jim Brightwolf) in 1975 while at Orange Coast College. Jim’s mentorship encouraged Mark’s appreciation for theater and travel while discovering and working with positive deviants throughout the world. Mark’s design and artistic skills coupled with his passion in humanities’s potential came alive when traveling to Japan at 14 years old. In Osaka he explored Expo ’70 alluding to man’s creative capabilities. Next stop was Hiroshima, ground zero… bearing witness to the undeniable destructive force we are prone to be reckoned with. He now resides in a geodesic dome in Oregon still pondering our potential.