Credo – a ground-breaking multimedia oratorio based on the unifying values embodied in South Africa’s Freedom Charter, a musical reflection on the social vision enshrined in that historic document, premieres at UNISA’s ZK Matthews Great Hall in a double-celebration of Mandela’s 95th birthday on 18 July 2013, and UNISA’s 140th anniversary.
In planning the recognition of this milestone, UNISA’s anniversary celebrations not only consider and reflect on the institution’s rich history, but also look forward, as the university maps its own future, while also shaping many futures. As the landscapes in which we live change, UNISA acknowledges not only its pioneering spirit as a national treasure and its African roots, but also its global intent and commitment to intellectual development. Story-telling and music make up a large part of the tapestry of our collective histories; and this production provides an opportunity to use creative means to chart a way through our futures.
“In partnering with Pina Ya Thari on CREDO, in commemoration of UNISA’s 140 years, we celebrate the cultural, historical and social impact of the Freedom Charter in South Africa’s struggle for liberation; and the important role that this plays in shaping not only our past, but our many futures,” says UNISA’s Prof Mandla Makhanya.
The creative team behind Credo is award-winning South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen, novelist Brent Meersman, and multimedia artist Andrew Black. Together they have created a multi-media, Mandela Day-inspired 67-minute production that explores the determined triumph of the human spirit over adversity through a soaring fusion of African lyricism and symphonic tradition.
The composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen has written a wide range of music encompassing symphonic work, opera, chamber music and vocal music. According to The New York Times his “delicately made music – airy, spacious, terribly complex but never convoluted – has a lot to teach the Western wizards of metric modulation and layered rhythms about grace and balance.” He has received commissions from festivals and organisations around the world, and his music has been performed across a number of continents. He is the composer of Winnie, The Opera, based on the life of Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, which premiered to great acclaim in April 2011 at the State Theatre in Pretoria. On this opera, Die Beeld wrote “Ndo dana-Breen is a composer of stature. This is confirmed by the outstanding portraiture of Winnie.”
Ndodana-Breen was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music in 1998 and selected as one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans of 2011. According to Canada’s The Globe and Mail “He seems to be just as interested in giving pleasure as in opening people’s minds… which makes him doubly a novelty on the Toronto New Music scene” (Globe and Mail, Nov 2001).
“Singing in Credo promises to be a special experience. Learning the music has been both a challenge and a pleasure. Generally, learning new music always stretches one. Learning modern music stretches one even further. It has been fun applying one’s mind to it. I look forward to sharing it with all who will be there,” says Sibongile Khumalo, who will lead the cast; joined by Otto Maidi and Monika Wassung, and accompanied by the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonas Alber.
Brent Meersman is a South African writer based in Cape Town. His first short story was published by the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) in 1993. Credo is based on a poem from the collection Ophila and the Poet and other poems (Junket Press, 2010). “In that poem I tried to distil in the simplest and clearest human terms, in words as uncluttered as possible, what sits at the heart of the Freedom Charter… to get at the people’s imagination, at what created the vision we still have because of that document… Freed from a certain amount of noise that comes with the language of the charter itself, it reminds us of our common purpose, in poetic terms, of us not only as South Africans, but as part of the human enterprise,” explains Meersman.
Meersman has been a weekly contributor to the Mail & Guardian since 2003, writing on the arts, design, food, travel, and literature. He is an editorial board member of the International Association of Theatre Critics (recognised by UNESCO), and co-chair of the Cape Town Press Club. His novels include Primary Coloured (Human & Rousseau, 2007), Reports Before Daybreak (Umuzi Random House, 2011), and his latest novel Five Lives At Noon was published July 2013.
Andrew Black has been a creative entrepreneur since 1996; focussing on creating and deconstructing multimedia mediums and pushing the boundaries of technology to attain a sense of how stories and messages need to be portrayed. He started his first solo company in 2002 as Background Technologies, and hasn’t looked back since. His work includes projects as diverse as designing the inaugural Cape Town and Durban fashion weeks; to making the Voortrekker monument disappear, producing and making the Kyalami castle crumble down (with video projection illusion); and projecting an entire dune in the Namib desert 75 meters wide and 50m high.
CREDO is produced by Brenda Sisane and Shadrack Bokaba.
Credo will have three performances during its world premiere run on July 18, 19 and 21, 2013 at the ZK Matthews Hall in Pretoria, marking the 140th year of the founding of UNISA. Tickets cost R60 to R200 and are available from Computicket. For more info see www.credo-freedomcharter.com
Alongside the performances, this production includes a series of public dialogues and educational programmes intended to promote citizenship and foster national unity, raise awareness of the Freedom Charter and our nation’s historic commitment to non-racialism, highlight the importance of culture and the arts in our national reconciliation; and project a positive national and international image of our country.
There will be a public dialogue held on 20 July at Freedom Park at 18h00, considering the Freedom Charter as a Cultural Text. Writer Brent Meersman will chair the panel, with panellists: poet laureate Keorapetse William Kgositsile, composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen, musicologist Ncebakazi Mnukwana, and arts journalist Gwen Ansell. Attendance is free. For more information and/or to book for the Dialogue, contact gilly@thefamousidea.co.za orfiona@thefamousidea.co.za.
URL: http://credo-freedomcharter.com/
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Author: Fiona Gordon from The Famous Idea Trading Co.. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za.
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Opening Night of CREDO at UNISA on Mandela Day (7) Photographer: pic by Johnathan Andrews
Opening Night of CREDO at UNISA on Mandela Day (6) Photographer: pic by Johnathan Andrews
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