It is with huge delight, and with great gratitude to the National Arts Council, PESP, Woordfees and KKNK that this year Theatre Arts is able to not only announce two winners of the Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary for 2023, but also, for the first time, an opportunity for a runner-up.
This year, after a tough selection process, the winners are Amee Lekas and Andi Colombo. Amee will be taking up the bursary in late 2023, directing a production of Reza de Wet’s Diepe Grond. Andi will be directing a new work in early 2024. The winners were selected not only for their passion and perseverance within the industry, but because both are coming into directing from a history of working in theatre as writers, and in Andi’s case as a stage manager and lighting designer.
The runner up of the bursary is Sohail Booise, who was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for Best New Director for his production Hostel Lights which was one of the Zabalaza Festival’s winners. Whilst Amee and Andi are both offered the opportunity to bring a production of their own choice into being, Sohail, through the support of WoordFees and KKNK is offered the opportunity of participating in an established director’s rehearsal process.
About the winners
Amee Lekas (pictured right) is currently a Dramatic Arts teacher at Good Hope Seminary High School. She completed her BA Drama and PGCE at the University of Stellenbosch and is the only two time winner of Teksmark, a market place for new texts initiated by KKNK. Her award winning text Die Dans Van Die Watermeid was produced by the Baxter Theatre and directed by Jason Jacobs, a 2016 winner of the TA Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary.
Andi Colombo (pictured left) graduated in 2017 with an honours degree in Theatre Making from UCT. She is a writer, performer, theatre-maker, production- and stage-manager and lighting designer. Most recently she has been seen in i want to write you a submarine which she she wrote, directed and performed in last year, and Double Star which she wrote and directed.
In 2021, she wrote and co-directed the short film version of Verloren (Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award winner at the National Arts Festival), as well as co-creating the short film forgot/only, which was showcased at National Arts Festival, (un)Infecting the City and on DSTV as part of Woordfees.tv. Her latest work, i want to write you a submarine is showing at Woordfees 2023 on the main festival.
Amee and Andi join a legion of other notable winners including Amy Jephta, Nicola Elliott, Thando Doni and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana who all went on to win Standard Bank Young Artists awards for Theatre and Dance in 2020, 2014, 2021 and 2022 respectively, alongside other multiple awards; Kim Kerfoot and Carlo Daniels who both won the Fleur du Cap Best Young Director ten years apart – Kim for Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act in 2013 and Carlo for No Complaints, New Dawn, New Day in 2023; Khayelihle Dom Gumede who won the Naledi Award for Best Director in 2016 for Crepuscule, and Jason Jacobs, a 2016 winner, who was named the Featured Young Artist for KKNK for 2017.
What: Theatre Arts – Emerging Theatre Directors
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