Public intellectualism activated in the practices of post-apartheid South African theatre artists

Abstract

This study explored the linkages between public intellectualism and post-apartheid South African theatre. Focusing on four theatre artists, this research sought to discover a grounded theory about how these artists practice public intellectualism. This inquiry was premised on two primary sources (Wolfen and van Graan) who lamented the state of contemporary theatre practice in South Africa, where the former claimed in 2014 that theatre in South Africa was dead, while van Graan, in various writings lamented the nature of nostalgic practices in the theatre sector. Noticing a difference in the four selected artists, this study has revealed how selected Black theatre artists (including van Graan) have conceptualised their practices to be inclusive of traditional forms of theatre and art-making, while also working towards the betterment of their society, invoking the principles of public intellectualism, artivism and decoloniality. The analysis of selected interviews involving these artists led to the construction of a grounded theory of decolonial praxis that reveals how these theatre artists have taken action to primarily address the needs of the publics they represent. The nature of the grounded theory is such that it offers active theoretical tenets that theatre makers can engage, explore, and expand in their own research and in their practices. These theoretical tenets included critical reflexive sectoral participation, decolonial reimagining of creative practices, decolonial artivism, and awareness of socio-political context and positionality. Future research can look to exploring other theoretical undercurrents present in the contemporary South African theatre sector. This study focused on the public outputs of the sample towards arriving at this grounded theory and the realisation of duplicability of the methodology and the overall research approach. The limitation imposed by exploring the practices of four Black theatre artists effectively means that this grounded theory cannot speak for the experiences of all theatre artists in South Africa. Considerably, this grounded theory offers prospective and practising theatre artists a means to explore strategies, models, frameworks, and theories for activating their agency as theatre artists and as public intellectuals.