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Winston Ntshona
Winston Ntshona (6 October 1941 – 2 August 2018) was a South African playwright and actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975. Biography Born in Port Elizabeth, Zola Winston Ntshona worked alongside fellow South African Athol Fugard on several occasions, most notably in the 1980 film version of Fugard's play '' Marigolds in August'', and played a minor role in Richard Attenborough's acclaimed film ''Gandhi'' (1982) and a major role in the film ''A Dry White Season'' (1989). Career Ntshona attended Newell High School in Port Elizabeth, where he met long time collaborator and South African acting legend John Kani. Between 1963 and 1972 Ntshona worked as a laboratory assistant in a timber factory. In 1967 he joined the Serpent Players drama group alongside John Kani and Athol Fugard. Black members of the drama group all had day time jobs. Rehearsals and workshops would take place in the evenings or during weekends. Reputation of their work grew over time, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa's second-largest metropolitan district by area size. It is the sixth-most populous city in South Africa and is the cultural, economic and financial centre of the Eastern Cape. The city was founded as Port Elizabeth in 1820 by Sir Rufane Donkin, who was the governor of the Cape at the time. He named it after his late wife, Elizabeth, who had died in India. The Donkin memorial in the CBD of the city bears testament to this. Port Elizabeth was established by the government of the Cape Colony when 4,000 British colonists settled in Algoa Bay to strengthen the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa. It is nicknamed "The Friendly City" or "The Windy City". In 2019, the Eastern Cape Geographical Names Committee recommended ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black South Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transkei
Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Bantustan for the Xhosa people—and operated as a nominally independent parliamentary democracy. Its capital was Umtata (renamed Mthatha in 2004). Transkei represented a significant precedent and historic turning point in South Africa's policy of apartheid and "separate development"; it was the first of four territories to be declared independent of South Africa. Throughout its existence, it remained an internationally unrecognised, diplomatically isolated, politically unstable ''de facto'' one-party state, which at one point broke relations with South Africa, the only country that acknowledged it as a legal entity. In 1994, it was reintegrated into its larger neighbour and became part of the Eastern Cape province. History Establishment T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Island (play)
''The Island'' is a play written by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. The apartheid-era drama, inspired by a true story, is set in an unnamed prison clearly based on South Africa's notorious Robben Island prison, where Nelson Mandela was held for twenty-seven years. It focuses on two cellmates, one whose successful appeal means that his release draws near and one who must remain in prison for many years to come. They spend their days performing futile physical labor and nights rehearsing in their cell for a performance of Sophocles' ''Antigone'' in front of the other prisoners. One takes the part of Antigone, who defies the laws of the state to bury her brother, and the other takes the part of her uncle Creon, who sentences her to die for her crime of conscience. The play draws parallels between Antigone's situation and the situation of black political prisoners. Tensions arise as the performance approaches, especially when one of the prisoners learns that he has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. In 1956 it was acquired by and remains the home of the English Stage Company, which is known for its contributions to contemporary theatre and won the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities in 1999. History The first theatre The first theatre on Lower George Street, off Sloane Square, was the converted Nonconformist Ranelagh Chapel, opened as a theatre in 1870 under the name The New Chelsea Theatre. Marie Litton became its manager in 1871, hiring Walter Emden to remodel the interior, and it was renamed the Court Theatre. Several of W. S. Gilbert's early plays were staged here, including ''Randall's Thumb'', ''Creatures of Impulse'' (with music by Alberto Randegger), ''Great Expectations'' (adapted from the Dickens novel), and ''On Gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Full Frontal (play)
''Full Frontal'' is a one-man, one-act play by English writer Michael Hastings. It premièred at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in 1979 with Winston Ntshona performing and Rufus Collins directing, and was revised by the author for a production at Ovalhouse in 2001. Plot The play is a monologue by Gabriel Nkoke - a man born in Nigeria but raised almost all his life in England, "the new type of man. I'm neither here. Nor neither there" - delivered to an unseen representative of the National Front, which Gabriel is at first seen trying to join because he agrees with their racialist Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies can be more e ... agenda. Critical reception The play was received favourably by critics and described as " Swiftian".Alan Strachan"Michael Hastings: Writer best known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Hastings (playwright)
Michael Gerald Hastings (2 September 1938 – 19 November 2011) was a British playwright, screenwriter, and occasional novelist and poet. He is best known for his 1984 stage play and 1994 screenplay ''Tom & Viv'', about the poet T.S. Eliot and his wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood. Biography Hastings was born in London, UK. His early plays – ''Don't Destroy Me'' (1956), ''Yes And After'' (1957) – reflected the influence of the Angry Young Men movement and his brief involvement with the circle surrounding Colin Wilson. Hastings later enjoyed mainstream West End success with ''Gloo Joo'' (1978), a farce about a West Indian threatened with deportation from the United Kingdom, which won the ''Evening Standard'' Comedy of the Year Award in 1979. He wrote numerous stage plays, television screen plays, and in addition to the ''Tom & Viv'' film, scripts for two motion pictures, '' The American'' (1998) and ''The Nightcomers'' (1971, based on the Henry James novella ''The Turn of the Scr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarzan And The Lost City (film)
''Tarzan and the Lost City'' is a 1998 American adventure film directed by Carl Schenkel, and starring Casper Van Dien and Jane March with Steven Waddington. The screenplay by Bayard Johnson and J. Anderson Black is loosely based on the Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film received largely negative reviews and was a box office bomb. One of the film's producers, Stanley S. Canter, had previously produced another Tarzan film for Warner Bros., '' Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes'' (1984). Plot Synopsis In 1913, on the night before Jane Porter's wedding to John Clayton II (also known as Tarzan, who is something of a celebrity) her bridegroom receives a disturbing vision of his childhood homeland in peril; The educated explorer and treasure seeker Nigel Ravens is seeking the legendary city of Opar, to plunder its ancient treasures and uncover dangerous powers. Much to Jane's distress and confusion, Clayton leaves for Africa to help, meeting up with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Air Up There
''The Air Up There'' is a 1994 American sports comedy film directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Kevin Bacon and Charles Gitonga Maina with Yolanda Vazquez as Sister Susan. Plot Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball assistant coach who wants to find a new star for his team since he believes this will get him a promotion to head coach at the school. He sees a home video of a prospect named Saleh and travels to Kenya to recruit him. Upon arriving in this country, Dolan finds himself confronted not only with the challenges of basketball but also with the challenges of adjusting to and learning how to live in the midst of a brand-new culture. Though Dolan is initially opposed by Saleh's father who is also the leader of the village, he later agrees to let his son play. Dolan and Saleh both teach each other life lessons before they take the court for one final game with everything on the line. One of the most dramatic scenes in the film involves the instruction of Saleh by Dolan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Power Of One (film)
''The Power of One'' is a 1992 drama film loosely based on Bryce Courtenay's 1989 novel of the same title. Set in South Africa during World War II, the film centers on the life of Peter Philip Kenneth Keith, an British diaspora in Africa, English South African boy raised under apartheid, and his conflicted relationships with a German pianist, a Coloureds, Coloured boxing coach and an Afrikaner romantic interest. Directed and edited by John G. Avildsen, the film stars Stephen Dorff, John Gielgud, Morgan Freeman, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Daniel Craig in his feature film debut. Plot Born in 1930 to a recently widowed Englishwoman on a homestead in South Africa, little Peter Philip Kennith Keith (nicknamed 'PK') is schooled in the ways of England by his mother and the ways of Africa by a Zulu people, Zulu nanny, whose son Tonderai is also his best friend. However, their peaceful life is soon shattered when the farm's cattle are claimed by ''rinderpest''. PK's mother succumbs to a nerv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashanti (1979 Film)
''Ashanti'' (also called ''Ashanti, Land of No Mercy'') is a 1979 action adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, Kabir Bedi, Beverly Johnson, Omar Sharif, Rex Harrison, and William Holden. It is based on the 1974 novel ''Ébano'' by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa, with a screenplay written by Stephen Geller and an uncredited George MacDonald Fraser. The story is set against the background of modern-day slave trading, with a man who determinedly takes on a perilous journey in order to find his beautiful wife, who has been kidnapped by brutal slave traders. Despite its impressive cast and setting (on location in the Sahara, and in Kenya, Israel, and Sicily), ''Ashanti'' was widely panned by critics upon release. Michael Caine was reportedly very disappointed with the project and claims it was the third worst film along with his previous films '' The Magus'' and '' The Swarm'' (despite appearing in other failures in the 1980s). It wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dogs Of War (film)
''The Dogs of War'' is a 1980 American war film based upon the 1974 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth. Largely filmed in Belize, it was directed by John Irvin and starred Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger. In it a small mercenary unit of soldiers is privately hired to depose the president of a fictional African country modeled after Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Equatorial Guinea and Angola (as they were in the late 1970s), so that a British tycoon can gain access to a platinum deposit. The title is based on a phrase from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar: "Cry, 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." Plot Having escaped from Central America with his comrades Drew, Derek, Michel, Terry and Richard, mercenary Jamie Shannon gets an offer from Endean, a British businessman working for a major tycoon. Endean's company is interested in "certain resources" in the small African nation of Zangaro, which is run by the brutal dictator, President Kimba. Shannon goe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
