South African Performance Artist and Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys Comes To The LA Stage 10/2-19

South African performance artist and satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys (pronounced Ace) is coming to Los Angeles October 2-19, 2009 for a short-term residency at the Art | Global Health Center at UCLA in the Department of World Arts and Cultures. While here he will perform his award-winning, one-man show Elections & Erections at Glorya Kaufman Hall (UCLA), REDCAT (the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's Renberg Theater.

The wily Cape Town satirist tracks a personal journey through a landscape of fear and fun in the latest edition of his uproarious one-man assault on political folly, Elections & Erections . Gleefully cheering democracy and sex--both illicit for most of his life--Uys hilariously portrays a procession of political figures and opinion-shakers: the Obamas and the Clintons, a Tutu here and a Mandela there, old apartheid Nationalists, reinvented capitalist Communists, designer Democrats, International Fat Cats and other bloody fools. And then there is Uys' signature character, the fictitious Evita Bezuidenhout, "the most famous white woman in Africa" and the head of her own political party, Evita's People's Party.

Uys has been practicing satirical activist theater since the 1960s appearing in 20 plays and more than 30 revues and solo shows, all while making a name for himself as one of the most outspoken critics of apartheid. Since the end of the apartheid era, he has turned his attention to the democratic process and the politics of HIV/AIDS, recognizing it as the highly politicized issue it is. He is a recipient of South Africa's prestigious Truth and Reconciliation Award, among other honors. Alter ego Evita, for her part, has garnered the Living Legacy Award from the Women's International Center for her "contribution to the place of women in the last century."

The Boston Globe says, "Uys' skills as a performer and mimic are remarkable," and The Guardian (U.K.) calls Elections & Erections "infectious comedy, biting political satire." Former South African president Nelson Mandela has called Uys "a national treasure," and Desmond Tutu proclaimed, "I'm glad Pieter-Dirk is on my side."

The remainder of his residency will be spent instructing a workshop class in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures. Uys will work with students to create a performing ensemble that uses monologue, puppetry and dramatic skits to address the U.S. Government's response to HIV/AIDS.

Performances of Elections & Erections will take place at the following dates and locations:

October 3-4 | 7:00pm
Glorya Kaufman Hall,UCLA
120 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Admission: $15 general | $8 students
For tickets call 310-825-2101 or visit www.tickets.ucla.edu
Venue Contact: RoBert Gordon | robert.gordon@arts.ucla.edu | 310.794.9208 (do not publish)

October 9 | 8:30pm
REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Admission: $20 general | $16 students
For tickets call 213-237-2800 or visit www.redcat.org
Venue Contact: Diana Wyenn | dwyenn@calarts.edu | 213.237.2873 (do not publish)

October 10 | 8:00pm & October 11 | 7:00pm
The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's Renberg Theater
1125 N. McCadden Place
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Tickets: $20 general
For tickets call 323-860-7300 or visit www.lagaycenter.org/boxoffice
Venue Contact: Jon Imparato | jimparato@lagaycenter.org | 323.860.7324 (do not publish)

ABOUT PIETER-DIRK UYS
Pieter-Dirk Uys was born in Cape Town in 1945 and has been in the theatre since the mid-1960s. He has written and performed 20 plays and more than 30 revues and one-man shows throughout South Africa and abroad. His plays Paradise is Closing Down, Panorama, God's Forgotten, Faces in the Wall and Just like Home have been performed internationally; and his solo shows Adapt or Dye, One Man One Volt, You ANC Nothing Yet, Truth Omissions, Live from Boerassic Park, Dekaffirnated, and Foreign Aids have been presented in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Holland, USA, and Canada. His performance of Foreign Aids at La Mama in New York received the Obie Award in 2004.

Pieter-Dirk Uys was awarded South Africa's prestigious Truth and Reconciliation Award in 2001, as well as honorary degrees from Rhodes University (D.Litt.Hon. 1997), the University of Cape Town (D.Litt.Hon. 2003), the University of the Western Cape (D.Edu.Hon. 2003) and the University of the Witwatersrand (D.Litt.Hon. 2004). Pieter-Dirk Uys's celebrated alter-ego, Evita Bezuidenhout (pronounced beh-ZAY-den-hote), proudly received the Living Legacy 2000 Award in San Diego, USA.

Since 2002 Uys has been travelling around South Africa, visiting more than 1.5 million school children, as well as prisons and reformatories, with a free AIDS-awareness entertainment called For Facts Sake! He has also released a corporate AIDS-information video, Having Sex with Pieter-Dirk Uys, as well as the family-friendly video, Survival Aids. His most recent success is Evita for President, which he has performed in London, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and toured to the USA as Elections & Erections in 2008. Evita Bezuidenhout launched her own political party, Evita's People's Party, to assist with voter education in South Africa's 2009 general election. Uys also directed his new play, Macbeki, at the Market Theatre during this period.

Pieter-Dirk Uys lives in the town of Darling and has converted the old railway station into a cabaret venue called Evita se Perron, famous for its satirical garden called Boerassic Park It is the domain of Evita Bezuidenhout, the "most famous white woman in South Africa." The museum/nauseum of Apartheid artifacts there, reflecting the madness of the past, is arguably the only satirical exhibition of South Africa's recent past.

More information can be found at: www.pdu.co.za | www.evita.co.za | www.epp.org.za

 

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