Interview: Five on Friday with Dara Beth from JUST A SONG AND DANCE

It's tough for new graduates to make their mark in the South African industry, but Dara Beth - who describes herself first and foremost as an angry, Jewish feminist - hasn't been resting on the laurels of her Class Medal for Theatre-making from the University of Cape Town's Theatre and Performance programme or her nomination for Best Student Director for FIGS at the National Arts Festival last year. Together with Ameera Conrad and Kathleen Stephens, Beth has formed The Furies, a womxn-centric artistic co-operative), which will soon present the new works SO-CALLED and NASTY WOMXN. She has also linked up with Hungry Minds Productions, which will produce THE UNDINE, in which she will direct Lauren Blackwell and Estelle Terblanche. Currently, Beth is on stage at the Alexander Bar's cosy Upstairs Theatre with the cabaret JUST A SONG AND DANCE, in which she appears with her mother and fellow Plumsong performer, Sharyn Seidel. The cabaret heads into meta-theatrical territory, capturing a moment in the tale of a mother-daughter duo who are better friends than they should be.

David Fick: You perform JUST A SONG AND DANCE with your mom, with whom you formed Plumsong in 2011. There's got to be something special about that, but how difficult is it to switch from "family" mode to being co-performers - or is that all just part of it?

Dara Beth: My relationship with my mom has always been noted as unique; having immigrated between America and South Africa three times over, moving between houses and cities countless times, our relationship is more friends-like than mother-daughter. Forming Plumsong was like starting a band with my best friend. Admittedly, it was infuriating at the start to learn songs and be told: "You're not singing that well, it doesn't suit you" - but it was the best form of learning I could have had. I'm a difficult person, very argumentative, and my mom knows how to stand her ground so while it wasn't easy to switch modes between family and co-performers, it was definitely the most constructive partnership. Do we struggle to clock out or separate work from tea breaks and movies? 100% But I wouldn't trade it for any other process.

DF: The Alexander Bar's Upstairs Theatre is such a great venue for intimate pieces, but you're playing to a much bigger house when you transfer to the National Arts Festival. How much do you think the show will shift between spaces?

DB: I'm so grateful for the Alexander Bar's Upstairs Theatre. To be able to experiment with new work and test it for an audience is an absolute gift. And this really will be a test. The show is a first for us, having only ever performed as musicians, and the preview will be a means of gauging where we are sitting with the work and our audience, but it won't be the end of our working on the piece. I admit that in terms of shifting, I don't know what will happen to this piece. I can only hope that by testing the waters now, we'll be ready to perform bigger and better. And with regards to choreography, we might just be able to take eight steps instead of four.

DF: This is your first year out in the industry, and you've already associated yourself with two collectives, Hungry Minds and The Furies. How has working in co-operative groups like these helped you to find your footing as a professional theatre-maker?

DB: Hungry Minds has been a great environment to develop my theatre admin skills. We were officially registered as an NPC in October and really haven't stopped moving as a company since. We learn together, we fail together, and we fix together. The company has given me a sense of security and admittedly a legitimacy to make work that I wouldn't be supported to make elsewhere. The Furies are a completely different story. We still learn together, fail together and fix together - what we can - but we're a space for pure creation, and venting. The Furies are specifically a "for womxn, of womxn" collective which means our goals have a different urgency to them, and we have a much more focused target audience. We're currently developing a new project which will be staged as part of the Artscape's New Voices Programme in September. And almost immediately after we finish with that, we'll be staging a new work of mine at the Alex Bar. Both teams have kept me from falling into that post-graduate slump. Having people rely on you to produce means you simply produce and truly the most important thing about developing as a theatre-maker, I believe, is to just keep going, keep working, which both teams push me to do.

DF: What do you think the biggest challenge facing South African theatre is at present?

DB: Is there a singular challenge facing South African theatre that is more pressing than any other? We're struggling with the relevance of live performance, even if the content itself is relevant; convincing potential audience that coming to the theatre is as important as watching something off a screen is ridiculously hard.

Then again, we're also struggling with access: access to space as creators - where can we rehearse for more than 12 hours without exceeding our budget? And then, where can we stage our work? It was a very sad realisation that not all my work can fit into Alex Bar's theatre. Access to budget - how can we continue to produce material without funds? Irrespective of how long you've been in the business, unless you have a patron angel or a producer, staging work costs an arm and a leg and very rarely do we dream of a day where break-even is the worst outcome. In South Africa, we learn to do with the bare minimum which is a great lesson but not necessarily a great draw card.

Then, you've got old and tired voices which persist in the comfort of their theatres, never giving room to fresh thoughts. The majority of the population is never introduced to new material because marketing is another nightmare and commercial theatre is easy to sell. That being said, bursaries and programmes like New Voices (Artscape) and the Emerging Director's Bursary (Theatre Arts Admin Collective) are truly gems. But wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to compete with our fellow artists to produce work?

Oh, and where is our union?

I have a lot to say on the challenges facing South African theatre which is probably why I persist. Because I am utterly stubborn and have very high expectations.

DF: In South Africa at this time, we have a huge mix of theatre legends and inspiring new artists. Who is your South African theatre hero?

DB: This question is almost impossible to answer. There are so many different types of heroes and so many different triumphs that inspire me. And inspiration is just one aspect. I've decided I'm cheating because I can't pick one. In no particular order: Tankiso Mamabolo, because she's a powerhouse and she makes you believe that you don't have to wait half your career to make it as a full-time theatre creative. Louis Viljoen, because he makes what he wants, and that's that - and sometimes it's very easy to forget that we started at this because we had wants. Caroline Calburn and the team at Theatre Arts Admin Collective, who work tirelessly to make that space a point of access for artists at all stages of their career. On the same front, Edward van Kuik, Nicholas Spagnoletti and Jon Keevy for giving the theatre community the Alexander Bar and Theatre - everyone needs a theatre like this in their lives. Lastly, Tinarie Van Wyk Loots because I started out with community theatre as a child and lost my way, but when I saw her perform for the first time (my first time, not hers) I was reminded just how potent theatre can be.

JUST A SONG AND DANCE opened last night at the Alexander Upstairs and will complete its run there tomorrow. Tickets for the show, which starts at 12:00, cost R90 - R100 and are available from the Alexander Bar website, For telephone enquiries, call 021 300 1652. The Alexander Bar, Café and Theatre is situated at 76 Strand Street in the Cape Town city centre and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

The National Arts Festival run of JUST A SONG AND DANCE takes place from 3 - 6 July. Tickets cost R60 - R80 and can be booked through the National Arts Festival website.

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