Guy Willoughby
LAST week saw the official launch at the Civic Theatre of the Theatre Managements of South Africa (TMSA), set up after intensive negotiations to represent the interests of theatre management nationwide.
The body’s executive includes industry movers and shakers, and a management council brings in public- sector and independent producers, as well as regional representatives.
Des Lindberg, a prime mover in the old South African Association of Theatre Managers (SAATM), is chair of the new body. In an opening address at the Civic, he made it clear that the TMSA hopes to draw in all performing-arts managements — commercial, community-based or public-funded — in order to regulate contracts and insist on fair practices across the industry. The TMSA intends working closely with the Performing Arts Workers Equity (Pawe) on this thorny issue.
The appearance of the TMSA follows the demise of the white-dominated SAATM. It remains to be seen whether the TMSA, already top-heavy with familiar white faces, will live up to its aim of representing all those in the performing arts in South Africa — in township as well as suburb.