She is beautiful both on and off the stage. There is something about the way her eyes light up every time she laughs. She seems so natural, so calm – a woman in love with life – a woman in love with the stage.
Twenty-six-year-old Tammy Makubalo eases into her seat. Another performance has come to an end. I ask her how it’s been going. The budding young artist smiles and recalls her feelings on the night she made her debut appearance on the professional stage in Graham Dickason’s play Train Stops at Alicedale. She rocks back and forth; as, in her mind, she transports herself back to that night.
“I stood in the wings,” begins Makubalo, “and I kept saying to myself ‘I can do this, I can do this’. As soon as I got on stage it was such an exhilarating experience, and so overwhelming.”
She pauses for a minute and smiles again – she is always smiling.
“It was like I had come back home,” she continues, “back to my roots, where I belong – on the theatre stage.”
Makubalo was born in Queenstown and educated in Alice and Umtata. She then studied speech and drama at the Waterfront Theatre in Cape Town and has since made appearances in Madam & Eve and Schoop Schoombie. But her passion is the stage and, so far, the ride has been “incredible”.
“Sarah Jamusi, the character I play, is a nice challenge,” she says, “She is a woman totally removed from myself as a person. She is the baddy of the play, the evil villainess.
“It is the storyline that grabs people. It is what the country needs at the moment. – the issues we deal with are real and the characters are real.”
She stops smiling for the first time – but the passion is still there, you can see it in her eyes.
As early as she can remember she has been performing on the stage. Those church plays and school productions in the town of Alice have served her well. Now she stars in a play about Alicedale.
“That’s quite an interesting connection,” she says jokingly. “Alice and Alicedale. But also the Eastern Cape has never really been reported on – except for Grahamstown – and the play helps put the province on the map and lets people know that we are out there.
“The play recognises the injustices of our past,” she continues. “It looks at the past, lives in the present and looks forward to the future – a future of reconciliation. So far it has been interesting, absorbing and has given the audience lots to reflect on.”
She suddenly sits up straight, and that smile lights up her face again. She laughs out loud, claps her hands and says again and again, “I love it – I love it all. – ECN-Cue