Cape Town - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra with Jazzart, Cape Town Opera Vocal Ensemble and Jodie Janties – including nine deaf children singing with Joelene – will be just a few of the artists participating in a thanksgiving concert hosted by Artscape next Sunday, November 28, at 6pm.
Before the start of the event, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Anroux Marais, Artscape Council chairperson Rajesh Jock, and Artscape CEO Marlene le Roux will present a plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of the building that houses Artscape.
The concert is in acknowledgement to its patrons, partners, sponsors, and stakeholders who continued to support the theatre during one of the most challenging periods for the arts industry, and throughout the past 50 years.
Le Roux said the concert is just to say “thank you” to all.
“The name of the concert encapsulated our feelings towards especially all our partners and friends. Equally at Artscape, we are grateful, and give gratitude to, all those who came before us and those who currently ensure our success.”
The concert is in collaboration with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and the Associated Arts Companies at Artscape.
The Artscape said that the Artscape Associated Arts Companies housed in the building, as well as those who are based externally, were pivotal to the success.
They were able to stage productions with the commencement of very limited patron numbers and in that way kept the theatre alive. They were not able to function without their patrons and with the lockdown regulations easing, patrons slowly trickled back to the theatre.
Woman Zone is one of the Artscape Associated Arts Companies. Nancy Richards from Woman Zone said their journey with the Artscape has been wonderful with mutual respect and understanding.
“One of the principles of Artscape is that they try to bring people together and be inclusive to invite everybody from all different shapes, sizes, colours and abilities and disabilities through the arts and the principle of Woman Zone is to bring women together of all backgrounds so we share our principles of uniting people,” said Richards.
The cultural institution is committed to making the Artscape and its employees available to theatre makers throughout this time so that they can recover.
To that end, they express their gratitude to the Western Cape provincial government, which assisted with the building maintenance; the National Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), which provided funds to run the complex; and the City of Cape Town, which supported local artists and the Western Cape provincial government’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) for providing funding.