Defending the South African

JCS for Easter

I have always loved going to the theater and being lucky enough to have lived for 50+ years under the lights of the Great White Way in NYC, I went a lot! As an adult, I'd say an average of once a month. Every birthday, holiday and anniversary always included a night at the theater as part of the festivities. (I saw Jesus Christ Superstar twice on Broadway. Once in high school - we studied the libretto in religion class! And once for Easter in 2012.)

As often as not, I would go to see the original cast early in their opening season. (And if there was an understudy performing that night, I would promptly turn my tickets in to exchange them for another night's performance when the star was in the house. No charge.)  I am a total unadulterated, unapologetic, full-on, remorseless theater snob. You gotta problem with that?

Going to the theater had been one of my parents' favorite forms of entertainment too and they took me to my first Off-Broadway show. "Try to remember the kind of September..." And following their example, I most likely turned our sons into theater snobs at a very early age when we took them to see their first real professional musical - Jonathon Pryce as Fagin in a West End production of Oliver in London. More please! Sean Connery and Ann-Margaret (not together) were even in the audience.

(I am a ballet snob and an Italian food snob too. That is what happens when you grow up with the best! Non est mea culpa!)

@ The Abbey Theatre in Dublin

My theater snobbery even transferred across the pond. Whenever I was in London, I would spend an inordinate amount of time in the West End and at Shakespeare's Globe indulging my London theater fix. Ditto for Irish theater in Dublin.

Since moving to South Africa though, I have followed a simple theater snob rule. No Broadway or West End revivals for me here. Only home-grown and original African theater. Like Zulu and Athol Fugard plays.

Mama Mia? Pass. Jersey Boys? You gotta be kidding. Rocky Horror Picture Show? I'm cool. Saw it in New York and London!




I recently made an exception to my unwritten rule with the one-man show Defending the Caveman. I saw the original in New York with the original caveman of course, Rob Becker. But recently I met Cathy Plewman whose husband Tim bought the book from Rob Becker and brought it to South African audiences years ago. Although penned by Rob Becker, Plewman adapted the script for Southern Africa and went on to win the Vita Award for Best Actor in a comedy. I think that makes it worthy of an exception to my rule.

Over a long, successful career, Plewman, of course, has been around the theater for forty years – reaching all the way back to works like Chorus Line, in its original London Production. After a five year hiatus on performing Caveman, Plewman stepped back onto the stage at Emperor's Palace for this past weekend only to add to his 1544 sold-out performances of the longest-running and most successful solo comedy in South African theater history. This humorous play about the hunter and gatherer in all of us has played to over one million people and many hundreds of sold-out shows.

Tim's version was very different from the Becker production Vince and I saw many years ago. Tim even began the evening by defining some of the local slang he would be using in his monologue. Thank goodness or we would have been totally lost! Every once in a while there would be a glimmer of the original Becker book, but Tim had done such a thorough job of South African-izing Defending the Caveman, it was like seeing it for the first time.

We went with another couple, Lila and Nigel. She is American-born and he is South African-born. Judging by the laughter coming from both of them, it appeared that Tim had managed to cross the cultural divide quite seamlessly. Bravo caveman!

Nelson Mandela Tribute Quilts

Genesis quilt I pieced from squares illustrated by my CCD class

I used to be a big quilter. I took a quilting class after my first son was born in order to learn how to make baby quilts for each of their cribs. I made one with bears on it for Alex's crib whose nursery had a teddy bears' picnic theme and a Peter Rabbit crib quilt for Nick to match his Beatrix Potter nursery theme.

I really liked the fact that I could express myself artistically and craft something extremely personal for the receiver ... and also have it be of practical use and possibly a future heirloom. I painstakingly cut and hand-pieced and quilted dozens and dozens of quilts, pillows and wall hangings during that time. No machine! But it was truly a labor of love.

I went on to make two quilt bedspreads for the bedroom my sons shared at our summer beach house made up of squares with cranberry red Sailing Ships on navy blue wavy oceans and alternating sand-colored squares with quilted anchors. The quilts were each embroidered with the sentiment "Sons are the anchor of a mother's life."

For our bedroom at the beach house, I made a lap quilt with an Ocean Wave pattern in periwinkle blue and all white squares with quilted shells. I made more quilts for myself, my nephew and nieces, friends and my children's school teachers and I even organized a quilting bee with friends and relatives to make a Baby Blocks quilt to present to my sister for her daughter's baby shower.

The fabric I used was very important to me and probably started me off on my obsession with pattern and material. I made four throw pillows using the actual material from the Laura Ashley bridesmaids dresses my sister and I wore for my brother's wedding and the bridesmaid dress my sister wore in my wedding. I even used the white pique Laura Ashley material from my wedding dress as the backing! I added the names and dates of our weddings and the passage we all used in our readings from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. I  gave one each to my sister, my brother and my parents as presents for their wedding anniversaries.

One of my prized possessions is the friendship quilt I made with five friends from my Mother's Group, the moms in the first playgroup for my son Alex. We each made six squares with a pattern that represented the maker and we exchanged them with each other. In the end, each of us came away with a friendship quilt of our own with six different squares representing the uniqueness of the moms in our Mother's Group.

And of course I have already blogged about the making of my tee shirt memory quilt.

So when my friend Cathy posted a notice on Facebook about the International Quilt Convention coming to Emperor's Palace, I had to check out the website to see what it was all about. Along with the usual quilting workshops and competitions, I read the convention was showcasing an exhibition of quilts in honor of Nelson Mandela.

Lead From The Back (USA), Barbara Ann McCraw

Called "Conscience of the Human Spirit:The Life of Nelson Mandela," the exhibition would be displaying 80 tribute quilts made by artists from South Africa and the USA. The project's curator Dr. Marsha MacDowell and her husband, Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Professors at Michigan State University and Directors of the Michigan State University Museum quilt collection and online Quilt Index, would be there to give a talk on the display and to sell their accompanying exhibition catalog which was hot off the press. Okay, I'm in.

The international exhibit was organized to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s election as South Africa’s president, and it was the first - and possibly the only - time all 80 quilts (50 made by American quilters and 30 by South African quilters) would be together in one room on display. After the convention, the American quilts will tour the US and the South African quilts will tour this country. There is a hope they will all reunite in a museum someday such as the one at Michigan State, but there are no firm plans as of yet.

Dr. MacDowell described the history of American quilting and in particular its place as a voice for social justice and change. She spoke about the difficulty many women artists faced in being accepted as serious visual artists by society in the past. 

Like pottery and basket weaving, quilting began as a practical woman's craft and slowly and silently began to evolve as an expression of the maker's vision, values, passions, and ideals. Most quilters were traditionally women. But once places like the American Museum of Folk Art in New York began to recognize quilting as an art, the practicality of it took a back seat to the creativity and expression it allowed. Quilts were now made by artists, men included.

Dr. MacDowell recognized particular quilts for their political and social justice statements. Like the anti-slavery and women's vote-themed quilts made in the USA in the 19th and early 20th centuries. She even spoke of the alternative philosophy of an early 20th century KKK-themed quilt currently in a private collection in rural Michigan signed by all the then members of the local clan!

In South Africa there is also a rich history of quilting. It's methods of construction were brought to the continent by the early English, Dutch and German settlers. The native people began to use this practical medium as an expression of their yearning for freedom. 

It was one quilt in particular that attracted Dr. MacDowell's attention, the so-called "subversive bedspread" of Winnie Mandela. When the bedspread was confiscated by the government upon Winnie's arrest, Helen Suzman, an early white anti-apartheid advocate (and the first female MP in South African history), had a copy of the quilt made in the US and oversaw its signing by 30 US Congressman before presenting it to Winnie Mandela in a show of one of the first acts of American support for the struggle. Imagine a quilt having that kind of power of persuasion!

Another example was the Women's Prison Quilt made by South African Barbara Hogan while she served seven years for treason in the Women's Prison in Pretoria. She persuaded her jailers to give her material and sewing implements to help her pass the time while in prison and she used contemporary newspaper and correspondence as patterns for her paper pieced quilt which serves as an ad hoc chronicle of history. She even had an envelope of paper pieces she had not assembled yet because she was caught off guard when they suddenly released her from prison in 1990. The quilt is now part of the collection at the Michigan State Museum.

Dr. MacDowell then took us on a tour of the exhibit and gave us further insight into some of the quilts on display and the quilters. One of my favorite quotes by Dr. MacDowell was her statement that "women are not afraid to use their sewing needles to prick the social consciousness." Brilliant!

 

Hester Viles and Catalyst for Change

One of the South African quilt makers was there and she spoke about her entry as well as one she coordinated with the Intuthuko Embroidery Group, 23 informally trained artists who have a booth at the Finders Keepers Market in Rosebank on Sundays. I will have to check them out!

Trials, Tribulations, and Temporary Lodgings of Nelson Mandela (USA), Valerie Pratt Poitier

Education (SA), Enid Viljoen

Who will Carry On? (USA), Leni Levenson Wiener,

Sunshine and Shadow (SA), Celia de Villiers and Talking Beads

 

I have a feeling my quilting career is not quite as over as I previously thought. I will probably make at least one more quilt using remnants of all the fabulous material and fabrics I have acquired while living here in South Africa. Another personal memory quilt.

For more information about the quilts in the exhibition and the world of quilting, check out Michigan State University's Quilt Index, a freely accessible virtual repository of images and stories of quilts and quiltmakers from distributed public and private collections around the world, including many from South Africa.

This Time for Freshly Ground

Vince (and probably the rest of the free world) first heard Freshly Ground when they performed Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) along with Shakira at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Soweto. He's been a fan of the band ever since.

We saw them play this weekend at the Emperor's Palace.

Fabulous!