The Naledi Theatre Awards has announced that their annual theatre nominations and awards ceremony will be held during third quarter of 2021 in Johannesburg.
Spokesman Chris Smith told Gauteng News dates will be revealed soon depending on Covid-19 levels. He said they are hoping for a live event, but may also have to go online likelast year’s awards.
“Our 2021 awards ceremony will go ahead as usual and will provisionally cover a period from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2021. Covid-19 has affected our industry and challenged us in many ways. It made people in arts to re-invent themselves and their craft. Many theatre practitioners have looked forinnovative ways of continuing with their work and performing during this strange and difficult time”, he said.
Smith said they have lost founder and guiding light of Naledi Theatre awards Dawn Lindberg in December 2020, due to Covid-19 related complications. He said awards will continue both in Lindberg’s honour and as the premier theatre awards that acknowledge excellence in performing arts nationally.
“Passing of visionary Lindberg has left a huge gap in South African theatre arena. Dawn was not only a consummate performer, director and producer in her own right but also a founder and CEO of prestigious Naledi Theatre Awards. In recent years, Lindberg strengthened capacity of Naledi Board, identified her successor and created a Management Committee. The committee worked alongside her and will gradually takeover administrative functions of the awards”, said Smith.
He said a board meeting was held on the 27 January 2021,where Lihan Pretorius was elected as a new CEO of the awards.
“Lihan is a lawyer by profession, a performer, director and producer. For the past couple of years he has been an assistant creative director of the awards ceremony”, said Smith.
Artists interested in submitting their work for consideration can visit the Naledi Facebook page or website: http://www.naleditheatreawards.org.za
