In September 2001, I conceptualised a performance-poetry piece, for the Ydetag event at the SA National Gallery, Cape Town, for which I wrote lyrics and directed a group of singers. The work was delivered by four UCT opera students, and the piece was called Soulful ad jingles. The work was a rewrite of commercial ad jingles, presented in a busking style by the opera singers. The students were Magdalene Minnaar, Leon Schelhase, Genaro Perreira and Lwazi Maseti. Read the jingles here.

 

In 2002 at the annual Woordfees in Stellenbosch I read my translations of Lou Reed’s poetry in Afrikaans, with musical accompaniment on guitar by Shane Gibson.


A photo that appeared in Insig Magazine in May 2002 in an
upfront page on the Woordfees.
From left to right: Melt Myburgh, Elsibe Loubser, Tertius Kapp,
Jelleke Wierenga and Toast Coetzer.

 


In February 2009, I compiled a performance piece called Act 2, which was written in honour of my husband, which was delivered at our wedding ceremony. The piece was a mesh between a wedding speech with the usual gratitude for love and commitment and acknowledgement of family ties and heritage, juxtaposed with interruptive commentary on relationship highs and lows, and views on intimacy, partnership and the “extreme sport” of human creativity, cognition and the aspirations of the soul. The piece brought together my own writing as well as other well-known texts by the likes of Beatrix Potter, Margaret Atwood. Lyrics by Talking Heads were conveyed in opera style. And the performance included poetry by William Blake and Rumi, as well as visual displays of lyrics from opera music by Puccini. The work was conveyed by three actors who had trained at UCT, Micky Dean le Roux, Ephraaim Gordon and Lucet Scheepers. Cameo roles were taken by my bridesmaid Bianca Natasha Smith, Belinda Silbert, who sang opera, a violinist Antoinette Erasmus, with co-participation and direction by me. The props used in the piece were made by Peter Pitt and by a class of 12 second-year design students at CPUT under the tutorship of Chantelle Arpesella, who made 23 items to exemplify the bridegroom’s best character traits. The bride and groom’s outfits were kindly made by theatre wardrobe guru Dicky Longhurst.























Students from CPUT, Cape Town, who made 23 props for the
event (in one week!...little sleep was had).