A Cape Town theatre platform is crowdfunding to take 13 shows to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, which begins on 25 June, despite recent budget cuts.
Sophie Joans founded Spark in the Dark in 2021 as a pop-up platform for emerging actors after smaller venues closed during the pandemic. The group previously raised R106,000 to stage 14 shows at the 2024 National Arts Festival and ran an Afrikaans version called Vonk Prop at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival earlier this year.
For this year’s event the organisers need R150,000 to cover transport, accommodation and venue costs for 23 people over 11 days. As of 14 June the Thunderfund campaign had reached only 20 percent of the target.
The programme includes Joans’s one-woman show NETPHLIX, Andrew Buckland’s The Ugly Noo Noo and A Fool’s Guide to Living and Dying, plus late-night variety shows. The National Arts Festival has faced a R5.5-million budget cut this year.