Junkets Releases SA GAY PLAYS 2 Anthology

Junkets Publishers has announced a new title in their set of play anthology, "The Collected Series": SA GAY PLAYS 2: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PLAYS 1994 - 2013. Complied by Robin Malan, this anthology follows on the success of their first "Collected Series" compilation, SA GAY PLAYS 1 THE ARTSCAPE DUBLIN FESTIVAL PLAYS, which focused specifically on five plays that Artscape toured to the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival between 2006 and 2010, all of which achieved either nominations or awards.

This new anthology covers the broad span of plays written since 1994, when the South African Constitution changed things dramatically for gay people in South Africa by guaranteeing equal human rights to all and outlawing any form of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The following plays are included: Robert Colman's YOUR LOVING SIMON, a play which venerates the political and gay-rights activist Simon Nkoli, who was one of the Delmas Traillists, and whose influence was strong in having the new Constitution of 1996 outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation; IVIRGIN BOY by Peter Krummeck, in which a young Matric boy celebrates his good marks by 'borrowing' his mother's car for a 'night out' and ends up in a police holding cell for the night, with scary consequences; Amy Jephta's OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES, which asks us to consider how safe we are as homosexual people and how much we matter to people around us that we never really get to know; SPECIAL THANKS TO GUESTS FROM AFAR by Nicholas Spagnoletti, a play that introduces us to old pals Thabisa and Luke, who meet up at a friend's wedding in Germany, where with the brother of the groom proves to be a catalyst for the expression of some barely repressed emotions; and Pfarelo N's CHOMI, in which young black professional Jozi dudes interact within their own hermetically sealed gay world, questioning whether they have any good reason to question their situation - or themselves.

One of the more recent of plays in the anthology, SPECIAL THANKS TO GUESTS FROM AFAR, was reviewed on BroadwayWorld during its original production last year, and will return to the Artscape in Cape Town for a run in April 2013.

SA GAY PLAYS 2: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PLAYS 1994 - 2013 is the sixth anthology of plays in "The Collected Series", which has now proved its worth as a valuable library of new South African plays.

The publication date for the anthology is 20 March 2013 and copies will sell at a recommended retail price of R160. Copies can be ordered directly from Junkets by email (info.junkets@iafrica.com), with further information from the Junkets or Playscript Series websites.

Photo credit: Pat Bromilow-Downing

Born and bred in South Africa, David has loved theatre since the day he set foot on stage in his preschool nativity play. He graduated with a Master of Arts (Theatre and Performance) degree from the University of Cape Town in 2005, having previously graduated from the same university with a First Class Honours in Drama in 2002. An ardent essayist, David won the Keswick Prize for Lucidity for his paper "Homosexual Representation in the Broadway Musical: the development of homosexual identities and relationships from PATIENCE to RENT". Currently, he teaches Dramatic Arts at a high school in Cape Town and also freelances as a theatremaker and performer.

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