Pitt's Kuntu Repertory Theatre Presents Sarafina!

PITTSBURGH-"Sarafina!"-the musical depicting students involved in the 1976

anti-apartheid riots of Soweto, South Africa-will be performed by the University of Pittsburgh's Kuntu Repertory Theatre from Jan. 25 to Feb. 10 in the Seventh-Floor Auditorium of Alumni Hall, 4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays. Matinees are scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 3 and 11 a.m. Feb 8. Guest director is Olusegun Ojewuyi, assistant professor of theater at Southern Illinois University.

To set the mood on campus, "Sarafina!" actors, singers, and musicians will perform from noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 10 and Jan. 17 in the lobby of the Litchfield Towers, 3955 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

The play is told from the point of view of the student activist Sarafina, who attends Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto. She feels shame at her mother's acceptance of her role as a domestic servant in a White household and encourages her peers to rise up in protest.

Kuntu has recruited talented actors, singers, dancers, and musicians from Pitt's African Students Organization, and, as a result, a number of cast members hail from South Africa, the Congos, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and Swaziland. Live South African music will enhance the audience's experience.

"Sarafina!" was written by Mbongeni Ngema, a South African musician, choreographer, and director who began his career as a theater guitarist. His first work, "Woza Albert!" a South African treatment of the New Testament, toured the world in the 1980s. His play "Asinamali" depicted the rent strikes in Black townships near Durban, and Sarafina! written in 1984, became an international success. The Broadway production was nominated for five Tony awards and the original cast recording was nominated for a Grammy Award. Sarafina! won 11 NAACP Image Awards and was adapted into the 1992 movie starring Leleti Khumalo and Whoopi Goldberg.

Ojewuyi has a directing career that spans 20 years and includes projects throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa. His directing credits include "King Lear", "Waiting for Godot", and "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men", among others. He assisted director Marion McClinton at the Pittsburgh Public Theater's 1999 world premiere of August Wilson's "King Hedley II."

This Kuntu season is being presented in partnership with Pitt's Center for Minority Health, part of the Graduate School of Public Health. _

For ticket and group sales information, call 412-624-7298 or visit www.kuntu.org.

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