Courtyard Theatre: 8, 9, 13 & 16 October
Drama Backstage in Action festival transforms the Courtyard Theatre at DUT into an active teaching, production and performance environment in which DUT Higher Certificate students work alongside experienced theatre practitioners in a series of productions from 8 to 16 October 2026.
The 2026 programme brings professional performance and education together through Michael Taylor-Broderick’s The King of Broken Things, performed by Cara Roberts; Flatfoot Dance Company’s History is a Home Address; Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson’s Dubious Gurus and an interdisciplinary Wellness Activation involving Performing Arts Technology, Drama and Sports Studies students.
“Rather than encountering production processes only in the classroom, students participate in the practical realities of making theatre happen – planning, scheduling, installation, stage management, lighting, sound, technical rehearsals, performance operations, backstage communication and venue logistics. At the centre of the project is a simple principle: students learn theatre technology by doing theatre technology,” explains DUT’s Clare Craighead, curator of the project.
DUT Drama Backstage in Action is Durban University of Technology’s Higher Certificate in Performing Arts Technology / Industry Festival Interface, bringing emerging theatre technicians, backstage workers and production practitioners into direct engagement with professional artists, productions and industry processes.
Three established productions are being staged as teaching aids, with a focus separately on theatre, dance and music – first up is The King of Broken Things, written by Michael Taylor-Broderick and performed by Cara Roberts, which is an adventurous and magical journey into the world of a young boy whose experiments, projects and creations reveal the possibilities hidden within things that have been broken and discarded. (Thursday, 8 October 2026 at 16:30)
Flatfoot Dance Company brings its powerful and moving dance-theatre work, History is a Home Address on Friday, 9 October at 16:00. Originally created as part of Flatfoot’s 2026 schools touring programme, History Is a Home Address brings poetry, history and embodied learning together in an intimate choreo-poem inspired by the writings of renowned South African poet, cultural activist and public intellectual Dr Mongane Wally Serote.
Loosely inspired by the title of one of Serote’s more recent poetry collections, History Is a Home Address has been created collaboratively by choreographer Lliane Loots and the six dancers of Flatfoot Dance Company – Jabu Siphika, Sifiso Khumalo, Zinhle Nzama, Siseko Duba, Sbonga Ndlovu and Ndumiso Dube – the work draws on Serote’s iconic early anti-apartheid poetry alongside his later writing.
Dubuious Gurus features wordsmith Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson with Logan Byrne on upright bass (Landscape Prayers; Beat Route), Daniel Sheldon on horn and percussion (Beat Route), and Anton Cawthorn-Blazeby on violin (Landscape Prayers). Together they find a shared groove in a distinctive fusion of spoken-word, jazz and hip hop. Expect the unexpected which takes to the stage on Friday, 16 October 2026 at 15:30.
A familiar and influential presence on the eThekwini arts scene, Iain ‘Ewok’ Robinson has built a career at the intersection of artistic practice and social justice. With Dubious Gurus, Ewok returns to some of his earliest lyrical and musical roots, bringing spoken word into conversation with the improvisatory energy and textures of jazz.
For students there is a Wellness Activation on Tuesday 12 October 2026 at 14:00 looking at health, movement, play and environmental consciousness. DUT Sports Studies students have designed a series of games and physical activities that they will showcase and test with DUT students.
Backstage in Action places student learning inside collaborative, time-sensitive and problem-solving environments, while maintaining an educational framework in which process, reflection, experimentation and mentorship remain central. In 2026, that principle also expands beyond the theatre through cross-programme and cross-faculty collaboration, public engagement, wellness and environmentally conscious making.
All performances are at the Courtyard Theatre / DUT Ritson Campus at DUT. Tickets are at the door prior to each performance. For more info: clarec1@dut.ac.za (weekdays, during office hours).
