Wikipedia

Amy Jephta

Amy Jephta is a South African playwright, screenwriter, theatre director, and teacher.

Amy Jephta
BornCape Town, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of Cape Town
Notable worksKristalvlakte, Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story, All Who Pass
Notable awardsMail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans
Destiny magazine's "Power of 40" list
Eugène Marais Prize
Website
amyjephta.com

Early life and education

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Amy Jephta is from Mitchells Plain in Cape Town.[1]

She has a BA in theatre and performance (2009) and an MA in theatre and performance (2013) from the University of Cape Town (UCT).[2]

Career

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Creative career

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Jephta is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director.[3] Her work has been published in South Africa, and performed internationally.

As a new graduate, Jephta won the inaugural Emerging Theatre Director's Bursary, established and run by the Theatre Arts Admin Collective (TAAC) in partnership with the Baxter Theatre Centre and Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA). This enabled her to produce and direct her original work, Kitchen. She had presented a shorter version of the play during her final year at drama school, but it was extended to an hour and ran from 18 to 22 May 2010.[4]

Her works include 'the plays Kristalvlakte[5] and Other People's Lives,[6] and the films Ellen: The Ellen Pakkies Story (2018),[7] Sonskyn Beperk,[8] and While You Weren't Looking.[9]

Her monologue Shoes was performed by James McAvoy and directed by Danny Boyle as part of The Children's Monologues at the Royal Court Theatre in London,[10][11][12] and in 2017 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.[1]

As well as the Royal Court, her work has been performed at the Bush Theatre,[2] Jermyn Street Theatre and Theatre503 in London, as part of the Edinburgh Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland,[citation needed] and at the Riksteatern in Stockholm, Sweden.[2]

Jephta was a storyliner and scriptwriter on the drama series Nkululeko, a coming-of-age story set in Khayelitsha, for South Africa's Mzansi Magic Channel. She has also written on Cape Town-based soap opera, Suidooster.[citation needed]

Teaching

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Jeptha has mentored community theatre groups in Kwazulu-Natal, was part of the South African New Plays Writing Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and taught acting and voice at CityVarsity in Cape Town and the Simon Fraser University's School for Contemporary Arts (Woodward's Building) in Vancouver. She was also invited to lecture at the City University of New York.[2]

As of 2024 Jephta is a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, teaching bilingual acting.[2]

Other activities

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In 2015, Jephta co-founded the African Women Playwrights Network, a digital networking project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council for two years.[1]

In 2017–8, she ran a mentorship project for emerging female playwrights at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.[1]

She served as chair of Women Playwrights International, an international non-profit that helps to create opportunities and space for women playwrights.[1]

serves on the advisory panel for CASA, an annual award that facilitates connections between women writers in Canada and South Africa[1]

Jephta is co-founder and producer at PaperJet Productions.[1]

Recognition

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Jephta was the recipient of the inaugural Baxter Theatre/TAAC Emerging Theatre Director's Bursary[13][2] in 2010.[4]

She is an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab[14][2] and was one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in 2013.[15][1]

Jephta won the 2017 Eugène Marais Prize for drama for Krystalvlakte[1][16] and the 2019 Standard Bank Young Artist award for Theatre[17]

She was listed in Destiny magazine's "Power of 40" list.[1]

She is an alumnus of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment Impact Lab.[18]

Plays

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Films and television

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Publications

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  • Kristalvlakte (Tafelberg Publishers)[41]
  • Other People's Lives (Junkets Publishers)[42]
  • Contemporary Plays by African Women (editor) [43]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Amy Jephta". SALA. 20 February 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Amy Jepthta". Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Meet Amy Jephta". elle.co.za. Elle. Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Performance – Kitchen". University of Cape Town. 2010.
  5. ^ "Theatre Review: Kristalvlakte". IOL. Cape Argus. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Other People's Lives cracked open". IOL. Cape Times. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  7. ^ "Ellen Pakkies Award Winning Film". Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  8. ^ "Sonskyn Beperk". IMDB. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  9. ^ "While You Weren't Looking". IMDB. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  10. ^ Lenker, Maureen Lee (6 November 2017). "James McAvoy on using art as therapy for 'The Children's Monologues'". EW.com. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Danny Boyle Presents: Children's Monologues". Royal Court. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  12. ^ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (11 October 2015). "Hollywood actors to perform children's monologues in new Danny Boyle play". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Applications for bursaries awaited". News24. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  14. ^ "Directors Comedy Lab". Lincoln Theater Centre. LCT. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  15. ^ "Mail&Guardian 200 Young South Africans". 200YSA. Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  16. ^ "Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie-bekronings vir 2017". 11 July 2017.
  17. ^ "2019 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards winners announced". Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  18. ^ Impact crew [dead link]
  19. ^ "This Liquid Earth: A Eulogy in Verse by Amy Jephta - play reading". 15 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Gritty Cape Flats drama to honour a local legend at Suidoosterfees". Next 48 Hours. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  21. ^ "Kristalvlakte". Afternoon Express. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  22. ^ "Vicarious View into Other People's Lives". Artscape. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  23. ^ "Youth Answers Theatre's Call". Mail & Guardian. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  24. ^ "A Little More about Flight Lessons". Theatre503. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  25. ^ "Flight Lessons". Broadway Baby. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  26. ^ "Free / Falling / Bird". ConnectZA. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  27. ^ "BOUNDARY BREAKING DRAMA ON BUSH'S RADAR". Official London Theatre. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  28. ^ "Engaging drama as brief as the costumes". IOL. Cape Argus. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  29. ^ "Amy Jephta does damage control". Artlink. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  30. ^ "Kitchen". Theatre Arts Admin Collective. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  31. ^ "Kitchen - Performance". GIPCA. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  32. ^ "Inside Interiors". Megans Head. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  33. ^ "Newbie Playwright Examines The Art That "Lacks Artistic Merit". Next 48 Hours. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  34. ^ "A Fresh eye on the far side of struggle theatre". Times Live. Cape Times. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  35. ^ While You Weren't Looking at IMDb
  36. ^ Sonskyn Beperk at IMDb
  37. ^ Soldaat at IMDb
  38. ^ Ellen: Die storie van Ellen Pakkies at IMDb
  39. ^ Trackers at IMDb
  40. ^ Catch Me a Killer at IMDb
  41. ^ "Kristavlakte Drama". NB Publishers. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  42. ^ "SA Gay Plays 2: An Anthology of Plays 1994–2013 Compiled by Robin Malan". Pen South Africa. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  43. ^ "Contemporary Plays by African Women: Niqabi Ninja; Not That Woman; I Want to Fly; Silent Voices; Unsettled; Mbuzeni; Bonganyi: Sophia Kwachuh Mempuh: Methuen Drama". Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2019.

Further reading

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