Assoc Prof Sara Matchett

Associate Professor

I am an Associate Professor, at the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies. My teaching spans both practical and academic courses, including voice, acting, performance-making, applied theatre, and performance analysis. I have a particular interest in transdisciplinary approaches to creative practice.

My research focuses on embodied practices that engage breath as a catalyst and connective thread between body, voice, and imagination. I explore the body as a site for generating images in the process of performance-making, with a specific emphasis on the relationship between breath and emotion, and breath and image. My work seeks to create performances inspired by the "biography of the body" and is grounded in practices that centre presencing, co-sensing, co-laborating, and co-generating; methods aimed at transforming "egosystems" into "ecosystems."

I am the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Mothertongue Project, a women’s arts collective. With over 30 years of experience in the field of theatre and performance, I have worked extensively as a performance-maker, performer, director, and facilitator.

In addition to my academic work, she is a Lead Trainer of Fitzmaurice Voicework®, Regional Coordinator for Africa at the Fitzmaurice Voice Institute (www.fitzmauriceinstitute.org), and an Advanced Breathwork Practitioner with Breathwork Africa (www.breathworkafrica.co.za).

I received my PhD from the University of Cape Town in 2016.

Research Focus:

The main thrust of my research is in the area of performance practice while contributing articles for journals and written chapters for books. My research is located in the rehearsal room and workshop spaces with performers and makers. The principal research outcomes take the form of productions and/or workshop projects. Works are documented across different media, in writing and video or DVD. Most of this research has been conducted with The Mothertongue Project, a women's arts collective I co-founded in 2000. Aspects of The Mothertongue Project's work is taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and frequently serves the research interests of Hons and MA level students at the University of Cape Town's Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies (CTDPS).

Current Research:

My research over the past 12 years has primarily focused on investigating the body as a site for generating images for the purpose of performance making and proposes a methodology that draws from various traditions, methods and somatic practices, such as Yoga, Fitzmaurice Voicework®, the Sanskrit system of rasa and Body Mapping. The method specifically centres on investigating the relationship between breath and emotion, and breath and image, in an attempt to make performance that is inspired by a biography of the body. It further intends to investigate whether breath can be experienced as an embodied element that is sensed somatically by the performers and participants I work with and, in so doing, act as a catalyst for activating memories, stories, and experiences held in the body of the performer/participants. Essentially, I am investigating breath as impulse as well as thread that connects body, voice, imagination, and memory. This research emerged from my PhD study and evolved into creating a body of work composed of three productions: Walk, Womb of Fire, and Beginnings. The first two have been fully developed and performed at various venues locally and internationally. The third involved using the methodology to generate ideas for a written script that is being pitched to funders. The production received funding from the NFVF to develop it into a shortfilm. The methodology informs the practice aspect of all the research projects I involve myself in.

I am currently working on An Apprenticeship with Sorrow, a theatre performance that blends physical and digital realms to explore personal and collective collapse. Three performers, affected by parental dementia, delve into grief amidst global crises such as inequality and ecological collapse. Through vocal, physical, and digital elements, it probes loss and grief as pathways to emergence. It aims to provoke reflection on interconnectedness, somatic intelligence, and reframing grief as planetary mourning. This production is part of a broader research project on Embodied Sustainability that aims to spark dialogue on building resilient communities. Ultimately, it asks how embracing grief collectively could lead to hopeful futures amidst our troubled world.

In 2023 I started working with Professor Micha Espinosa from the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University on a project titled Lamentation at the Liesbeek. Building on previous work, Lamention at the Liesbeek is not a singular action but a series of events aiming to bring intention, activism, and remembering to contested sites. The project took place on the banks of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers (at the confluence) and lamented the Amazon Africa headquarters development on Indigenous land in the Western Cape. Prof Espinosa and I worked with movement and vocal performance to generate new insights that we are currently planning to disseminate as a workshop at various conferences around the world. The intention of the research is to mix cultural mythologies and pedagogies using transborder aesthetics, radical performance pedagogy, and radical lament. In April 2023, Prof Espinosa was in residence in Cape Town for six weeks, where we facilitated the creation of lamentation rituals, a documentary and an art installation. The documentary film and the art installation will be launched at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University in November 2024. The Cape Town launch is envisaged for November 2025. The film will also be shown at various short film festivals worldwide.

In addition to my research into performance making and practice, I have, over the past seven years, been involved in three research projects as a co-investigator. The first, titled “Objects with Objectives: a Puppetry in Applied Drama Research Network”, sought to bring together academics and practitioners in a shared international exploration of the potential interplay between Applied Drama and Applied Puppetry. My contribution engaged a collaboration with South African puppeteer Aja Marneweck, in embodied research around the role of brown paper life-size puppets in actor training through applying the Sanskrit system of Rasa to puppetry. An online ‘how-to’ video in two parts was created for teaching and training purposes.

The second project, “Translation and Performance: Encountering Otherness”, involved researchers and practitioners of theatre and performance from South Africa, India and the Netherlands in a three-year research project focused on translation and performance. In 2017 the project involved practical explorations and presentations of work. The project concluded at the end of 2019 with the publication of a special South African Theatre Journal (SATJ) issue in 2019. The second issue was published in 2020. I am the co- editor of this issue.

I was also a co-investigator and academic lead in a multi-year (2018 – 2022) collaborative research project, GlobalGRACE, that employed arts-based practices and multisensory research to investigate the production of cultures of equality and to enable gender positive approaches to wellbeing. The UK Research Council funded the project that involved projects in five countries: South Africa, the UK, Brazil, Philippines, Mexico and Bangladesh. The South African project involved a collaboration between the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies (CTDPS), the African Gender Institute (AGI) and the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT). The project specifically addressed what equality and wellbeing look and feel like for sex workers in South Africa. A substantial part of my engagement in the project involved designing and executing theatre and performance training modules with project participants, the bulk of which took place in 2021 and 2022 given the setbacks presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The South African Workpackage recently secured a book contract with Manchester University Press. The book, titled Sex Work and Theatre in Times of Crisis: Precarity, Presence and Performance in South Africa, is being co-authored by myself, Dr Phoebe Mbasalaki, Dr Yasmin Gunaratnam and Dr Yaliwe Clarke and is envisaged to be published early in 2026.

Publications:

Forthcoming Publications:

Co-authoring a book titled Sex work and theatre in South Africa: Creative methods and decolonial feminist
approaches. The book is being published by Manchester University Press and will be released in the first half of 2026. Co-authors include Dr Phoebe Mbasalaki, Dr Yaliwe Clarke and Professor Yasmin Gunaratnam.

Edited collections:

Matchett, S & Fleishman, M. (eds). 2020. Translation and Performance in an Era of Global Asymmetries Part 2. 33(01). Cape Town: Taylor & Francis.
Halligey, A & Matchett, S. 2021. Collaborative Conversations: Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project. Cape Town: Modjaji books.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

Mbasalaki, P. K. and Matchett S. (2024) How to do a (decolonial afro-feminist) creative action research with a group of street-based sex workers in Cape Town, In Sage Research Methods Cases: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research.
Matchett S. & Mbasalaki P. K. 2021. Theatre as a methodology: A case study with sex workers in Cape Town in Metodologia e Relações Internacionais. Debates contemporâneos volume 3. ISBN: 978-65- 88831-08-3
Mbasalaki, P.k. & Matchett, S. 2020. Aesthetic Grammars of Social Justice: Sex Work Reimagined in
Clisby S., Turner J. (eds) Studies on Home and Community Science 14(2): 7-18. Available: DOI: https://doi.org/10.31901/24566780.2020/14.1-2.344
Matchett, S & Mbasalki P.K. 2020. Butoh gives back the feeling to the people. In Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity. Cape Town: Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2020.1775102
Matchett, S. & Abrahams. R. 2020. The application of a translational performance method using archival material, personal narrative, mythology and somatic practices: the making of Womb of Fire in South African Theatre Journal (SATJ). Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2020.1742780
Matchett, S. 2019. Breath-Body-Self: Reflections on Performance-Based Approaches to Breath through a Women’s Theatre Project in South Africa. In Voice and Speech Review. Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/23268263.2019.1591097. The Voice and Speech Review is the official publication of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) and is the only journal focusing on theatre voice training for the performing arts.
Matchett, S. 2018. Mapping a classic: body mapping and Koodiyattam Rasa breath patterns as a way of embodying character and analysing text in a production of The Trojan Women with second year acting students from the University of Cape Town’s Drama Department. In South African Theatre Journal (SATJ). Available: https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2017.1417742. 31(1): 86-97.
Cloete, N., Dinesh, N., Hazou R. & Matchett, S. 2015. E(lab)orating Performance: transnationalism and blended learning in the theatre classroom. In Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 20(4): 470-482.
Matchett, S. 2012. Deconstruct to Reconstruct: A Proposal for the Inclusion of Fitzmaurice Voicework® in the Training of Dancers. In Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. 4(2): 179-193.
Matchett, S. 2012. Breath as Impulse, Breath as Thread: breath as catalyst for making an
autobiographical performance in response to ‘corrective rape’ and hate crimes against lesbians. In South African Theatre Journal (SATJ). 26(3): 280291. Available: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/KNU8xDD7EPpvwjrrNcHt/full#.U05UbK2Szbg

Book chapters:

Matchett, S & Mbasalaki, P. 2025. Precarious Landscapes: Theatre and Belonging with a Group of Sex Workers in Cape Town. In Performing Homescapes, Mackey, S. and Ong, A (eds). London: Springer Nature. 79 - 98. Available: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-77657-1
Matchett, S. 2024. Breath-Body-Self: a Practice-led journey. In Thinking/Making/Doing: Methods for Performance Research. Fleishman, M and Halligey, H (eds). Cape Town: UCT Libraries. 202 – 211. Available: https://openbooks.uct.ac.za/uct/catalog/view/70/80/2710
Gunaratnam, Y., Kisubi Mbasalaki, P. and Matchett, S. 2024. How to do social research with...WhatsApp soapie. In Coleman, R., Jungnickel , K., and Puwar, N (eds.). How to do social research with ...
London: Goldsmiths Press: 265-273. ISBN: 97819133804
Prather, P. 2023. Interview with Sara Matchett. The Voice Coache’s Toolkit. New York: Routledge: 201- 202.
Matchett, S. & Ndlovu, M 2021. Uhambo: Pieces of a Dream: Images and Poetry. In Collaborative Conversations: Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project. Cape Town: Modjaji books: 100 -112
Matchett, S. 2021. Curating Care: The Langeberg Youth Arts Project. In Collaborative Conversations: Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project. Cape Town: Modjaji books: 180 - 201
Matchett, S. 2020. Walking and Stumbling: The Aesthetic as Agitator for Activism. In African Somaesthetics: Cultures, Feminisms, Politics. Leiden: Brill : 165-184
Matchett, S. 2018. Catalytic Conversations: The Aesthetic Weave and Social Weft of Phakama’s Creative Practice. In Phakama: Making Participatory Performance. London: Bloomsbury: 164-183
Matchett, S & Cloete, N. 2015. Performativities as Activism: Addressing Gender-Based Violence and Rape Culture in South Africa and Beyond. In African Theatre 14 Contemporary Women. Suffolk: James Currey. 17-29
Matchett, S & Okech, A. 2015. Uhambo: pieces of a dream – waiting in the ambiguity of liminality. In Fleishman, M (ed). Performing Migrancy and Mobility in Africa: Cape of Flows. Hampshire: Palgrave. 110- 124.
Matchett, S. & Mokwena, M. 2013. Washa Mollo: Theatre as a Milieu for Conversations and Healing. In Barnes, H. (ed). Arts Activism, Education, and Therapies. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi. 107-125.

Keynotes:

2022: Matchett, S. The Sex Worker Theatre Group South Africa and the Art of Conscious Breathing. Umoya BreathFest, Magaliesburg.
2018. Matchett, S. Walking and Stumbling: Walking and Stumbling: The aesthetic as agitator for activism. Drama for Life Conference & Festival. Johannesburg.

Direction and Performance Making

Title of Production: Sankramanam: The Passage of the Bird

Venue: School of Drama & Fine Art, Calicut University, Thrissur

Year 2024

Title of Production: Lamentation at the Liesbeek

Venue: The Place of the Stars (Confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers) Year 2023

Title of Production: Brandbaar, a hybrid of theatre and film Role: director, dramaturg

Venue: Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (online festival) Year 2021

Title of Production: Brandbaar

Role: director, dramaturg and lighting designer Venue: Suidoorsterfees, (Artscape Main Theatre) Year: 2021

Venue: Woordfees Festival (Stellenbosch) Year: 2020

Created an online (pre-recorded performance) performance of and adaption of The Mothertongue Projects production of Walk titled Breath(E)ssence

Role: performer, curator and video editor

Venue: Online (Inspire / Expire Breath Symposium hosted by Wiser) Year: 2020

Title of Production: Womb of Fire

Role: co-conceptualiser, dramaturg, director and lighting designer

Venues: National Arts Festival (Makhanda), ICA 3rd Space Symposium (Cape Town), Con Cowan Theatre (Johannesburg), ITFoK Festival (Kerala, India), Woordfees Festival (Stellenbosch), Baxter Theatre (Cape Town), South African Women’s Arts Festival (Durban), PACE (Pan African Creative Exchange in Bloemfontein), Afrovibes Festival (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Years: 2017 and 2018

Promotional links:

Womb of Fire: Feature on SABC 3 Mela

Womb of Fire Promo for SA Women's Arts Festival

Title of Production: Walk.

Role: Co-curator, dramaturg, performer and lighting designer

Venues: The Bindery Lab (Cape Town), Sex Actually Festival (Johannesburg), GIPCA Live Art Festival (Cape Town), Cape Town Fringe (Cape Town), African Women’s Playwrighting Conference (Cape Town), VIFA festival (Bhopal India), Freedom and Focus Conference (Dublin, Ireland), ITFoK Festival (Kerala, India), National Arts Festival (Makhanda), Woordfees Festival (Stellenbosch)

Years: 2014 – 2019