Jason Jacobs

Jason Jacobs is the 2017 Kunste Onbeperk honouree in theatre and recipient of the TAAC Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary, who originates from Kharkams. He operated as the dialogue coach and casting director of kykNET’s Suidooster and debuted as a filmmaker and screenplay writer at the annual Silwerskermfees with Nama Swaan (2018). Jacobs is currently completing his masters at the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies in Cape Town.

Research summary

The theatre-making of shame is an emergent practice for my study to further a somatic approach to theatre and performance making. The research involves a rehearsal process where I, as the researcher, engage with young Coloured men who are performers of Afrikaans theatre. I am interested in finding interconnections between affect theory and the study of habituations that are shaped by our environments and living conditions that are precarious. The final creative outcome is to be a found image of shame that is particular to what will be found in the processing of loss concerning me as a writer of poetry and plays. I will demonstrate this by designing a process that involves writing from memory and intuition, that is, writing from a somatic point of view. I do this to uncover the existing poetry and prose I have written since 2013. I refer to these forms of poetry and prose as fragments of my past-self, contained as images. I engage with four of these images (presented in the past as theatre productions) from the period 2014-2019, mainly Kalahari Swaan (2014), but also including In Wag Van (2017), Stof Rooi (2017), and Maroon (2019).I will conduct interviews and rehearse with professionally trained theatre-makers and performers outside of the university. The performers are from different backgrounds in and around Cape Town, and these places include Elsiesriver, O'Kiep, Goodwood, Eersteriver, and Johannesburg. The participants reside in these places, and the intention is to work remotely with them over WhatsApp.