Rob Murray, one of South Africa's most widely-acclaimed theatre directors and a Grahamstown resident, was this week announced as the new Director of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival.
Rob Murray, one of South Africa's most widely-acclaimed theatre directors and a Grahamstown resident, was this week announced as the new Director of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival.
Murray, who is currently doing his PhD at Rhodes as well as creating work with local theatre groups, is best known for his innovative mask work ("Pictures of You", "Benchmarks") and for succesful productions such as "Crazy in Love" (featuring Grahamstown and Rhodes Drama's own Andrew Buckland – currently Murray's PhD supervisor).
He says he is still digesting the news. “I am super excited, obviously, and still little overwhelmed by it all. It’s quite a huge thing. We think it’s the first time that a fringe festival has appointed an international artistic director. So, true to form, the Amsterdam Fringe is sort of blazing the trail, as it likes to do.”
The Amsterdam Fringe happens annually in September and has strong ties with our own National Arts Festival Fringe. Both are part of the World Fringe Alliance (WFA), an international body that also includes festivals from Edinburgh, Brighton, Adelaide, Perth, New York, Hollywood, and Prague and which creates opportunities for productions to perform around the world.
In fact, "Crazy in Love" went to Amsterdam this year. Fringe theatre is usually characterised by experimental style or subject matter and takes place on smaller stages and in smaller venues. Murray is replacing Anneke Jansen, who has held the position since the launch of the Amsterdam Fringe ten years ago, and was, until recently, chair of the WFA.
His role will be to lead the Amsterdam team and to develop the Fringe Academy – where volunteers from all over the Netherlands and the world are tutored in the running of a festival. He will also be involved in fundraising. However, his biggest role is to programme the Festival and to allocate venues that best match the productions that apply to perform.
He's looking forward to becoming part of the WFA and to being able to give South African productions new platforms upon which to showcase their work. He also hopes that the bond the National Arts Festival has with Amsterdam will be cemented further by his appointment.
“Whatever else happens in the world, relationships such as this demonstrate that Fringe festivals, independently and together, are in a very healthy and exciting place," he says. National Arts Festival CEO, Tony Lankester, one of the founding members of the WFA, believes that Rob's appointment is an extremelygood thing – both for the Alliance and for the national arts scene.
“This is a great feather in the cap for South African theatre, as our directors and producers prove, yet again, that they are significant forces globally,” he said. “Rob has enormous breadth of experience working across the South African industry – including presenting work on the Fringe, Arena and Main stages of the National Arts Festival and at the Cape Town Fringe, as well as at other major Festivals and institutions.
Now he gets to help shape the future direction and footprint of an already exciting and established Fringe Festival in an amazing city, and we’re looking forward to observing and supporting his progress.” Murray reckons that being a South African, could be advantageous in his new role.
“It’s going to be really interesting, being an outsider. I come in without any allegiances, any bias to any of the local artists. I think that kind of outsider status allows me to prod and to ask questions of the organisation – of the industry – that perhaps people from there can’t necessarily."
The Fringe job is for six months a year so there will also be time for him to find groups of performers with which he can work. Here in Grahamstown, Murray has played an important role in energising and developing local theatre. He is a former Artistic Director of Ubom! and his work with some of those performers led to the formation of Uyabona Ke whose workshopped piece, "Waterline", directed by Murray, won an Ovation Award at this year's National Arts Festival and went on to play at the Cape Town Fringe Festival in September.
Murray see’s his appointment as a life changer and says that he’s been looking for a new adventure. The prospect of learning and experiencing a new culture and environment is something which thrills him. “I’ve always believed that travelling broadens one’s experience and understanding of the world and humans.
Whether it’s for five minutes, five months or five years. Just the fact that you are suddenly in a new place, surrounded by new people, you are learning something.” Murray also undertakes to learn Dutch. “It boggles my mind that someone can live there for five to ten years and never learn the language,” he says.
