ILL-TREATMENT OF POETS BY THE PLAYHOUSE COMPANY, SPECIFICALLY ON THE SUNDOWNER'S CONCERT & POETRY

This petition is in relation to the facilitation of the Sundowner’s Concert and Poetry facilitated by The Playhouse Company (Durban). Most importantly, this has to do with constant ill-treatment that poets are receiving from the Playhouse Company and the personnel tasked to coordinate these shows. Some of the ill-treatment experienced includes the following:

- Remuneration for performances, which has decreased compared to the previous years without our knowledge. This is a shame compared to what our counterparts are receiving.

- Exclusion of poets on the lineup on marketing materials created by The Playhouse.

- Forceful change in preferred language of performance to suit the needs of specific audiences e.g. English speaking  

- Decrease in the performance time without any update and reasons.

In response to this, poets’ representatives from various poetry houses/sessions across the province have organized themselves to fight this scourge. Previously, poets have initiated communiques (in a form of emails) tabling these matters and requested to meet the responsible personnel. Sadly, that did not produce any fruits. That on its own shows the less-respect and treatment that poets are receiving from the organization that is expected to support them as artists since The Playhouse Company operates under the auspices of the Department of Arts and Culture. This petition seeks to address all these challenges and more. Poets demand justice, want to be treated fairly like all other artists.

MIC MY WORDS (KZN POETS)    Contact the author of the petition