The multi-award-winning theatre director, writer and producer, Lara Foot Newton, will become the first female Artistic Director to lead the Baxter Theatre Centre when she takes over the helm from Mannie Manim who retires from the Baxter Theatre at the end of the year.
Foot Newton is the fourth director in the Baxter’s 32-year history, following in the footsteps of founding director, John Slemon (1977-1995), Rodney Phillips (1996-1999) and Mannie Manim who joined in 2000 as CEO and Director. “This is great news for theatre in South Africa,” said an elated Manim.
The 42-year-old Foot Newton is no stranger to the Baxter Theatre Centre. In 2005 she relocated to Cape Town from Johannesburg with her family, to take up the position of Resident Director and Dramaturge – a post which she held until 2007.
Newton was recently involved writing and co-directing the interdisciplinary short film And There is the Dust, which won five international awards and two Golden Horn awards. She was selected to be part of the Sundance Film Writer’s Lab in 2007 and the Sundance Film Director’s Lab in 2008.
Her four plays Tshepang, Hear and Now, Reach and Karoo Moose have all toured internationally with great success and they are published by Wits Press and Oberon books. In 2000 she adapted Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying at The Market Theatre. Last year Karoo Moose and Reach were nominated for nine Fleur Du Cap awards and Karoo Moose received eight Naledi awards.
