JADE BOWERS - STANDARD BANK YOUNG ARTIST FOR THEATRE IN 2016

Born in Cape Town in 1987, Jade Bowers is a director and designer who experiments with physical style and conceptual form to make theatre that is fuelled by invention and creativity. Bowers has been listed as one of online magazine Afripop’s ‘Five Female Theatre Makers in South Africa You Should Know’. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Drama and Sociology from the University of Cape Town, and received her Honours degree in Theatre Design and Directing for the Stage from University of the Witwatersrand in 2014. Bowers, who runs her own production company, works at DALRO as a theatrical rights administrator, and was previously the resident stage manager at the University of Johannesburg. In 2011, she was involved in UJ’s Reading Gay and THATSOGAY theatre festivals, as well as being part of the team that staged Arts and Culture head Ashraf Johaardien’s adaption of K Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams. She has been the showcase curator of the Wits 969 Festival and director of the Wits Arts and Literature Experience (WALE). She produced, directed and designed Salaam Stories for the 10th anniversary revival of Johaardien’s autobiographical Salaam.