DUT’s Drama and Production Studies Department will, as from this evening (Monday, 25 August 2014), showcase REUNION, a musical paying tribute to Professor Debbie Arlene Lutge; the core and raison d’être of the only conservatory styled Drama and Production Department in South Africa’s higher education institutions.

REUNION, this year’s Annual Season of Contemporary Dance offering, features works inspired by Prof Lutge’s 25 years of passionate commitment in the entertainment industry and related arts. She is known as an academic with the highest integrity, who combines motherly compassion and transparent honesty with an openness that has offered wisdom to many.

As the core of the Department, her leadership has been exemplary and her focus on education a mastery of ‘leading by example’ through her unparalleled discipline, artistic genius and professionalism. As HoD, she motivated the Department and became greatly loved because she governs her actions by her sense of Ubuntu.

REUNION is a one week event which celebrates the enduring strengths and traditional values of the Drama Studies Programme. It aims to cement its bonds and celebrate its existence by exploring past connections with former students and moving forward to the present as a means to inform the future.

This gathering is not for style or show or about success or failure, but to reaffirm the humility and love that flows between graduates as a tribute to Prof Lutge’s enduring artistic presence in our lives. The Department therefore invites all alumni to reacquaint themselves with each other and reconfirm the bonds they all share, remembering: ‘we are because she is and she is because we are’.

REUNION showcases all second and third-year theatre dance specialists and features six new works by Durban based choreographers Mdu Mtshali, Mlekeleli Khuzwayo, Sifiso Khumalo and Sifiso Majola, with the entire programme co-ordinated and directed by DUT Dance Lecturer Mdu Mtshali.

The details of the musical are as follows:
Date: Monday 25 August 2014 to Thursday 28 August 2014
Time: 19h00
Venue: The Courtyard Theatre, Mansfield Road
Parking: Available at Gate 7, Ritson Campus and Gate 4, Steve Biko Campus
Tickets: R40 each
For bookings, please contact: Lebohang Patience Sibisi on (031) 373 2194

-Noxolo Memela

Pictured: Professor Debbie Lutge with the cast of REUNION.