MEET OUR FACILITATORS
The John Kani Performing Arts Academy (JKA) is proud to partner with some of South Africa’s most respected and award winning practitioners in the creative arts. These facilitators are not just instructors – they are artists and leaders whose work has shaped our cultural landscape. Every course at JKA is taught by a specialist with deep expertise and ongoing relevance in the field.
Dr Sarah Roberts
Set and Costume Designer and former Associate Professor at WITS School of Arts
Dr Sarah Roberts was Associate Professor of the Drama Division at the Wits School of Arts until her retirement at the end of 2020. Her subject areas were design, improvised performance, dramatic literature and cultural studies. She moved to Jo’burg in 1982 having competed undergraduate studies at UKZN (Durban) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Practical Theatre Studies and MA) in Cardiff, Wales.
Concurrent with an academic career, her professional theatre career launched at the Market Theatre and positioned her at the heart of emergent South African theatre in the 1980’s and 90’s with long associations with key figures like Barney Simon, Mbongeni Ngema and Dr John Kani.
International tours for Committed Artists, Junction Avenue Theatre Company and Sibikwa followed. Real learning has been on-the job experience in diverse workshops, wardrobes and theatres working with highly skilled specialists whose expertise in theatre-crafts from scenic painting to costume fittings has promoted a strong sense of being a designer-maker. A multiple award-winning set and costume designer she also worked extensively at the KZN Playhouse, the State Theatre Pretoria, the Jo’burg Theatre and in the field of major live events staged for SABC (Checkers Woman of the Year Award Ceremony, the Massed Choir Festival and the Miss SA pageants). She has designed costumes for successive musicals for Packed House and the Black Tie Ensemble. She holds a late-career PhD attained in 2014 along with a second MA (Creative Writing) completed in 2018. Recent major productions include the South African premiere of “Fences” for American director Rick Kahn. She has always been a hands-on designer and relies increasingly on her experience and skills in buying, manufacture, construction and painting to deliver the goods on various Jo’burg stages.
On a completely different scale, she designed and made the low-budget production of “The Lion King Junior” for the National Children’s Theatre in 2024. Meeting the creative challenges of different projects continues to be supplemented by ongoing adventures in meeting and working with different people in such very different fields of activity.
