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.
Steven Stead
Actor, Director, Translator, and Theatre Manager
Steven holds a Drama Honours degree from the University of Natal, and initially pursued an acting career. However, he has spent the greater part of the last two decades directing.
For eight years he was senior staff director at the English National Opera and directed many operas in London and elsewhere in Europe, before coming back to Durban, to work with Greg King to develop KickstArt Theatre. Together they have revived the tradition of pantomime in the city, and have created many memorable drama productions.
Musicals that they have produced and he has directed include The Wizard of Oz, Little Shop of Horrors, Cabaret, Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Chicago and Camelot.
He has directed the South African premieres of Shrek, the Musical, John Logan’s Red, David Ives’ Venus in Fur, Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses and Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Other directing credits include Alcina (Oviedo and Bilbao, Spain) My Fair Lady and Bravo (Playhouse Company), Rigoletto and La Traviata (Opera Africa), The Tales of Hoffmann (Opera UCT), and My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Cosi fan tutte, I Capuleti e I Montecchi and Valley Song (Cape Town Opera)
In May 2024, he was invited to Salzburg, Austria, to direct the Austrian premiere of Dennis Kelly’s Girls and Boys at the Landestheater.
Steven won the 2016 Naledi Award for Best Director of a Musical for Sweeney Todd, was nominated for a prestigious Fleur du Cap for Best Director in 2024 for The Sound of Music, and has just been nominated twice for the same award for Metamorphoses and My Fair Lady.
Upcoming productions include The Rocky Horror Show (national tour), Twelfth Night (Maynardville Open Air Festival), and Carmen (Cape Town Opera).
