Dust - Play Reading

For November's play reading, we're delving into Dust by Lauren Bates.

The evening will include a table read of the play by actors, followed by a discussion of the work. The discussion will be led by Melanie O'Connor Horn and a panel of experts. Input from the audience is most welcome!

About the play

DUST explores the complexities of being a young, white, female English teacher in a Cape Flats school in present times. Megan, a recent UCT graduate, who grew up with all the privileges of being a middle class white South African, starts her first job at Manenberg High as a passionate English Teacher. She encounters Clive, a jaded, but equally passionate head of department, who has grown up in the community and worked at the school for 30 years. He has seen countless teachers like Megan come and go, and very much doubts her sincerity and sticking power. When matric student, Jason, begs Megan to stage a production of 'Hamlet', her endurance is put to the test.

More about the writer, Lauren Bates

Lauren Bates has been writing plays since high school. Her one act play, Wax Poetic, won the audience choice award at The Masque Theatre One-Act Play Festival in 2002, when she was only seventeen. Over 20 years later, with a few degrees under her belt, including a Masters in Shakespeare and Creativity from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, she is back at the Masque with a new play. Lauren currently teaches drama at Oakley House High School in Diep River and runs an Educational Theatre Company called Educasions, which takes plays into schools.