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Prof Nico Luwes honoured with Gerhard Beukes Prize for drama

01 June 2020 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Nico read more — Prof Nico Luwes at the 2019 June Chancellor's Dinner.

It is a double honour for Prof Nico Luwes, emeritus professor at the University of the Free State (UFS), who received both the Gerhard Beukes Prize and the Medal of Honour for Drama from the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. Not only is the prize a great honour, but also the fact that Prof Luwes could attend the Afrikaans class of the same Prof Gerhard Beukes as a student at the UFS.

“For this very reason – and because it was unexpected – it is really a great honour for which I am deeply grateful,” says Prof Luwes, who is currently working in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts. Prof Luwes is a leading figure in local and national theatre circles and has written many plays. “I was able to realise myself at the UFS for so many years. I am also grateful that the university and the Department of Drama and its staff have given me and fellow artists so many opportunities to create in our excellent theatres.”

Prof Luwes retired as Head of Department at the end of 2019 and is currently a research fellow in the same department. He is also working on a PhD in creative writing in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the UFS, under the guidance of Prof Henning Pieterse. “I am also cleaning up two novels that will hopefully be published this year,” he says.

Prof Luwes part of several theatre initiatives

Over the years, Prof Luwes has been involved in various initiatives for the well-being and survival of the theatre industry, such as the Sanlam theatre initiative and the UFS Department of Drama and Theatre Arts’ Free State Theatre Acts. “The Sanlam theatre initiative was devised by me and Rudie van Rensburg. The project has been able to boost the careers of professional playwrights and students for years.” Drama and Theatre Arts students from the UFS dominated the Sanlam project “with many awards for plays and producing”.

The Free State Theatre Acts (FACTS) was launched with great financial support from the Lottery and has kept theatre going and created jobs in the Free State for many years.

The therapeutic function of theatre

For Prof Luwes, theatre is the barometer of a people’s soul. He refers to the therapeutic function of theatre as “the surgeon who reveals and cuts out evil, the court jester who mocks the ridiculous and falsehoods, the comfort of the heart that proves that we are all created with weaknesses, but can also taste the joys of life and the beauty thereof.”

He summarises it as the thoughts of the man in the street being conceived, experienced, and recreated by theatre artists on behalf of those who are unable to express and realise it themselves. Prof Luwes’ advice to emerging playwrights is simple: “Write about your experiences and feelings and never try to write like someone else. Trust your intuition and be willing to place your name and thinking on the altar of other people’s opinions in public.”

The Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns announced its awards on 21 May 2020. The official presentation will take place at a later stage.

News Archive

JN Boshoff Memorial Lecture: Dr Charles Nwaila

2005-09-13

Dr Charles Nwaila, Director-General of the Free State Provincial Government and Vice-Chairperson of the University of the Free State's (UFS) Council, recently discussed the repositioning of the Free State Provincial Government to respond to the 21st century demands during the JN Boshoff Memorial Lecture at the UFS.

From left: Dr Nwaila; Prof Tienie Crous, Dean: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences; Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor and Dr Moses Sindane, Departmental Chairperson: Department of Public Management at the UFS.

A summary of the lecture.

Free State government to focus on training of public servants

The Free State provincial government in collaboration with higher education institutions in the province is to establish the Free State Association of Public Administration to get public servants to work effectively towards the growth and development of the province.
This was announced by the Director-General of the Free State provincial government, Dr Charles Nwaila, during a lecture he delivered at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein this evening (Thursday 8 September 2005).

Delivering the annual JN Boshoff Memorial Lecture at the UFS, Dr Nwaila called on higher education institutions to play a critical and leading role in the re-engineering of the existing Provincial Training and Development Institute housed at the Vista campus of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein.

Dr Nwaila was formerly the Superintendent-General (head) of the Free State Department of Education and currently serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the University of the Free State.
He said the proposed Free State Association of Public Administration is a joint initiative with the National Academy of Public Administration based in Washington DC.

“We take this opportunity to invite the University of the Free State and other knowledge based institutions to join the Provincial Government in fostering a collaborative network to help us develop our public servants,” Dr Nwaila said.
He said there were accelerating demands and a lot of pressure on limited resources, with Free Staters expecting more from their government than ever before.

“Civil servants in a developmental state are servants of the people, champions of the poor and the downtrodden and not self-serving individuals that seek only advancement on the career ladder,” Dr Nwaila said.
According to Dr Nwaila, the Free State Growth and Development Strategy has identified 11 areas that need to be addressed by the year 2014, including:

• To reduce unemployment from 38% to 20%
• To improve the functional literacy rate from 69,2% to 85%
• To stabilize the prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS and reverse the spread of the disease
• To provide a free basic service to all households
• To provide adequate infrastructure for economic growth and development

Dr Nwaila said that the Free State government will continue to follow a people-centred approach towards these development objectives with a keen sense of unity and unwavering determination to create the best of times for the Free State and all its people.

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