Napo Masheane

Napo Masheane is a multi-award winning playwright, creative producer, artistic director, festival curator, poet, cultural activist, translator and acclaimed performer on both international and national stages. Being born in Soweto, growing up in Qwaqwa (Free State), and currently reciting in Johannesburg, Napo holds a Marketing Management, Speech & Drama and Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. She is a founding member of Feela Sistah! Spoken Word Collective and with its demise, went on to become one of the leading South African black theatre matriarchs, after her provocative plays such as: ‘My Bum Is Genetic Deal With It’, ‘The Fat Black Women Sing’, ‘KHWEZI… Say My Name’, and ‘My Vagina Was Not Buried With Him’. More so Napo became the first black women to produce, write and direct a play: ‘A New Song’, at the Market Theatre mainstage (John Kani Theatre). Between 2017/18, Napo held the position of Deputy Artistic Director at The South African State Theatre (the biggest theatre in Africa). Presently Napo sits as the advisory board member, under performing arts at Stockholm University Of The Arts and is the Managing Director of Village Gossip Productions, a theatre company that allows her to travel the world… directing, researching, lecturing, performing and documenting black women narratives.