Chance of a lifetime for Durban theatre stalwart

Durban theatre practitioner Roland Perold is going “back to school”.

Perold has been accepted into a highly specialised Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Music Direction at the University of California, Irvine, (UCI) for the September 2024 Fall intake.

Perold leaves South Africa for three years having passed a rigorous audition process and has received the offer to join UCI.

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is afforded to only one candidate per year, with applications open worldwide. The position is fully funded for the three-year duration and includes tuition, housing, medical and a stipend for a part time teaching post where Perold will assist the UCI faculty in teaching undergraduate modules.

“Durban really has been good to me. It’s an incubator for so many who do exceptional creative work, and I cannot express how thrilled I am to go on this adventure with the guidance I’ve received from all my mentors and collaborators to date,” said Perold.

“My hope is to return and plough back into our local create industry some of that American pizazz!”

Perold grew up on the South Coast and moved to Glenwood in 2002 to study B.Mus at UKZN. He appeared in My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music at the Playhouse in the early 2000s.

“Once I had experienced the world of theatre in all its glory, I knew this is where I wanted my career and life to unfold, but I also knew I wanted to be good at it, and back then I was green.”

Perold moved to Cape Town after completing his B.Mus to attend the Waterfront Theatre School for three years, making the most of their comprehensive triple threat training programme.

Triple threat trains a person in three areas. The term comes from football, where it signifies a player who is good at running, passing, and kicking (c 1920).

Upon graduating he started producing chamber musicals and cabarets in Cape Town and the National Arts Festival where Perold produced On the Fringe for eight consecutive years.

With a deep passion for musical theatre and realising that South Africa had no development programmes for aspiring original creators in the field, Perold took up a M.Mus in Songwriting at Bath Spa University, in the UK, with the hopes of returning and implementing that skill set locally.

“It was a long road, but it eventually led to ‘The Cabaret and Beyond Festival’ (CAB Festival) which I’m extremely proud of. This initiative has been ongoing since 2020 and we’ve engaged more than 50 local composers-lyricists who took part in the mentorship programme and then had their songs professionally staged”.

It’s worth noting that Durban’s other local star, Leah Mari, won the first instalment of The CAB Festival and her original one act musical Call Me a Fool subsequently received dramaturgical guidance from Janice Honeyman and was produced in Durban and Gqebera by Perold, and in Cape Town by Mari herself.

Since moving back to Durban in 2020 Perold has been working closely alongside Greg King and Steven Stead of KickstArt fame. This year was a bumper year with two South African premieres; musicals Steven Sondheim’s Company and The Emperor’s New Clothes. Perold musically directed and appeared in both productions with a sensitive portrayal of the character Peter in Company, and a contrasting, totally flamboyant, “Swindler” in Emperor.

“The honour of musically directing the premiere of Steven Sondheim’s Company with such a stellar cast and creative team is probably the highlight of my career to date. I remember day one of rehearsal and having to coach the incredibly complicated eight-minute opening number.

“‘Hyperfocus’ is the only way to describe that situation, for everyone in the room. The result was spectacular.”

Perold donated all his musical scores to ISPA (International School of Performing Arts) who are offering triple threat training to local students making it possible for those who wish to hone their craft in KZN. ISPA applications for the 2025 academic year are currently open.