Masali Baduza - All the World's a Stage

I am almost sure that at St Mary’s DSG, the annual Inter-House Plays are considered a bigger deal than the boat race between Oxford and Cambridge. The four houses practice for months beforehand on various pieces of theatre and then the day comes when the school gathers to watch the spectacular product of everybody’s hard work. 2014 – This would be the first year that the grade 8s, me amongst them, would experience this tradition. I sat, captivated, as the onstage duo of Masali Baduza and Annie Frisby, who also wrote the script, unfolded their intricate web of a plot. Their onstage chemistry and passion for drama was so tangible and intense, and that memory served as my first encounter with the formidable drama department at DSG. Now, in everyone’s lives, there is a time during adolescence called “the impressionable years”. It is here when we are moulded and shaped by the people that we meet and the experiences to which we are exposed. The 2014 Inter-House Plays was the first time that I ever saw Masali act in an onstage production, and it was an experience that I will never forget. Needless to say, she left an impression.

After Masali matriculated, she was given an opportunity to go and study at the Los Angeles branch of the New York Film Academy on a scholarship. “Funnily enough, I was just on Twitter one day, and my cousin had retweeted about this film academy was coming to South Africa, so I went to the auditions in Johannesburg, and the rest is history!” The stories that she tells me about her tenure in LA is wonder-filled: from the time that she arrived freshly out of high school, literally not knowing a single person, to her recollections of the rich multi-cultural exposure that life in America brought with it. She even got to listen to talks by some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Because NYFA was situated where the film industry lives and breathes, the college hosted many actors and actresses who work in the film industry as guest speakers. “I remember one time Aubrey Plaza was promoting her new film, so she came and she spoke to us. Another person I really enjoyed listening to was Bryan Cranston,” she muses.

Although Masali only stands at 1,62m, this actress could be described as nothing other than fierce. She has to be, to make it in such a gruelling industry. “The most difficult aspect of my job,” Masali tells me, “is definitely getting through rejection, especially if you’re new and have no influence within the industry. Sometimes you think, ‘I’ve totally got this audition in the bag!’ and you wait weeks thinking that the people are going to call you, but they don’t.” She goes on to tell me about how her parents have been incredibly supportive of her from the very beginning of her career. As a young person, I have seen way too many cases of young people being pushed into a certain field because of the wishes of their parents, so Masali’s story comes as a breath of fresh air. “It’s amazing to have that support system of people believing that you’re going to do great things with your career, even when sometimes you don’t believe it yourself.” Her parents, although wary about the pitfalls of the acting industry, have constantly been pillars of strength for her, and for that, they truly are the role models that many others need.

But what does an actress’s day-to-day life actually consist of? Well, of course there is acting, but what many don’t understand is the determination that people like her have to be successful in such a demanding profession. Well, right now, Masali is going into her peak season, so she is a very busy woman. She wakes up in the morning and goes over her lines for the upcoming production that she is starring in, and does research about all of the characters which she will be playing, and then she heads over to rehearsals, which typically take up about five or six hours of her day. Because Masali is in the very beginning stages of her career, she also works as a waitress, so from the practice session, it is straight to her other job for the remainder of the day.

“People sometimes tell me that I should study something more serious and pursue a profession that’s more respected, and it makes me upset because it goes over most people’s heads how important being a creative person in society is. It is very unfortunate because we are one of the most overlooked industries in terms of what people are proud of.” Masali and I both have a lot to say about this topic of discussion, and we spend a few minutes exchanging words about it. Ever since high school, she has been asked what her ‘Plan B’ was, but what people forget to take into account is how much hard work and dedication goes into a job like acting. When you go and see a play, a production like that didn’t just happen by itself. You’re looking at the days and even months of effort that goes into learning lines and attending rehearsals, aimed at crafting the perfect audience experience. Masali does what she does because she loves it, and wouldn’t rather be doing anything else in the world. In the acting universe, you’re not going to last without passion; because that is what keeps you going.

But if there is anything that I have learnt, it is that for all of the comments that break you down, you only need one positive force to counteract the negativity. For Masali, that person was Mr Christo Potgieter, dramatist extraordinaire and the Head of the Drama Department at St Mary’s DSG. “Mr P changed my life,” Masali gushes. “He was the best drama teacher that I’ve ever had, even throughout university. He made us believe in ourselves so much, and made us feel like we could do anything that we set our minds to.” Like Masali, I too am privileged enough to be taught by Mr. Potgieter, and the difference that he makes in the life of a creative person is indescribable. “I feel that it’s so important for kids to take drama at school, because it’s a form of escapism; it’s how people deal with life. Drama gives you the confidence that some people draw from other spheres like sport or academics.”

The upcoming production that Masali will be starring in is a play called Nasty Womxn, which takes place from 30 October to 14 November at Alexander Bar’s Upstairs Theatre in Cape Town. “I’m so excited because I’ve always wanted to be a part of pieces of art and theatre that really make a difference in society and say something about the things that matter today.” Nasty Womxn is a social commentary on modern-day feminism, where the characters will play various mythological feminine heroes.

As Oscar Wilde once famously said, “Regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” Every time I scroll through my Facebook timeline and see pictures of Masali from an advert that she shot, or a play that she will be starring in, I am so proud, because we need more people like her that dare to follow their dreams in a world that is constantly telling them not to.