The women behind On The List: How two NSA-trained theatre-makers are rewriting Broadway for South Africa

By CityLife Arts Writer

When On The List – Broadway the NSA Way opens at The Lesedi, Joburg Theatre this August, and audiences will be watching a new generation of National School of the Arts learners step into the spotlight.

But behind the students is a creative team led by two women who know exactly what that spotlight demands — because they once stood in it themselves, on the very same stages.

Khaya Ndlovu Mpehle

Coming Home to Choreograph Co-director and choreographer Khaya Ndlovu Mpehle is an NSA alum — Class of 2009 — and the founder and Creative Director of K-Movement, a movement company built on the philosophy of “creating with intention, moving with purpose.”

For Ndlovu Mpehle, returning to direct at her old school is less a job than a homecoming.

“Returning to the National School of the Arts is a powerful full-circle moment,” she says. “These halls shaped my love for storytelling, creativity and movement, and it is a profound honour to return and inspire the next generation of artists. At K-Movement, we don't simply create performances — we create platforms that empower artists to find their voice, own their authenticity, and step boldly into their potential.”

Kensiwe Tshabalala

Fifteen Years on Stage, Now writing the next one

Co-writer, co-choreographer and co-director Kensiwe Tshabalala brings fifteen years of professional performance experience to On The List. A graduate of the Musical Theatre programme at Tshwane University of Technology, with a Master’s in acting for film from the New York Film Academy, Tshabalalas stage credits read like a survey of South African theatre;s biggest recent productions:

Vanya &Sonia and Masha &Spike (2013), Hlakanyana (2021), Adventures of Pantoland (2022), Peter Pan (2023), and My Fair Lady (2024/25).

As creative director and co-founder of The Quickening Theatre Company, she assisted on the direction of Lungs (2024) at Cape Town;s Theatre on the Bay, and associate directed A Dol’’ls House Part 2 at both the Baxter Theatre and Theatre on the Square.

Most recently, as a performer, she took on the weight of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept, staged at the Market Theatre in April before touring to Norway and Italy this year.

But it is s On The List she calls her greatest achievement so far — co-writing, co-choreographing and co- directing an original South African musical alongside Ndlovu Mpehle, built specifically to reflect “the extraordinary talent of today's youth.” It;s a fitting culmination for an all-round theatre-maker who has spent her career, as she puts it, committed to creating more work — and more opportunity — for South African audiences and artists.

A Stage Built by SAMPRA

None of this reaches the Lesedi stage without the SAMPRA Development Fund, whose continued investment in the National School of the Arts is what allows work of this calibre — professional creatives, a professional venue, six full performances — to be built around a school production. It;s an investment that gives NSA learners a rare thing: the chance to originate a new South African musical, guided by two women who did exactly that themselves, on their way up.

.On The List – Broadway the NSA Way runs 6–9 August at The Lesedi, Joburg Theatre, 163 Civic Blvd,

Braamfontein. Tickets from R50 via webtickets.co.za.