ENTERTAINMENT
by Sam McCann

Cinema: The Roxbury Theatre consists of three cinemas with daily screenings at 3pm, 5.30pm, 8pm and 10.30pm. For further information, visit their web page, http://www.roxbury.co.za.
Theatre: Grahamstown boasts a strong Thespian tradition. Besides the National Arts Festival, there are a number of theatre productions throughout the year by local actors and theatre groups, schools, the local amateur theatre group, Grahamstown Players, and Rhodes drama department. The Drama Department at Rhodes offers a range of theatrical studies in academic, community, educational and professional contexts. Students produce three or four shows a term exhibiting a range of theatrical forms. The department is indebted to talented professionals such as widely acclaimed playwright Reza de Wet, actor/playwright Andrew Buckland, director of Mouthpeace and talented choreographer Gary Gordon. The Dance Umdudo is performed every March with dancers from all over the Eastern Cape.
Music: A love of music is another distinguishing feature of the Grahamstown community. Several of the schools have excellent music departments and enjoy national acclaim for performance. The long-established Grahamstown Music Society is responsible for hosting regular concerts by international musicians and singers at the Monument Theatre or the Beethoven Room.
  Rhodes University RMR (Rhodes Music Radio 89.7fm) feature both local bands and also brings artists to Grahamstown. An organisation known as New Music at Rhodes is currently working with local bands and hopes to record their music and download it onto the inter net for wider public access. Performers are able to express themselves either poetically or musically at the open mike sessions, which are held throughout the year. The Department of Music and Musicology at Rhodes offers more than 40 different programmes within degree, certificate and diploma courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Rhodes University is also home to the famous International Library of African Music (ILAM), founded by the late Hugh Tracey and is now under the directorship of his son, Dr Andrew Tracey. ILAM is an excellent resource centre for musicians and researchers. ILAM publishes African Music, the only African journal in the world specializing in the subject.
  AMI, African Musical Instruments, is a local factory shop that specializes in making top quality musical instruments for a worldwide market. Kalimbas (a variation of the African mbira or thumb piano), a wide range of xylophones, metallophones, tone blocks, claves and other percussion instruments are produced. Other musical instruments made in the city are African drums, and world-class bagpipes!