ZikkaZimba’s 2018 Cameron Conlon Scholarship Winner

ZikkaZimba Productions and the Cameron Conlon Foundation are proud to present
the 2018 recipient of the Cameron Conlon scholarship.

Already in its third year, the Cameron Conlon Scholarship continues to support and
empower talented performers in their studies of the performing arts. The Cameron Conlon
Scholarship is an annual scholarship awarded to a second year student at the Market
Theatre Laboratory who displays remarkable talent, discipline and commitment to their
studies and is perfectly embodied by the 2018 recipient, Chantel Thomas.

Chantel started performing from an early age, participating in the National Eisteddfod
Academy’s DiKonokono Festival. As a student at Greenside High School, Chantel performed
in Fame the Musical directed by Annelize Hicks. These experiences inspired Chantel to
follow a career in theatre and in 2017 she was accepted at the Market Theatre Laboratory.
Since then, Chantel has performed in productions such as 21Wandah directed by Mwenya
Khabwe and The Orestia Revisited directed by theatre veteran Dorothy Ann Gould and
considers being directed by Omphile Molusi to perform for Africa Day as a personal career
highlight. Most recently, Chantel performed in the Market Theatre Lab student production of
Marose, which won Best Student Production at the National Arts Festival this year. Marose
can be seen in Johannesburg shortly during its run at the Olive Tree Theatre in Wynberg
from 27 - 29 July 2018.

Chantel is the third recipient of the Cameron Conlon Scholarship and was previously
awarded to Mathews Rantsoma (2017) and Khanyisile Ngwabe (2016). The scholarship is
jointly awarded by ZikkaZimba Productions and the Cameron Conlon Foundation and covers
a monthly stipend and tuition.

As a company with humble beginnings, ZikkaZimba believes that it only takes one person to
make a difference. Ryan Dittman, CEO and founder of ZikkaZimba, says that the company is
committed tomaking a difference.
“We started making a difference by developing workshops to make drama theory more
accessible to students.”, says Dittman, “We then started developing theatre productions that
encourage students to engage critically with their environment and that led to us exploring
our own environment and seeing where we could contribute.”

The Cameron Conlon Foundation launched officially in June this year, but has contributed to
the scholarship since 2016. The facilitators of ZikkaZimba’s drama workshops were fortunate
to have been actively involved in Cameron’s performance training and we were deeply
struck by the tragic and untimely death of such an enthusiastic and lively young man. His
passion for the performing arts was unmistakable and amongst many of his talents, he
displayed a particular penchant for physical theatre and clowning. Cameron’s parents
approached ZikkaZimba and requested to contribute and fundraise for the scholarship, and
since its inception we have been honoured to be a part of Cameron’s legacy.