ARTISTIC WORKS. Amanda surrenders her soul to the stage

Stylish Amnda 

Speaking face to face to AMANDA TOBO is a test in character; she is so charismatic, captivating to look at, so eloquent! Amanda is an artist, an accomplished actress. When she speaks to you, her passion for her craft stares at you incessantly. Her achievements are so vast that the only destination for her is the North Star. But before she gets there, her ambition is to instil education to the learners through theatre. The charismatic actress tells Thembi Masser why she is not accomplished yet; why she wants to be an astute business woman and why she is not keen on awards.  

Growing up in Bizana, where she was born, Amanda, 27, wanted to one of the beautiful presenters she admired on the box. She was always captivated by the beautiful people on the telly who appeared to be enjoying their lives and having a glamorous ‘occupation’. In fact, Amanda was already in the beauty stakes right at the start of her schooling career. Since then she has been in the lime light at every educational institution she has studied at. It started at the Bizana Primary where she was Ms Bizana primary and then at high school when she won the Ms Bizana High School crown. She went on to become Ms Unisa and Ms Durban University of Technology. She has also been Ms lovelife and Ms Bizana.

But after matriculating she did not pursue modelling, but went to study for a diploma in child and youth diploma with Unisa. After just one year at Unisa and a crown as Ms Unisa she packed her bags and headed for Durban, where she continued with her studies in youth development studies. “This is where the love of acting was nurtured,” she points out. The drama department was adjacent to the youth development lecture room and her ear was always in the goings on in what was going on there instead of in class. This prompted her friends to urge her to cross over. “After my diploma studies I again packed my bags and headed to Benoni’s Sibikwa Arts Centre to take lessons in acting.”   

Today, sitting face to face with the vivacious lady, it is evident why she mesmerised so many judges in winning her beauty crowns. She has just got off the stage after taking part in the play You Decide, a South African Brewery’s (SAB) initiative to curb the scourge of under age drinking.  

    

In 2010 she took part in her first ever theatrical play, Surrender in Time. “It was the highlight of my career,” she says. “I always wanted to be on stage, and there I was, speaking and encouraging people in that way.” But her parents where not impresses. They wanted her to do something solid, something normal. “Modelling was first love, but along the way I asked myself questions. I developed the urge to do something challenging, something stronger, something personal.” Modelling fuelled that urge.

She has been in many other productions since then. She has been in Black Child, Lumambo which was on Mzansi magic, Photo Shoot on etv and in many other since.“I am not acting for financial gain or to win awards.  There is more to what I do on stage or on film. I am more into educational acting.”

While she is on the process of registering her business company, Amanda goes home to Bizana from time to time to conduct workshops on acting. “These workshops have been so influential that they have encouraged learners to reach for the stars. One of them, Donald, is in his second year medical studies as we speak.” She is also active in Durban with K-Cap and the Playhouse, organising acting lessons for learners, students and the youth. “In Kwa-Mashu I am lucky to be sponsored by Duma Ndlovu of Generations and Muvhango fame in pursuing my ambitions. I want the lids to do it on their doorstep rather than going to Johannesburg where they end up sleeping on the streets chasing their dreams.”

For Amanda it is work in progress, she asserts, sighing. “Work comes first. I do all my research thoroughly. I am disciplined and I try to emphasise the results of being disciplined in my students. Talent is not enough, they always say, and that is the truth.” She says you will always under achieve if you have no direction in whatever you are doing. She has seen talented, dedicated actors fall by the way side because they relied on drugs to stimulate themselves. “Such a pity, because I looked up to some of them for inspiration. I don’t do drugs, and hope I will never be tempted to.” She says it is all because of pressure. “There is too much pressure in the industry but if your life skills are not developed then you will end up taking stimulants and heading quickly to the scrap heap and your sell-by date. Junkies don’t last.”

She won her first and only award so far in her first year of study at Sibikwa when she won ‘Best Actor’ in the Shashalaza Awards which were organised by the Gauteng provincial’s department of arts and culture. That ward propelled her to dizzy heights.

Amnda, the look of yester year 

Now she has set her sights on becoming a business woman of note.  “I am always looking for excellence.” It is the urge to do somethi9ng challenging, something stronger, something personal, that drives her to the North Star. It is this desire to ascend the milestones that she has no inclination to put brakes on her shining star.  

Amanda..!