Time to meet your next Peter Pan Panto cast member. This guy is just a bundle of boundless energy! When Tshepo Ncokoane is in a room, you can feel the air fizz with the crackle of electric vitality.
G & T: What’s your role in this year’s Panto?
TN: I’m in the Ensemble. I’m also the Associate Choreographer AND the Understudy for Peter Pan!
G & T: What message would you like to convey to audiences through your performance?
TN: My message is always about the validity of people of colour on stage. It’s still very much “other” for young children of colour to dream of performing on stage, and I want them to see that it is absolutely achievable! I really want audiences to see that the inner child in all of us is allowed to stay alive. Too many of us get caught up in being too ADULT (ugh!) We need to relish the power of storytelling! (G & T: Read that last line again!!!)
G & T: Now some quickfire questions! Pizza or Burgers?
TN: Definitely Pizza! ALL the Pizza (with meat on it!)
G & T: Pistachio or Salted Caramel (because Vanilla and Chocolate are so ’80’s!)?
TN: Salted Caramel – for Africa and beyond!
G & T: Peanut Butter or Nutella?
TN: Always Peanut Butter! But actually maybe … both?!
G & T: What was your favourite toy when you were younger?
TN: My Heelys! I begged for those, and I loved them. But also … the tree in my parents’ front yard. It was my constant companion when I was growing up, and now whenever I see that tree, I know I’m home.
G & T: Who’s your favourite cartoon character and why?
TN: The Muses of Hercules. Ooooh, and Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove!
G & T: If you were stranded on a desert island with only 3 items, what would you want those items to be?
TN: A lighter, a pan, a water bottle (G & T: And I swear he gets points for such quick thinking!)
G & T: If you had a theme song that played every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
TN: It has to be the Transformation music for the fairies of Winx Club – but specifically for when they get their Enchantix Power
(G & T Full Disclosure: I had to look this up because I had NO idea what it is! But here it is, and it’s a perfect Tshepo Theme Song!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y6DBuxF9IU
G & T: If you were arrested, what would your friends and family immediately assume you’d done?
TN: It would have to be a DUI (Driving Under the Influence – FYI!)! That’s the only vice I have. I’m nowhere near any other vice!
G & T: And one final question that I can’t resist because my daughter informs me it’s doing the rounds on TikTok right now … You have 20 minutes to hide a paperclip in your house before the FBI will be banging on your door to come and look for it. Where do you hide it?
TN: (With practically no hesitation) In my Mother’s Bible! Because I believe there’s a huge reverence for religious items. They wouldn’t dare look there!
Don’t hesitate! Book your tickets NOW for Janice Honeyman’s Pantomime, Peter Pan!
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