VerifiedTheatre training in South Africa mostly is not paid for by bursaries. It is paid for by the institutions themselves: the state theatres and their attached training programmes take small intakes, train them, and often pay a stipend while doing it. That is a different application process and a different calendar from a bursary.
The university route exists alongside it and is funded by the general scholarships below.
The institutional route
Look at the training arms of the state and receiving theatres rather than searching for bursaries. They advertise through the theatres, they audition rather than assess marks, and the intakes are small enough that the advert may never appear on a bursary site at all.
The National Arts Council funds organisations as well as individuals, which is how many of these training programmes are paid for. If the programme you want is NAC-funded, the place itself is the funding.
Bursaries for drama and theatre
The general scholarships that name drama among their fields:
- Allan Gray Orbis Fellowship
- Canon Collins Tom Queba Scholarship
- NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Fund
- Bridgestone
- Absa Fellowship
- Canon Collins Thekgo bursary for outstanding debt
The Allan Gray Orbis Fellowship and the Absa Fellowship are the two largest, and both fund the arts within a wide field list at named universities. Read the university list before applying: both restrict where you may study.
See also our performing arts bursaries, dance bursaries and film production bursaries pages.