Johannesburg City identified the long overdue need for a public theatre in Soweto, post-apartheid. A formal theatre space with its specialised facilities would serve a large community of theatre goers in Soweto as well as provide the opportunity for performers to fully showcase their talent. Although the need for this space was obvious, the response to this brief couldn't be. Simply providing generic infrastructure without examining the existing theatre-culture of Soweto (regardless of whether it was previously formalised by a dedicated space or not) would not respond to this communities' expectations of what a theatre should be, and ultimately not be a space that the community (specifically the community of Jabulani, Soweto where the theatre is located) would embrace and feel was theirs to use and enjoy.