#dramatic need

GUEST BLOG: Anything is Possible!

“Without writers, stories would not be written, Without actors, stories could not be brought to life.”

Angie-Marie Delsante

That in essence is all you need to make good theatre, and a lot of the time you don’t even need the script, with devising theatre being one of my specialities, I know this.  Being out here in Rammulotsi, comparing everything to what I know back in the UK has certainly been an eye opener and massively humbling.

When asked about facilities and the arts in the UK, I am reminded that in spite of school and educational politics, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by fantastic resources, mostly, well certainly, compared to what is available in rural South Africa.  However, what is constant and what will always remain is the actors, and in this case, the talent of the young actors working with Dramatic Need.

When speaking to educationalists, charity workers and arts specialists, they are in awe of what we have access to in the UK, and it is difficult to explain that there are also many downsides to both education and the arts, you also feel a bit silly, trying to explain the ‘poor working conditions’ when you are in a classroom with broken tables, no resources and overcrowding!  

However what became immediately clear was that it doesn’t matter if you have access to the best facilities, resources, technology, classrooms – it’s about the people in the room, the drama studio, the classroom, the space.

Out here arts runs through the blood of the South African people, the people I have met and worked with are resourceful, creative, all singing and all dancing! They don’t need fancy lights, spaces and sound (yes it would make their good performances even better, but it is not a necessity).

I have seen true talent and amazing performances in some of the poorest schools’. The performance comes from the people, the kids, the actors, and this is why I love theatre.  In the township schools’ I have watched puppet shows and scripted performances in both English and Sesotho and gumboot dancing.  With the vaguest of briefs and limited support from their teachers, these young students create the most wonderful performances, incorporating drama, singing and dance to tell the stories they create. They harmonise naturally and are so expressive in their voices and storytelling.

Whilst rehearsing and preparing for our performance of The Children’s Monologues, I have had to think outside the box even more than usual.  Luckily, I also have access to the minds of Beth and Tatu, to ensure that this performance is the best it can be for the young people and the community of Rammulotsi. With a bare community hall which has no rigged sound or lighting, initially I didn’t have a clue how we would transform this space into the place where the young people’s stories are shared. 

At one point I mentioned to Tatu that I knew it wasn’t possible but I would have liked a mirror ball for added effect...Tatu’s thinking face overtook and he calmly says “I think we can make one” and that is what we have done, with a sponge football and pieces of old CD’s, Tatu and I spent the afternoon cutting up.  Tatu is on with the next phase of building some kind of contraption to secure it in the hall, whilst Beth mosaic's the pieces onto the ball.  A real team effort. Amazing!  

What has truly been reaffirming to me is that anything is possible.  We work within the means we have access to, but that in no way should restrict what is possible…especially in the theatre, where as long there are people…anything is possible!

Teaching in the township schools:  Guest Blog... continued

Current South African drama specialist volunteer Vicki reflects on her experiences teaching in the township schools in Rammulotsi

"That night after my first disastrous teaching I re-plan and take a different approach.  We will stay in the tiny classrooms of fifty students, we will carry out voice work and character development from behind our desks.  A new approach, and one I am nervous about – but thankfully one that works.  We look at voice projection and sing ‘Peter Piper’ to our heart’s content.  It is fun, the students develop and thankfully I haven’t lost the ability to teach.

Already in two short weeks, I have seen so much and I think that I am adapting to the South African way of life pretty quickly (I’ve even taken on a few spiders!). When people back home ask me how it is going, I struggle to explain, as there are so many emotions and experiences.

But there are two contrasting images that I cannot get out of my mind.  Firstly the sight of the principal absolutely bellowing at a terrified student on the corridor.  Reason unknown, I tense up and feel incredibly uneasy about it, I also feel the tension from Beth, at the side of me.  Secondly, the laughing faces, the eager, polite, happy children entirely supportive of one another, celebrating their work as they performed the puppet shows they had been working on.  With little input and no resources, they are incredibly resourceful and innovative. They want to be there, they want to learn, they want to be educated so they can change the world, and at the moment, they have no idea that they probably never will. This is a reality I can hardly bear, in Rammulotsi the forgotten town."

Auditioning for The Children’s Monologues, Rammulotsi

After months of talking about it the day was finally here, it was time to audition our young people for roles in the Rammulotsi performance of The Children’s Monologues.

The Children’s Monologues are based on the testimonies of the young people themselves - back at the beginning of this year we collected these stories. Read more about that here.

We invited our learners to attend the Piet Patsa Community Arts Centre on Heritage Day, the public holiday so that we had plenty of time. With our stellar judge panel of Vicki and Themba we were ready to go.

We provided themes based on the stories, such as finding out a friend or family member is HIV positive, abuse in the family or relationships and asked the young people to go off and prepare a short performance in groups of around 5 or 6. Every participant would need to have a short monologue or thought track within this performance so that we could see individuals at work.

We filmed the audition pieces and also asked everyone to introduce themselves to camera beforehand, following the performance we then questioned the young people about the characters they were playing, how did we think they would feel etc.

Then there was the hard job of slotting everyone in. The young people had worked so hard, but there are only a certain number of roles to go around. We’ve planned the monologues performance so that there will be an ensemble cast to work behind the monologues meaning that we can involve more young people in the process. And of course there will be other production roles such as lighting and sound so that we can be as inclusive as we can.

Workshop: Exploring Fear

Our young people explore their fears and how fear is represented in the visual arts by creating their own Tokoloshes, A Tokoloshe is a traditional South African water sprite or daemon.

This is one of the many participatory elements of the upcoming The Children’s Monologues this November.

The Tokoloshe features in one of our monologues, based on testimony written by our young people and adapted for stage by world-renowned playwright Tom Stoppard. These images form part of the staging of the show and will be animated by London-based animation studio Jelly London under the direction of Danny Boyle.

GUEST BLOG: Youth Day

Naomi, our current volunteer drama facilitator at our Piet Patsa Comunity Arts Centre in Rammulotsi, Free State shares what the young people have been working on over the last month.

On June 16th (South African 'Youth Day') the young people will be showcasing their devised work. It's crazy to think that's only two weeks away. Over the past month we have explored improvisation, devising from stimulus, devising with constraint, context, theatre tactics such as synchronicity and freeze frame, and many other dramatic concepts. The group handle each new topic dynamically, with an easy adaptability and impressive imagination.

For their performance, I gave each cast the framework of a letter. Initially individually, they were each tasked with constructing a letter to anyone they liked, alive or dead, could be their best friend or someone they had never met, about anything they chose. The one restriction was that the letter had to reflect an emotion.

They have since developed these ideas in groups, using storytelling techniques, resulting in a variety of narratives incapsulating many themes.

Now with the foundation of a storyboard each group is busy rehearsing, utilising the skills we've explored over the last month and researching new conventions to include. (The short stage combat workshop was pretty intense...)