#sfuk

The participants shared some of their hopes for the Remix Programme with us…

“I hope to not only increase my network but to also learn more about the other participants and make long term relationships with them either professionally or as friends for the future”

“I hope to gain knowledge and useful skills.  Also get exposure to experienced actors willing to share their experiences and knowledge”

“I hope the programme will broaden my love and knowledge for the arts industry and life”

“I hope it will open my mind about the performing arts and make me learn something new everyday.  All in all help me grow as an artist feeding me information and skills”

“I hope to learn more about marketing, funding, workshops and bookkeeping”

“I hope the programme with give me more information about theatre, arts and dance”

“I hope to stay in contact with all the lovely artists I’m meeting in this wonderful Remix programme.  And it would be great if we could workshop something together before we part ways”

“I hope it will give me the experience I can take back to my community and teach them about promotion and marketing”

“I hope to have a whole new addition to my skills as a theatre maker and a passion to produce work of great entertainment value”

Now on my fifth trip to South Africa, I am sitting down to write about my experience for the first time. This may seem like it’s taken me a while… but the role I play in my work usually means I am behind the scenes supporting others to be creative. Over the years my reasons for being in South Africa have been varied, I have been here as a participant, an administrator, a project manager and now a Producer.  

Maybe it’s worth saying that my job usually entails helping to organise projects or productions, including fundraising, planning, logistics, budgets, rehearsals, marketing, transport, accommodation, food… basically, whatever people need to be able to get on with being artists, I sort that out. This year I’ve been doing some set designing/painting and hairdressing too!

This year is particularly special for me, not only because I am Producing Theatre Auracaria’s debut production of Mamela (which opens tomorrow! Yey!) but also because this year’s Remix team includes a number of people I have worked with in the UK through projects with the Swallows Foundation UK, Lets Circus and Changemakers. I feel very proud to have played a little part in all of the projects that are now working together to create a great Remix programme. Being part of this UK network in Grahamstown coupled with rekindling connections and long standing friendships in South Africa I have made over the years, the festival feels like home…but with less Wi-Fi and more singing.

My working role this year has meant that I have had more time to directly experience life in South Africa and connect with people much more than I have before. Having worked with some of the participants on Remix for the last three festivals, it’s a privilege to see how they have developed and I’m looking forward to seeing the work that they are making now.  I have also finally learned some isiXhosa songs, with help from the beautiful Mamela girls, and their stunning voices.

While the politics, customs, traditions, histories, religions and languages of South Africa continue to confuse, inspire and astound me, I continue to question my personal role here, making me reflect on my what my role is everywhere. I hear this from a lot of people who come to SA through Swallows projects, and I am still working it out. Some things I’ve learned this time around:

1.     I utterly respect anyone who makes, creates or organises anything here: while I love the fact that Grahamstown has a proper high street including a haberdasher, a butcher, a plumber and a man called Steve with a saw who can help you with pretty much anything - the challenges of sending an email, paying by a debit card or asking someone to reboot a router are sometimes unfathomably complicated. Having said that, the challenge is what it’s all about and I have had fun meeting nearly every craftsperson and shop owner in town…

2.     Having the opportunity to work with such talented and positive people reminds me of the difference a smile can make and that nothing is too big an obstacle to get over.

3.     Aside from the hazards (which have included people, donkeys, goats, monkeys, cars, bulls, cows and potholes) I love to drive in SA.

4.     Interesting ‘facts’ about eating eggs and things you can’t talk about after dark.

5.     Pigeons don’t like it when I sleep.

I am super excited for tomorrow’s show. It will mark, for me, a huge development in my career since my first Remix experience. To be presenting Theatre Auracaria’s work on an international stage, to friends new and old and as part of the Remix programme is going to be, I think, one of those definitive moments in life, and I can’t wait. Right I’m going to bed. I’ve got work in the morning! x

Actor & Workshop Leader – Newcastle, England

What a weird and wonderful land!

A melting pot of culture, race and Religion.

A land full of sad, sorry and sorrow Stories, yet filled with the most beautiful Landscapes I have ever seen! And a Giraffe named Howson!!

A land where time exists not in numbers, more in Mornings, afternoons and great nights. Where everything seems dusty yet vividly colourful at the same time, where a can of Chick Peas, is a tin of Green Garden peas once opened! Where I made friends which I worked with, the most beautiful and talented bunch, Poets, actors, directors, dancers, singers, musicians and people who do stuff with computers… Where I shared a room with – now a great friend- Paul who’s from the same city as I’m Fae. Glasgow! And it took me all this travelling and thousands of miles to find an amazing bond with.  

 Where Karaoke is like a Rangers and Celtic match, filled with Passion, rough tackles and petrol bombs NO! I mean swear words, if your team losses. 

There is something about this place! Something about the Children. The way they flash their toothless smiles at you, even when you don’t succumb to their begging for money. I walk the streets of Grahamstown Not knowing where I’m going. I end up walking down an ally way. I know immediately that I’m going the right way to getting lost! But I continue….. Streets kids walking beside me, laughing at me ….at my clothes, my skin, my yellow “fly London” shoes. Eventually we come to a clearing, a court yard of some sort. There’s a building on my left, there’s a building on my right and there a building in front! A dead end!! The only way is where I came in.

I feel eyes on me. Accusing. Peter has been telling us the history of South Africa. And I’m thinking…. I’m in the wrong place. I don’t belong. I have money, I’m drenched with sweat, I’m a foreigner!

As I turn to leave… I hear a loud crack. Sounds like a gun! I turn around. My eyes are everywhere at once, my hearts beating faster than the wings of  a swallow. Then at the corner of my eye, I see it. I catch it. A Tennis ball. Well more like gaffer tape and cloth then ball .

Then I see him. A kid, dressed in shorts that are too short, with skinny legs and a mop of hair on his head. He’s holding a cricket bat! His eyes seem to mock me, daring me to ball him out. I haven’t played cricket in five years… but I know… I know from his stance how he prefers to hit the ball. I instinctively know all the angles. I know from the weight of the ball how I need to bowl!!

Swallows winter school, South Africa, Jo Burgh, Hamburg, East London –battle of the b boys- Grahamstown, PE (Port Elizabeth) ….

I take three steps back!!

So what do I do when it’s over?

In 3 days time when I have to leave all of you?

  Yes, there’ll be the planes; the airport lounge;

anaemic coffee at 40,000; sharing of photos;

cuddles; promises; plans; waves.

  But then there’s going to be the Metro,

the lift from the station,

the ‘Hello, how was it?’s, the ‘What was it like?’s,

the ‘How much was a pint?’s.

  After my clothes have been through a 40 degree spin,

when they’ve lost that tang of South African sweat

and they’re back in my drawers in my room

alone, then what is there to do?

  There are plans to smash the government;

there are libraries to save;

health services to uphold and bin-men to praise.

  And there are questions—oh, the questions!

  What did we do?

  Did we wrap ourselves in a Hamburg night

listening to stars screaming from the sky?

  And did we say what we wanted to say?

Did we miss the chance to tell that one person

that one thing that tickled at our throats,

made our hearts start buffering?

  And are we happy to close the book,

or do we want to pause the show—

resume in another place, in another time?

Home now...and facing the barrage of questions. Was it hot? What were the elephants like? Was there much poverty? But I'm not being able to give a straight answer, or an honest one. The feeling of walking through the front door into my own home was strange, I felt like didn't belong, like I wasn't meant to be there, like I was intruding.

Simply put, I felt at home in South Africa and now I need time to adjust to life back in Newcastle. 

So I am trying to reconcile my emotions. Emotions which are pining for warm air, for skies full of stars, and for those who became family. And newer ones, like the feeling of emptiness when I wake up and remember that I'm back to living in a world where entertainment does not involve singing and where money is everything. 

What can I do? Maybe an option is to attempt to alter the current world I live in. Change it so that my life does not revolve around drinking, or staying in bed till noon, or working full-time in an unsatisfying job which pays my bills but leaves no time to do the things I love. Change it to a life where I don't worry about having the money to buy whatever I want, and instead, try to think more about the things that truly matter. Like family, theatre, and enjoying being alive.

So when people ask what was South Africa like? I'll smile and give the answers they want to hear. But the real question is how has it changed me? And the answer to this question will be seen in what   I do with my life from now on, by making the opportunities I get really count. Because my real experience of South Africa has show me just how privileged I am, and this is a feeling that I can't ignore, or let go of.

One of the things I was so incredibly excited about was having the opportunity to share and learn about my fellow artists talents. In particular I couldn't wait to experience the power and elation that came from singing. I am in no way a good singer, and find it impossible to hold a tune on my own but really wanted to be apart of an ensemble of vocal sounds. 

From the first hour of meeting the South African artists I feel as though we have been surrounded by song.  From traditional songs to pantsula tracks, funny songs and very moving melodies.  There have been songs taught from all corners of the world and I have been scribbling down the phonetic lyrics as closely as I can so when I return home I can attempt my own renditions. 

I feel songs have really helped me to connect with South Africa's culture and my fellow artists and will be one of my fondest memories which I shall take from the trip, just sitting chilling on an evening and singing our hearts out together.