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Acknowledgments

Drama for Life Patrons Dr John Kani Justice Edwin Cameron Dr Sibongile Khumalo Dr Pieter Dirk Uys Dali Tambo 7th DFL Africa Research Conference Chairperson Warren Nebe Conference coordinator Sinethemba Makanya Conference coordinator assistant Zandile Bekwa DFL Advisory Conference Committee Prof. Hazel Barnes Warren Nebe Sinethemba Makanya Caryn Green Munyaradzi Chatikobo With thanks to the DFL Team Director- Warren Nebe Programme Manager (Cultural Leadership, Fundraising and Partnerships) - Munyaradzi Chatikobo Programme Manager (Academic) - Tamara Gordon-Roberts Programme Manager (Research) – Professor Hazel Barnes and Warren Nebe Programme Manager (Academic Recruitment, Student Welfare and Scholarships & Media and Communication) – Natasha Mazonde Programme Manager (Finance and Administration) - Caryn Green Programme Manager (Projects) – Hamish Neill DFL Teaching and Learning Staff – Ayanda Khala, Megan Godsell, Cherae Halley, Sinethemba Makanya, Namatshego Khutsoane, Katherine Barolsky, Ella Kotze, Hamish Neill, Caryn Green, Munyaradzi Chatikobo, Tamara Gordon-Roberts, Warren Nebe DFL Project Staff– Ayanda Khala, Refiloe Lepere, Odwa Jenkins, Tarryn Lee, Benjamin Bell, Ashalin Singh, Sibongile Bhebhe, Zandile Bekwa, Moses Rasekele, Evans Mathibe, Hamish Neill, Natasha Mazonde, Caryn Green, Munyaradzi Chatikobo, Tamara Gordon-Roberts, Warren Nebe DFL Interns and Volunteers – Gugulethu Ndumo, Judith Weidner, Wiebke Knuttel, Olga Muhwati DFL Visiting Scholar – Dr Emma Durden

Resident Artist - Anthony Schrag

Distinguished Scholar – Professor Wolfgang Sting

Distinguished Resident Equity Scholars - Professor Marcia Pompeo Nogueira, Professor Christopher J

Odhiambo

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Welcome Note

7th Drama for Life Africa Research Conference hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand at the Wits School of Arts and Wits Theatre Drama for Life is an independent academic, research, community engagement and social responsibility division based at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand. Drama for Life is dedicated to the academic, research and professional development of:

Applied Drama: Theatre in Education, Communities and Social Context

Arts Education, specifically Drama Education

Drama Therapy

Theatre-Making for Social Transformation

Applied Arts and Culture Leadership and Management

Since its inception in 2008, Drama for Life has played three significant roles, namely:

An African centre for the professional training of artists, educators, facilitators, therapists and researchers in Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy;

An African research hub that engages with multiple questions in relation to Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy in the context of rich, indigenous African knowledge systems and critical social, health and education problems; with specific reference to HIV/AIDS, Sexual Health and Wellness, Human Rights and Social Justice, Social Transformation through Diversity and Conflict Management;

An African network for advocacy for artists, facilitators, educators, therapists and researchers working in the field of arts for social transformation.

The Drama for Life (DFL) Africa Research Conference constitutes one of the foremost platforms for applied drama, drama therapy, arts education, research and practice on the African continent and aims to create an inter-continental and international dialogue about the significant role arts can play in social transformation. For the past six years Drama for Life has hosted and organised the international Africa Research Conference in conjunction with varied partners. Each conference has developed out of issues identified by delegates and in response to important developments, and debates within the fields of Applied Drama and Theatre, Drama Therapy and Drama Education, particular but not exclusive to the African continent. In 2012 the conference, co-hosted by the University of Pretoria, explored the role of applied drama and theatre interventions in conflict and post-conflict societies. The 6th DFL Africa Research Conference built on the conference theme of 2012 in exploring the role of the arts in societies that have sought to engage in processes of truth and reconciliation, transition and change in post-conflict contexts. The conference sought to expand our knowledge and understanding of the arts as a vehicle for healing and transformation. It asked the questions: what role can the arts play in speaking back to the ‘unfinished business’ of societies that have committed themselves to significant change, and how can the arts contribute toward a deeper, more meaningful and long lasting process of healing within a context of trauma? This year the 7

th DFL Africa Research Conference turns its attention back to the original, founding roots of Drama

for Life. The conference seeks to interrogate the role of Theatre for Development within a contemporary global

context through the prism of power, pedagogy and praxis. The conference will seek to interrogate key areas

embedded in Theatre for Development in Africa. Our core questions are:

In what ways has Theatre for Development addressed, or failed to address:

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The challenge of social behavior change in relation to the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, sexual

reproduction, health and wellness

The enhancement of indigenous knowledge systems with specific reference to cultural

and spiritual belief systems and healing practices

The ethical, cultural and development challenges that arise from a human rights and

social justice health and wellness agenda

The questions of development with regard to North/South, East/South, and

South/South partnerships and other complex power relationships

By doing so, we hope to accomplish the following outcomes:

Provide a platform for applied drama, drama therapy, arts education, research and practice on the African

continent which aims to create an inter-continental and international dialogue about the significant role

applied drama and theatre can play in social transformation

Expand our knowledge and understanding of the arts as a vehicle for development, healing and social

transformation

Deepen our understanding of the role that indigenous cultural practices, performances and rituals play in

development

Interrogate why Theatre for Development is a significant approach to development with regard to power,

pedagogy and praxis

The conference is a unique opportunity for all artists, therapists, teachers, activists and development practitioners and academics to speak to their work in the field. The conference is a place to dialogue, interrogate and share the exceptional work that is being done all over the continent. It is a unique conference as it actively engages in praxis, the intersection between theory and practice, calling upon its participants to think, theorise and question, to experience, express and engage with topics that speak to these urgent issues in contemporary societies. Our hope is that we will do this in the spirit of respect, social responsibility and symbolic containment. Drama for Life extends a warm welcome to all our guests, local and foreign from Africa and beyond, to this conference. We would like to specially welcome our Distinguished Scholars, as part of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Resident Equity Scholar Programme 2014, Professor Marcia Nogueira from Brazil and Professor Christopher Odhiambo from Kenya, for gracing us with their presence. Thank you to all those who made it possible to bring together this gathering of people, and thank you to each of you for making the journey to join us in conversation about the power of Theatre for Development as a means to engage actively and meaningfully with social change. Warren Nebe DFL Conference Chairperson

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DRAMA FOR LIFE 7th AFRICA RESEARCH CONFERENCE 2014

Power, Pedagogy, Praxis: The role of Theatre for Development in a contemporary global health context

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21

8:00 – 8:45

Registration and tea

VENUE: Wits Theatre Foyer

9:00-11:00

Official Opening

Venue: Wits Downstairs Theatre

Performance:

Rape Capital

Zewande ‘BK’ Bhengu and Mandisa ‘Poefficient’ Vundla

Official Welcome:

Warren Nebe, Director of Drama for Life

Biography:

Warren Nebe is the founder and director of Drama for Life, a division of postgraduate studies in Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy at University of the Witwatersrand. He is a theatre director, senior lecturer, a HPCSA and NADT registered drama therapist and a Fulbright Alumni. He was the previous managing director of Themba Interactive – Initiatives for Life. His research focuses on identity construction, representation and memory in South Africa through an auto-ethnographic theatre-making approach. Notions of identity are explored in his theatre productions, ID Pending, Hayani, Through Positive Eyes and Morwa under his direction. Hayani and Through Positive Eyes collectively received 8 SA Theatre Award nominations for the 2013 season, including Best Cutting Edge/Ensemble productions. Hayani was awarded Best New SA play. Warren is also a research member of the Apartheid Archives Research Project. Warren’s primary research focus is on the development of a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, a critical reflexive praxis at Drama for Life appropriate for the purposes of Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy in Africa.

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Warren also curated the SA Theatre Season in 2010, Honouring the Archive: Theatre, Memory and Social Justice, and again in 2011, entitled: SA Theatre Season: The Personal Archive: Diversity in Conversation. Warren has chaired the Drama for Life Africa Research Conference since its inception in 2008.Warren was awarded the Vice-Chancellor Award for Transformation in 2013.

Professor Brett Pyper, Head of Wits School of Arts

Dr Brett Pyper, the Head of the Wits School of Arts, is a South African cultural practitioner and music researcher. Dr Pyper began his career as an arts administrator and facilitator of developmental music projects during the transition from apartheid, before taking up a Fulbright Scholarship in the US where he was based for six years. He holds Masters Degrees from Emory University in Atlanta (in interdisciplinary studies, focusing on public culture) and New York University (in ethnomusicology and popular music studies), and he did his PhD on contemporary jazz culture in South Africa, also at NYU. Between 2005 and 2007, he headed the Division of Heritage Studies and Cultural Management in the Wits School of Arts, incorporating the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management. Between 2007 and 2013, he was CEO of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival. He was founding Chair of the South African Society for Research in Music, and serves on the steering committee of the Arterial Network, South Africa.

Keynote Address 1:

Towards a Dialogical Theatre for Development

Professor Marcia Pompeo Nogueira

Aiming to bring the contributions of Paulo Freire to Theatre for Development, this lecture will start by a short introduction on development policy, highlighting its top-down model, and propose three categories of Theatre for Development: Rural Development Campaigns: Theatre as Development Propaganda; Bringing theatre to the people: the democratisation of Theatre; and Creating theatre with the people: Dialogical Theatre. The concepts of dialogue and codification are presented to discuss the categories. A case study on an environmental project is proposed.

Biography:

Marcia Pompeo Nogueira is a Professor at the Department of Performing Arts at the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students on subjects such as Community Theatre, Theatre in Education and Improvisation.

Her areas of research and expertise are Community Theatre and dialogical Theatre for Development. She was trained as an actress at the School of Dramatic Art at USP- BR; and graduated from the Faculty of Education at USP-BR. She holds a Master's degree in Theatre Education at the School of Communications and Arts at USP-BR; her master thesis was entitled

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'Theatre with Street Children'. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Exeter, England, having written a thesis entitled; ‘Towards a Theatre for Development Poetically Correct: A Dialogical Approach'. She has published books in Brazil; Teatro com Meninas e Meninos de Rua: nos caminhos do Ventoforte (São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2008), Teatro na Comunidade: Interações, Dilemas e Possibilidades. (Florianópolis: UDESC, 2009), Teatro na Comunidade: Conexões através do Atlântico (Florianópolis: UDESC, 2013). She has contributed chapters in various published books and journals; Aesthetics and Theatre for Development: the Search for Poetical Correctness (Prentki, T; Nogueira, M. Odhiambo, C), Special Interest Fields of Drama, Theatre and Education (IDEA publication by Hannu Heikkinen) and Between popular traditions and Forum Theatre: Playing on the borders of Theatre of the Oppressed (Nogueira, M.; Gonçalves, M; Prentki, T 2014).

Keynote Address 2: Theatre for Development: “Then and Now”.

Professor Christopher Odhiambo

Specifically the paper focuses on the mutating shapes and patterns of Theatre for Development (TfD) in Africa. It concerns itself with how this mutation is a response and responsive to prevailing social, cultural, economic and political conditions. How, for instance, does theatre for development respond to power and how does power in return respond to theatre for development? By tracing the development of Theatre for Development in Africa in a historical sense, the paper grapples with the emerging issues in the practice.

Biography:

Professor Christopher Odhiambo is a professor of Literatures and Applied Drama and Theatre at Moi University’s Department of Literature in Kenya where he and some colleagues pioneered the teaching of theatre as a full-fledged degree programme at Moi University. He holds a doctorate degree in Drama and Theatre from Stellenbosch University and undertook his Post-Doctoral research work on strategies of Intervention Drama at University of the Witwatersrand. He was the co-convener of Kenya Drama and Education International symposium held in Nairobi in December 1997 and International Drama/Theatre Education world congress held in Kisumu in July 1998. His publication oeuvre including books, articles in refereed journals, book chapters and conferences reviews in the fields of literature, applied drama/ theatre, radio, film and popular culture are major sources of reference for applied theatre and theatre for development scholars and practitioners. He has presented keynotes, public lectures and papers in a number of literature, popular culture, applied/theatre workshops, seminars and conferences both locally and internationally. He participated in the conception and design of curriculum for Drama for Life at the University of Witwatersrand which brings together students from various parts of the world to study and research on how drama can transform communities and societies in Africa. He was the recipient of Wits University SPARC Distinguished Professor award in 2013.

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His current research interests include:

- Theatre as social responsibility and response-ability in post-Colonial Africa - Impact of modern technology on the practice of theatre for development in post-

colonial Africa - Framing of Health and Reproductive issues in FM Radio Stations and TV in Kenya - Profile of Illicit transfer of cultural products from Africa commissioned by African Union

Commission and European Union. 11:00-11:15

Tea break

Venue: Wits Theatre Foyer

11:30-13:00

Session 1A: Papers

In what ways has Theatre for Development addressed, or failed to address the enhancement of indigenous knowledge systems with specific reference to

cultural and spiritual belief systems and healing practices? Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 130

Chair: Sinethemba Makanya

Paper A: The forgotten tools: The use of Storytelling, Ntsomi, Ritual and Enactment in supporting wellbeing and health Lesley Palmer The Zakheni Arts Therapy Foundation offers a number of training and development programmes, that draw their wisdom from indigenous healing practices, which have been further developed through the Creative Arts Therapies. This presentation will explore the potency of the ‘forgotten’ tools of storytelling, ntsomi, ritual and enactment, which can support a community’s wellbeing and health, but have been massively undermined through oppression and a dominant ideology of healthcare . Furthermore, the notion of ‘indigenous’ will be examined within the layers of the complexity inherent in the cross cultural engagement of facilitators and participants, as an offering of one perspective to this enormous subject. Biography: Lesley Palmer is a Drama and Movement Therapist (MA, UK), Family Constellations Therapist (SA) and Play Therapist (PGDip, UK). She is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Lesley’s practice integrates a Creative Arts Therapy approach with Constellations work. Lesley's therapeutic work has been with children and adults, with a focus on bereavement, orphanhood and HIV and AIDS. Beyond her private work, Lesley’s commitment is

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to social and individual healing for South Africans affected by trauma, loss and violence who have limited access to therapy, and to this end is the Director of the Zakheni Arts Therapy Foundation. She co-developed and facilitates a number of Zakheni’s training and therapeutic programmes. She is also the co-founder and performer in Zakheni’s Bonfire Theatre Project, a transformation theatre company committed to healing social divides.

Paper B:

Collaborators in story: iNtsomi in building resilience

Faith Busika

The reports in both local and international news show the school context beginning to be a ground for the expression of behaviours such as sexual violence, emotional bullying, substance addiction and lack of value for education by both learners and educators. The rise of these behaviours can be attributed to complex social issues in the home, community and school environment faced by the learner. These social issues in the environment have a negative impact on the learner’s wellbeing and sense of “self”. This presentation seeks to describe the drama elements of ritual and song present in iNtsomi, playback theatre and narra-drama and examine their capacity to play a psycho-educational role. This research further seeks to advocate for iNtsomi (traditional storytelling) informed by the concepts of playback and narra-drama as a drama therapy approach and investigates the capacity of iNtsomi in resilience building among grade 4 learners at Dumezwene Primary school in Diepkloof, Soweto. The research employs the qualitative approach and is founded upon the core principals of practice as research.

Biography:

Faith Busika describes herself as green; very rooted, stubborn, emotion focused, lover of people, wise and an old soul. She comes from a family of six, her mother is the head of the home as well as her inspiration. Faith strongly believes in God and that He is the guider of her life. She studied her undergraduate BA Drama degree at the University of Witwatersrand in 2007. She has worked at an organization called Themba Interactive as an applied theatre practitioner in schools and with the Zakheni Arts therapy organization as theatre director for children in school. Faith is not only a theatre actor but she also strongly believes in the use of drama for healing purposes and transformation of thinking around social issues. She has performed in various theatre plays that range from the genre of Shakespeare, realism, docu-drama and physical theatre. She has also performed in a number of HIV/AIDS conference spaces. In her performances Faith seeks to initiate thinking and dialogue around the social issues that affect humans. Faith is currently studying for her master’s degree in drama therapy at Drama for Life, University of Witwatersrand. Her hope is to initiate a program that will look at the holistic well-being of children in South African schools.

Paper C:

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They Were Silent: Investigating The Potential Shamanic Role Of A Contemporary Theatre Performer And How Ritual And Theatre Can Be Synergized Kabi Thulo

This study gives expression to my journey of mediating my Sangoma, artist (performer and theatre maker) and academic roles. It is a personal journey that paints the picture of my multi-faceted identity, particularly within the context of pursuing my Masters studies. Grounded in the studies of ritual by Victor Turner, Richard Schechner, Malidoma Patrice Somè and Jerzy Grotowski’s notion of Total Act, the notion of theatre performance as ritual is examined.

Through the devising of a creative project entitled: They were Silent, I seek to answer the following questions:

How can ritual and theatre be synergized?

Can a ritual-based theatre performance facilitate communitas amongst an audience

What are the potential shamanic characteristics of a contemporary performer

The findings of this research give voice to the merging of ritual and theatre as being dependent on the context, intentions and other factors related to a ritual-based theatre performance. Essentially, this study posits that ritual and theatre can merge when the ritual and theatre performance contexts co-exist.

Biography:

Kabi Thulo’s journey into the world of theatre arts commenced through his undergraduate studies, which he completed in 2004 at the University of the Free State. Thereafter he started his professional career as an Arepp Theatre for Life (Educational Theatre Trust) performer in 2005. He worked for the Free State Department of Arts & Culture as a cultural facilitator from December 2006 to June 2007 before completing his Honours studies at the University of Cape Town in 2007. Subsequently, he pursued and completed his Masters at Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand in 2009. Thulo is a traditional healer of Sotho origin who is currently pursuing his PHD studies at the University of Cape Town. Additionally, he is a fulltime lecturer at Tshwane University of Technology in the areas or subjects of Acting and Directing. This scholar’s areas of interest are theatre making and directing. His academic research and professional practice are focused on facilitating collaborative process-based theatre making projects both as a director and performer.

Paper D:

The Mapiko dance of northern Mozambique: A theatre for Education intervention

Evaristo Abreu

Mapiko is a dance that is practiced in northern Mozambique. This dance is usually associated with the rites of passage from youth to adulthood. Over time Mapiko has undergone several mutations according to the social, cultural and economic changes in the

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community. The adaptation described in this paper was the result of many years of theatrical practice and some research into the traditional values of Mozambique in order to make a theatre experience that had cultural elements that could be recognized by Mozambicans and which would link them to modern, contemporary and perhaps post-modern theatre techniques.

This work on the adaptation of the elements of Mapiko dance to theatre incorporates playback theatre, and a text: "We kill Mangy-Dog" written by Luis Bernardo Honwana. This conjunction of different elements resulted in a play with logic and coherence. Biography: Evaristo Abreu has been involved in several theatre plays mainly for social purposes, for several organizations and the government, that explore the issues of health, gender and violence that affect communities in Mozambique. Abreu was co-ordinator of the International Theatre Festival D’Agosto from 1998 to 2005 bringing together many groups and artists from many countries, from Africa, Europe and Latin America. In 2006, he joined World Vision to coordinate the department of community mobilization. This opened doors to network with a broad community of theatre practitioners around Mozambique and other stakeholders on the development. He has participated in several festivals in many parts of the world, as an actor and director, and has won the best actor prize in brazil (Paraiba Film festival) for his role in the film “Another man’s garden“ directed by Sol de Carvalho ( Mozambican film director). Since 2011 he has held a lecturer role at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. Abreu graduated with a MA in Applied Theatre from Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand. Session 1B: Papers

In what ways has Theatre for Development addressed, or failed to address the ethical, cultural and development challenges that arise from a human rights and

social justice health and wellness agenda? Venue: Wits School of Arts, Appollonia Theatre

Chair: Emma Durden

Paper A: BUILDING PATHWAYS THROUGH BROKEN BRIDGES: Challenging authority and building relations between the residents and local government in Zimbabwe Melissa Eveleigh This presentation provides an overview of the how applied theatre practice has been integrated into GIZ’s support to Local Authorities in Zimbabwe in 2013 and 2014, and demonstrates how both theatre processes, and the structure in which these are employed, can enable key shifts in the movement towards dialogue, harmony, and understanding in a thoroughly fractured,

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damaged and dilapidated context. In addition, the complex power dynamics between the European development agency, the Local Authorities, the local implementing partners and artists, and the European practitioner/consultant is discussed and analysed. This presentation aims to illustrate the tensions arising from the various agendas involved and describes a methodology for theatre for good governance or democratisation as initiating a nexus of pathways across otherwise segregated parts of the ‘the system’. Biography: Award-winning UK Director/writer and accomplished development practitioner, Melissa has lived and worked in Southern Africa since 2002. Melissa co-founded and ran the national arts and development NGO, Nanzikambe Arts in Malawi 2004-2010; more recently established Arts Lab, a cultural development programme for performers in Zimbabwe, and wrote and produced award-winning dance-theatre production Can’t Talk About This, Grahamstown 2013. Most recently, Melissa directed H28, a dance theatre piece created in memory of David Kato, Ugandan Gay rights activist, with Forgotten Angle in Johannesburg. Melissa comes from a physical theatre background training at LISPA, The London International School of Performing Arts, and has extensively used the arts and communication for education, therapy, sexual and reproductive rights, health, human rights, democracy and governance. In 2014, Melissa worked in four cities in Zimbabwe using the arts and communication to build relations between Local authorities and residents and has trained practitioners and developed a series of theatre based actions for the improvement of legal rights in Bangladesh with the GIZ Rule of Law Programme. Paper B:

A Proficient Community Theatre Practitioner Themba Mkhoma My paper explores the ways in which Reflective Practice strategies may be used to inform a model for a safe and proficient community theatre practice. Many researchers in the field of sociology agree that drama is a powerful medium that can have great impact on human development. Kushner (2001) says, “art... changes the world…” For this reason every practitioner who leads human beings in an arts process such as drama should be governed by the Applied Art’s “Do no harm” principle (Prendegast, et al, 2009, p198). The point of departure of this investigation is empirical. It is based on my observation of my practice as a community theatre practitioner before and after being introduced to the Drama Therapeutic Reflective Practice. It is a reflective discourse in which I look at how I and other community theatre practitioners who haven’t been exposed to reflective practice have always conducted our practice. I then explore the principles of drama and theatre best practice and how they constitute a safe and efficient community theatre practice. Biography: Themba Mkhoma is a writer, theatre and film director whose passion has always been in skills training for the youth. He is a part time Fieldworker for the Market Laboratory and a founding member of The Living Newspaper, a Soweto based project that uses Drama Workshops as a tool for youth development. Themba is currently doing an Honors Degree in Drama Therapy

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with Drama for Life at the University of the Witwatersrand where he completed his Advanced Diploma in Applied Drama.

Paper C:

Finding the positive in the negative: Working towards syncretising Forum Theatre and Appreciative

Inquiry in Theatre for Development Processes

Sibongile Bhebhe

The presentation will make use of illustrations selected from TfD principles in community engagement

processes. The illustrations will be drawn from various workshops that acted as discursive frames for

creating awareness and discussion on ethnic prejudice/xenophobia as a social ill that affects

development in Hillbrow South Africa. The practice was then turned into a report. The research report

investigated and analysed the syncretisation of Forum theatre with Appreciative Inquiry in dealing with

ethnic prejudice in Hillbrow, South Africa. Syncretisation is a term that can be positively borrowed and

used in TfD processes because it looks at forms of acculturation in community theatre aesthetics. The

workshops explored how the two seemingly contradictory methods that, nonetheless, speak to each

other can be merged. Appreciative Inquiry, a non-theatrical method, was used to enhance Forum

theatre, a theatrical method. The study argues that Appreciative Inquiry through its asset-based

approach can enhance the problem-solving approach of Forum theatre to help participants address

issues of identity, difference and diversity that largely speak to ethnic prejudice. It also asserts that the

merging of the two methods has the ability to engage the participants in problem-solving in a more

positive way in dealing with ethnic prejudice. The study raised questions about the efficacy of the

positive principle of Appreciative Inquiry and the problem-posing approach of Forum theatre. The

demanding nature of ethnic prejudice challenged the positive principle advocated by Appreciative

Inquiry and the problem-posing approach of Forum theatre. It concludes that syncretising Forum theatre

with the strengthening capacity of Appreciative Inquiry can be a daunting task because the intervention

did not easily bend towards the asset and positive attributes. Sometimes, the dominant problem-posing

attributes of Forum theatre stubbornly resurfaced and thwarted some attempt at encouraging the

positive attitude belief system of Appreciative Inquiry. As such, the presentation will outline the ways in

which East can meet West in the kind of work that Applied Theatre practitioners do in trying to find the

positive spark where social ills run rife in community development work.

Biography

Sibongile Bhebhe is a Wits University, Drama for Life graduate who has attained first class degree for

her Master in Arts, Applied Drama. She comes from the Matabeleland region in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

She has won numerous awards such as Business Environment Services Best Teacher (Zimbabwe), John

Kani Theatre for Social Change Award and Yvonne Banning Award for Outstanding Ethnographic

Research by a Post Graduate Student (Wits University, South Africa). She has presented various papers:

Assitej Theatre for Youth Progamme on how young people can deal with the issue of ethnic prejudice

through participatory methods; Wits School of Public Health on how she carried out a practice based

ethnographic research in a community setting; Drama for Life Town Hall on the personal journey on how

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she did her Practice as Research thesis through using an Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Forum

Theatre on addressing ethnic prejudice in Hilbrow, South Africa. She is currently a Community Projects

Coordinator for Sex Actually and Moutse East Festivals and Lecturer for the Advanced Diploma class with

Drama for Life. She has worked with various rural and urban communities in South Africa as a

Researcher/Facilitator in Social change programmes.

13:00-14:00

Lunch

Venue: Wits Theatre

14:15-17:00

Session 2A: Workshops

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 204

Chair: Rozanne Myburgh

Buffering Suffering: Integrating the Arts in Building Resilience in Regional and Global Contexts

Professor Vivien Marcow Speiser and Phillip Speiser

The arts and in particular, the theatre arts are directly relevant to the development of resilience and protective factors because they are participatory and inclusive. They draw upon shared human experience and engage the creative process and in so doing allow for alternative visions, and a sharing and collaboration with others towards building a more hopeful future. Art allows for engagement at spiritual and communal levels and aids in the development of efficacy and agency. The arts contribute to social transformation and resilience in part because they serve as generators of creative ideas. In addition they serve to increase communication and support; bridge multicultural symbolic forms; symbolize traumatic losses and hopes for the future and establish connection between the body and the brain. The theatre arts, expression and enactment are ways of “telling the story” in symbolic ways that are able to “hold and contain”. That is, to have coexisting within them complex and at times contradictory elements. The telling of stories and the expression of personal narratives through a wide variety of art forms within a community of witnesses can be a powerful tool for individuals to work through difficult experiences. This workshop will explore how the use of theatre for development, the arts & storytelling, can be used to build resilience and effect personal, group and social transformation/change. The telling and enactment of stories and the expression of personal narratives will serve as the vehicle for understanding how these arts forms can be applied and integrated within education, therapy and community.

Biographies:

Vivien Marcow Speiser (PhD, BC-DMT, LMHC, NCC) is a Professor and the Director of the

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Institute for Arts and Health, International and Collaborative Programs at The Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University. Her work has allowed her unparalleled access to working with groups across the United States, Israel and internationally. She has used the arts as a way of communicating across borders and across cultures and believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change and transformation. As former founder and director of the Arts Institute Project in Israel, she has been influential in the development of Expressive Arts Therapy in that country. Her current interests are in generating community training and research partnerships and cross-cultural conflict resolution through the arts. She is a co-editor of The Arts, Education and Social Change: Little Signs of Hope, published by Peter Lang. She is also a co-author of The Arts and Social Change: The Lesley University Experience in Israel. In Israel she has organized such events as: The Imagine Conference: An Arts Approach to Working with Conflict, which brought together Palestinians and Israelis to envision a healed future, Tel Aviv April 2006. She is the author of many articles and books addressing trauma such as An Arts Approach to Working with Cross Cultural Conflicts, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology; The Use of the Arts in Working with Fear and Stress, The Art of Healthcare, Volume I.I.

Phillip Speiser, (PhD, RDT-BCT, Psychodramatist) is an expressive arts educator/therapist, drama therapist, and psychodramatist who has developed and implemented integrated arts therapy and educational programs for over three decades. He is currently in private practice at Parkside Arts & Health Associates in Boston, MA where he works with children, adults and families who are at-risk and challenged emotionally, physically and developmentally. He is Supervisor of Arts Therapy at Whittier Street Health Center, Roxbury, MA. And he also is co-director of the Omega Theater Transpersonal Drama Therapy Certificate Program. He has worked and developed programs with individuals and groups in conflict in conflicted areas of the world, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and the Middle East. He is well known in the Boston area for his ongoing commitment and work with violence prevention through the use of the arts. He has been a senior lecturer at Lesley University, Cambridge, MA and has taught at numerous colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is the former chairperson of Very Special Arts Sweden and of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.

Session 2B

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 203

Chair: Oluwadamilola Apotieri

Introduction to the Mvuso School and Community Education Project model

Mammatli Thakuli-Nzuza, Tshego Khutsoane, Hamish Neill

The Drama for Life Mvuso School and Community Education Project is finding a way to address current key issues in education and community development by enhancing the capacity of educators and practicing community artists through a carefully crafted short course training,

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application and mentorship process. The project has helped to ensure that learning and change becomes negotiated and sustainable. The two Mvuso project workshops as a part of this conference intend to introduce the participant to the Mvuso project as a ‘model’ formulated by Drama for Life to train community artists and teachers in introductory applied drama and theatre strategies for application with groups of adolescents exploring contemporary social issues. The participant is required to sign up for both workshops over the course of the two days.

Biographies:

Mammatli Thakhuli-Nzuza is a facilitator, trainer, performer and storyteller. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Arts with Honours degree from the University of the Witwatersrand where she majored in Applied Theatre and Drama and Reflexive Practice. Mammatli is an accredited CCE (Community Capacity Enhancement) facilitator and trainer through the Nelson Mandela Foundation and has facilitated community dialogues in Moutse East Village in Limpopo from 2011-2013. The intervention was aimed at facilitating dialogue on HIV/AIDS and capacitating community members to make critical decisions and to take action on reducing the spread of the virus within their community. Over the past three years, Mammatli has trained teachers and practicing artists in Applied Theatre and Drama methodologies in the DFL Mvuso School and Community Project. Her work within the youth sector include facilitating dialogues at the annual Mpumalanga Youth development Summit, aimed at providing a platform to solicit views and ideas from the youth towards adressing socio-political challanges faced by the youth within the province. To date, Mammatli is a project co-ordinator at Azali Health Care, working on the Intergrated School Health Program in HIV Prevention, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Health and USAID. She currently looks forward to completing her Masters Research in Applied Theatre and Drama through the Division of Drama for Life at the University of the Witwatersraand.

Hamish is a performer, facilitator and trainer. His interests span across the fields of social transformation through performance and education, theatre making, and research. He has particular interest in the field of facilitation as a means of training, teaching and expression, and uses his experience from theatre to help explore and add to this journey. Hamish has engaged in facilitating various interventions across Johannesburg. Tshego’s experience in directing, as a co-devisor and collaborator in theatre making as well as during her time with UBOM! has skilled her with the tools for crafting and creating theatre language that is appropriate and accessible for varied groups. Her facilitation experiences range from workshop processes with schools and schools festivals, for primary and senior learners. She has also carried out applied theatre processes at Universities and in communities with adult marginalised groups. Her projects have included creating Theatre for Development and Education work around Diversity, Environmental Awareness and the issue of HIV/AIDS. She has provided support for community based theatre groups in the Eastern Cape townships making work to showcase at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. In another project she worked with a group of blind adult learners with diverse needs and abilities. These learners sought to educate their community and others about their experiences and challenges as blind individuals

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using the medium of theatre to tell their individual stories. Recently in her year of study at Drama for life she carried out reflective applied theatre processes with a community of peer educators involved with work in vulnerable communities of sex work and trafficking in Hillbrow.

Session 2C

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 206

Chair: Mmabatho Mogomotsi

Socio-drama and Role-playing as radical pedagogy

Refiloe Lepere

Who I am or [who I] say I am is a product of many factors….(Tatum, 1998)

Exploring the use of socio-drama and role-playing as an engaging methodology in training and education, the workshop will look at how this unique educational tool can facilitate personal growth and provide a powerful, transformative experience. This workshop is an experiential socio-drama process where we examine the meaning of taking on a role and how role playing facilitates dialogue and self-analysis and can offer a new understanding on training and teaching. Participants will be required to explore social issues by playing various roles they see in their daily lives. The role-playing will be deepened through a process that includes role-reversal and reflection of the role-playing. A discussion on role-playing and its use in the classroom, training environment, and the community will follow. Based on the applied theory of role and role method, I am particularly interested in the building of a cohesive structure of trainer and trainee, where techniques used can open a plural space of engagement.

Biography:

Refiloe Lepere has an MA from New York University. She is a drama therapist, facilitator, journalist, lecturer and writer. She is a part-time lecturer at Drama for Life, University of Witwatersrand. As a playwright she weaves history, statistics and personal narrative to address issues of social (in)justice, intersectional identities and psychology of black people.As a director and trainer she has a particular interest in theatre and work that focuses on the concept of role – where everyday activity can be considered as acting out of socially defined categories. She has primarily developed her skills through experience of running her own company, and accepting roles of project manager for a number of festivals and projects. Refiloe has a rich range of directorial skills by working with performers on their physical, vocal and character-driven connections.

17:15-18:15

Exhibition, Book launch and Cocktail Dinner

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Venue: Wits School of Arts, Courtyard

This gathering is a celebration of traditional and creative research undertaken by staff and partners of Drama for Life, Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand.

Through Positive Eyes: A Theatre of Testimony An exhibition curated by Warren Nebe Project Coordination by Cameron Anzio Jacobs Guest Speakers: Zandile Mqwathi & Faith Busika

This exhibition has been put together based on the international photographic Through Positive Eyes project. The global Through Positive Eyes project started in South Africa in 2010, when the project initiated by the Arts and Global Health Center at the University of California (Los Angeles) and internationally acclaimed photographer Gideon Mendel encouraged seventeen HIV-positive activists to create photo essays about their lives as people living with HIV, which were then displayed in the Spiral Exhibition as part of The A.R.T. Show as well as online at the website www.throughpositiveeyes.org. The photographic project was co-directed by Professor David Gere and London-based South African photographer and AIDS activist Gideon Mendel, who has been chronicling HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1993. Since then his ground-breaking work on the issue has been widely recognized. Through magazine publications, multimedia web and video presentations, and his book, A Broken Landscape, Mendel has been commended for empowering his subjects rather than representing them as objects of pity. The South African project is a unique project in that the work was turned into a theatre of testimony by Warren Nebe and the Drama for Life Theatre Company. In 2012 Drama for Life embarked on creating the award-winning Through Positive Eyes theatre of testimony. This original theatre production, directed by Warren Nebe with theatre-makers from Drama for Life and Themba Interactive came together to re-play the activists' stories as part of the DFL Sex Actually Festival in 2012 and 2013. This resulted in an honest and powerful production comprising of a collection of stories, testimonies and reflections of twelve individuals facing the challenges of everyday life. Through Positive Eyes is regarded as one of Drama for Life flagship creative research projects. The play was nominated for the South African Naledi Theatre Awards, namely: Best New Cutting-Edge Production (2013), and Best New Performer (2013). Adrienne Sichel, South African Arts Critic, wrote "…Through Positive Eyes has the power to transform deeply personal testimony into a shared, indelibly theatrical, experience.” Through Positive Eyes is an attempt to address key themes of the AIDS epidemic: widespread stigma, extreme social inequality, and limited access to lifesaving medication. The project is based on the belief that challenging stigma against people living with HIV/AIDS is the most effective method for combating the epidemic—and that art is a powerful way to do this. Over four years HIV-positive people in six countries and on five continents have taken part in this unique initiative, creating powerful personal photo essays. These images that tell the story of the meeting between HIV/AIDS activists and theatre-makers are part of a broader collection of

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local and international advocacy materials including exhibitions, short films, a book, and the website. In memory of Betty, lala ngo xolo mama.

Publication of Books:

Barnes, Hazel ed. 2013. Applied Drama and Theatre as an Interdisciplinary Field in the

context of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Amsterdam: Rodopi

Barnes,Hazel ed. 2013 Arts Activism, Education, and Therapies: Transforming

Communities Across Africa. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Barnes, Hazel and Marie-Heleen Coetzee. Eds. 2014. Applied Drama/Theatre as Social

Intervention in Conflict and Post Conflict Contexts. Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge

Scholars Publishing

Barnes Hazel and Christina Sinding. Eds. 2014. Social Work Artfully: Beyond Borders and

Boundaries. Waterloo, Canada: Wilfred Laurier Press.

Welcome:

Warren Nebe

Warren Nebe is the founder and director of Drama for Life, a division of postgraduate studies in Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy at University of the Witwatersrand. He is a theatre director, senior lecturer, a HPCSA and NADT registered drama therapist and a Fulbright Alumni. He was the previous managing director of Themba Interactive – Initiatives for Life. His research focuses on identity construction, representation and memory in South Africa through an auto-ethnographic theatre-making approach. Notions of identity are explored in his theatre productions, ID Pending, Hayani, Through Positive Eyes and Morwa under his

direction. Hayani and Through Positive Eyes collectively received 8 SA Theatre Award nominations for the 2013 season, including Best Cutting Edge/Ensemble productions. Hayani was awarded Best New SA play. Warren is also a research member of the Apartheid Archives Research Project. Warren’s primary research focus is on the development of a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, a critical reflexive praxis at Drama for Life appropriate for the purposes of Applied Drama, Drama Education and Drama Therapy in Africa.

Warren also curated the SA Theatre Season in 2010, Honouring the Archive: Theatre, Memory and Social Justice, and again in 2011, entitled: SA Theatre Season: The Personal Archive: Diversity in Conversation. Warren has chaired the Drama for Life Africa Research Conference since its inception in 2008.Warren was awarded the Vice-Chancellor Award for Transformation in 2013.

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Address 1:

Professor Hazel Barnes

Biography:

Professor Hazel Barnes is a retired Head of Drama and Performance Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she is a Senior Research Associate. She has been a Mellon Visiting Scholar to the University of Cape Town and is a member of the Management Committee and Chair of the Research Committee of Drama for Life, Division of Dramatic Arts, School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand. Her research interests lie in the field of Applied Drama in which she has published a number of papers on drama and theatre applied to interculturalism and post-traumatic stress.

She has also published on South African playwrights, in particular Greig Coetzee and Mandla Mbothwe. She has edited books on Applied Drama and Theatre for international publishers. She is also an actor and director.

Address 2:

Professor Marie-Heleen Coetzee

Professor Marié-Heleen Coetzee is professor and head of the drama department at the University of Pretoria. She was previously on faculty at the University of Zululand. Her research interests include drama/theatre-based pedagogies and embodied learning in performance praxis. She has presented papers and workshops at national and international conferences, contributed scholarly publications and presented productions and lectures on various platforms. She served on the Artistic Advisory Board of The International Organisation of the Sword and the Pen and has been a juror for the Brock International Prize in Education. She received the International Organisation of the Sword and the Pen’s (IOSP) Paddy Crean Award in 2009 for research on Zulu stick fighting as stage combat.

18:30-19:30

Performance

Venue: Wits Downstairs Theatre

Chair: Hamish Neill

Cantos of a Life in Exile

Makhaola Ndebele

A chronicle of the journey of an exiled life, through fragmented identities, in search of a truth called home.

Biography

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Makhaola has over two decades of insightful experience across various dramatic disciplines. He is a discerning professional who has worked as a theatre, television, and film actor; a dramatist and screenwriter, a theatre director and dramaturge, a television producer; and a creative consultant. He currently also serves as a Performance Studies, and Dramatic Writing, lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Wits School of Arts (WSOA), and a MA Dramatic Arts candidate under the supervision of Warren Nebe

Saturday November 22

8:00 – 8:45

Registration and tea

Venue: Wits Theatre Foyer

9:00-10:30

Session 1: Papers

In what ways has Theatre for Development addressed, or failed to address the challenge of social behavior change in relation to the pandemic of HIV and AIDS,

sexual reproduction, health and wellness?

Venue: Wits School of Arts, Appollonia Theatre

Chair: Professor Hazel Barnes

Paper A:

“Walking but really dead”: Linking community perspectives on TB care with drama interventions Dr Jennifer Watermeyer

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to kill millions of people every year and South Africa has experienced a surge in multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB cases. Patient non-adherence to TB treatment is an ongoing problem and while there may be numerous reasons for this occurrence, some solutions may lie in understanding illness experiences and cultural perspectives and their link with communication processes in TB care contexts. This paper will report on the results of a study which explored illness and treatment experiences in a rural community affected by TB. The findings highlight the complex interplay between contextual factors and community explanations of TB. It reinforces the need for a patient-centred approach to TB care and the development of team training approaches in line with an action research philosophy. Based on previous studies in HIV/Aids care, we will discuss how the findings of this study might inform the development of an intervention which incorporates drama techniques.

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Biography:

Dr. Jennifer Watermeyer is the deputy director of the Health Communication Research Unit. She is senior lecturer at the Department of Speech Pathology and audiology. She is interested in studying communication processes in multicultural healthcare interactions. Her research has focused on interactional analysis of cross-cultural healthcare encounters, cultural understandings of illness, pharmacy interactions, interpreting practices, informed consent practices with vulnerable populations, monitoring and evaluating healthcare practices, disclosure practices in paediatric HIV/Aids contexts, and developing communication skills training programmes for healthcare teams in HIV/Aids contexts. She is currently working on a project focusing on communication issues in TB care.

Paper B:

Theatre in Development- a part of Entertainment Education (E-E)

Silinganiso Chatikobo

Those concerned with HIV education agree that behaviour change is of importance to achieve the goals of HIV prevention and management. Health messages can be delivered through different channels, ranging from mass media campaigns, health interventions activated within communities, to integrating messages into the school curriculum. Entertainment education (E-E) can be used to raise awareness and promote action in the fight against different health issues including HIV among communities. Most E-E has been influenced by Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. Dramas provide the opportunity to embed arguments and counterarguments within a narrative that has personal relevance to the audience, especially those who are facing similar conflicts in their own lives. This paper will seek to explore the critical components that need to be included in planning and implementing development work through the use of theatre. It will provide a basis for debate and reflection in assessing if theatre organisations involved in development work have embraced these concepts and what improvements need to be done in order to harness the full potential of theatre in development work. Biography:

Silinganiso Chatikobo works with Themba Interactive an NGO in Braamfontein as a Project

Officer. Her work experience spanning over 10 years has mostly been within the media

departments of advertising agencies in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana as well as consulting for

agencies based in Zambia and Malawi. Silinganiso holds a Diploma in Mass Communication

majoring in broadcasting and a Med in Education and Mass Media in which her research

focused on “The use of Broadcasting Media for development in Zimbabwe”. She also holds a

Post graduate Diploma in HIV Management from Stellenbosch University and is currently

carrying out her research on “HIV Stigma: An exploration of how songs with HIV themes are

perceived by Zimbabwean nationals living in Johannesburg, South Africa” as part fulfilment of a

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Masters in Public Health with a special focus on Social and Behaviour Communication from Wits

University.

Paper C:

An exploration of the use of drama as a tool for dialogue to elicit discussion in order to understand barriers and facilitators to a patient-centred care approach- The case study of Ndlovu Care Group Elandsdoorn Clinic. Lesley Nkosi

This empirical study, based on two years of research, attempts to explore the efficacy of patient-centred care in a rural context. Drawing on an integrated research approach, employing ethnography, participatory action research, applied drama, community capacity enhancement and patient-centred care, this work aims to implement a theatre-based intervention at a site in order to elicit dialogue with health care practitioners delivering a service at a community based HIV/Aids and TB clinic. Undertaken by a person receiving antiretroviral treatment, it explores the attitudes and experiences of five health care practitioners in relation to their working context. This is an exploratory study which examines enablers and the barriers to patient-centred care in a semi-rural context. The major themes of the study are ‘Time’, ‘Systems’ and the ‘Human Factor’ and how these connect with compassion and affect patient-centred care. This study demonstrates that drama as a tool for dialogue can assist health practitioners to explore their own attitudes and experiences through reflection. Biography: Les Nkosi is a Dialogue Facilitator through Community Capacity Enhancement (CCE), Master of Ceremonies and Content Producer with diverse experience in Media and Project Management for Social Change programmes. He has worked with HIV/Aids content for over eleven years. A budding entrepreneur and social entrepreneur, Les has lived with HIV for 9 years, and so brings a wealth of personal and academic experience to any subject on social justice and liberation from self-doubt. Holding Honour’s (Cum Laude) and Master’s degrees in Applied Drama and Theatre from Drama for Life, University of the Witwatersrand, he is the recipient of the Marshal Kander Award for most outstanding HIV/Aids research. Les works as a consultant for various television productions in content producing and directing. Currently he is consulting for Dzuguda Productions - Content Director for a XiTsonga talk show on SABC 2 titled Vusaseki (translated to beauty), where he uses CCE principles to direct content. Les is also a part-time lecturer for postgraduate students at Wits University's Drama for Life where he lectures Critical Reflexive Praxis through Community Capacity Enhancement and Applied Theatre.

10:30-11:00

Tea break

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Venue: Wits School of Arts, Courtyard

11:00-13:00

Session 2A: Workshop

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 204

Chair: Maria Cambane

A playful experimentation on codification

Professor Marcia Pompeo Nogueira

The workshop makes use of a methodology that provides links between the codification proposed by Paulo Freire with the Image Theatre proposed by Augusto Boal. It is a playful experimentation that seeks to identify significant codes for the group. Exploring the group expression through games and images, we will try to identify meaningful situations and explore their contradictions. The objectives of the workshop are:

To explore different types of games to warm up and integrate the group

To explore significant themes for the group through the use of image theatre

To explore the contradictions present in the images, developing the themes theatrically and analyzing them as codifications and identify its target audience.

Biography:

Marcia Pompeo Nogueira is a Professor at the Department of Performing Arts at the State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students on subjects such as Community Theatre, Theatre in Education and Improvisation. Her areas of research and expertise are Community Theatre and dialogical Theatre for Development. She was trained as an actress at the School of Dramatic Art at USP- BR; and graduated from the Faculty of Education at USP-BR. She holds a Master's degree in Theatre Education at the School of Communications and Arts at USP-BR; her master thesis was entitled 'Theatre with Street Children'. She obtained her doctorate from the University of Exeter, England, having written a thesis entitled; ‘Towards a Theatre for Development Poetically Correct: A Dialogical Approach'. She has published books in Brazil; Teatro com Meninas e Meninos de Rua: nos caminhos do Ventoforte (São Paulo: Perspectiva, 2008), Teatro na Comunidade: Interações, Dilemas e Possibilidades. (Florianópolis: UDESC, 2009), Teatro na Comunidade: Conexões através do Atlântico (Florianópolis: UDESC, 2013). She has contributed chapters in various published books and journals; Aesthetics and Theatre for Development: the Search for Poetical Correctness (Prentki, T; Nogueira, M. Odhiambo, C), Special Interest Fields of Drama, Theatre and Education (IDEA publication by Hannu Heikkinen) and Between popular traditions and Forum Theatre: Playing on the borders of Theatre of the Oppressed (Nogueira, M.; Gonçalves, M; Prentki, T 2014).

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Session 2B: Workshop

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 203

Chair: Pearl Qhobela

The Healing Capacity of Trance: Applying Indigenous Wisdom in Contemporary Practices with Systemic Constellations and Trance Movement

Amanda Gifford and Willem Smuts

Co-led by a drama therapist and a Holistic and Quantum Health practitioner, the workshop will explore the power of trance and its applications to community development, health and deep transformation through the Arts. From the position of Arts practitioner as shaman, the workshop further seeks to explore and understand the connection of the body and the mind through systemic constellations and trance inspired movement to explore conscious sexuality for personal and community health and wellbeing.

Biographies:

Amanda has a Masters in Psychology and is one of nine qualified and HPCSA registered Drama Therapists in South Africa, having completed her Masters in Psych. Drama Therapy with a Transpersonal Approach at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in 2003. She enjoys creativity and pioneering in the consciousness and transformation field. She draws from a wide variety of science & consciousness research. She is also a Systems Constellations facilitator and trainer and has run workshops nationally and internationally.

Willem has a passion for Creative and Spiritual Group Transformation work through Blissdance,

Free Flow, Conscious Dancing elements For the past 15 years, he of theatre and performance.

has been immersed as a facilitator in the powerfully explorative world of movement and inner movement through Conscious dancing. He is a Free Flow, Blissdance, Inspiration Dance and a Biodanza facilitator, using these modalities for Weekly classes, Workshops, Therapeutic Rehabilitation centres as well as Corporate Team Building Processes. The Joy, Fiery Vitality, Passion, Sensitivity, Spiritual and Transformative aspects that expressive Conscious dancing processes evoke in him and the groups he works with, is one of the central focuses in his life. He has facilitated Conscious dance workshops in India at Auroville, Reunion Island, The Netherlands, Wilderness, Knysna, Cape Town and arranges workshops swimming with wild dolphins in Mozambique and doing conscious dancing at Ponto Malangane. He is also an Intuitive Holistic Therapist specialising in Allergies, Chronic Fatigue and general health.

Session 2C: Workshop

Venue: Wits School of Arts, room 206

Chair: Sizwe Ndlela

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Introduction to the Mvuso School and Community Education Project model

Tamara Gordon-Roberts

The Drama for Life Mvuso School and Community Education Project is finding a way to address current key issues in education and community development by enhancing the capacity of educators and practicing community artists through a carefully crafted short course training, application and mentorship process. The project has helped to ensure that learning and change becomes negotiated and sustainable. The two Mvuso project workshops as a part of this conference intend to introduce the participant to the Mvuso project as a ‘model’ formulated by Drama for Life to train community artists and teachers in introductory applied drama and theatre strategies for application with groups of adolescents exploring contemporary social issues. The participant is required to sign up for both workshops over the course of the two days.

Biography:

Tamara Gordon-Roberts is a registered Dramatherapist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Tamara trained in the Sesame approach to Drama and Movement Therapy at the Central School of Speech and Drama- University of London. Tamara currently works in various fields as a therapist, facilitator and educator. Her client experience is in adult mental health (acute and forensic psychiatry); child and adult moderate to severe learning and physical difficulties; child and adolescent emotional behavioural difficulties and the elderly with dementia. Tamara is the Academic Programme Manager of Drama for Life. Tamara coordinates Applied Drama and Theatre and Drama Therapy fourth year, honours and masters courses including the Drama for Life core course. As a member of Drama for Life she has coordinated two of the four Africa Research Conferences, and is a member of the Drama for Life research committee. 13:00-14:00

Lunch

Venue: Wits Theatre

14:00-15:00

Performance

Venue: To be announced

Chair: Munyaradzi Chatikobo

Isaro: The Forgotten One

Gcebile Dlamini

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Gerard Bester, Director Hillbrow Theatre

How do we then begin identifying ourselves and finding a sense of belonging in a foreign land with lines of inhabitants already established?

The Genocide wars of Rwanda left countless families torn apart. The victims of these wars are spread all over the continent, with some not knowing their belonging. A lot of these young people have never tasted the natures of their countries of birth and because of the high rate of Xenophobia in South Africa, their hearts long for home. Isaro: The forgotten one tells us of her journey and how she ended in South Africa. As Rwanda celebrates 20 years of democracy, Isaro journeys back to the trials of these wars to find closure. The play came out of collaboration between community artist and Drama for Life Scholar, Gcebile Dlamini and a group of 13-18 year old participants, of the Hillbrow Theatre Outreach Program. The exploration of the topic was inspired by the theme given for the 2013 Inner-city Drama schools festival titled “To read is to fly”.

Biography:

Gcebile Dlamini is a theatre director, writer and actress born in the mountainous Valleys of Swaziland. As a young girl, she was exposed to ballroom dance and musical instruments and this motivated her to become an actress and pursued ‘her calling’ by completing her Diploma in Drama at the Durban University of Technology from 2008 to 2010. She continued her studies and completed her B-Tech at the Tshwane University of Technology. During her studies she was drawn to directing and community work resulting in her interest in community theatre. She has collaborated with Forgotten Angle Collaborative Theatre, University of Fort Hare (community engagement), Drama for Life and Soul City. She has worked at Hillbrow theatre as facilitator and schools festival coordinator. Her awards include Best director, Best Original Script, Adjudicators Award at The EADS Festival in 2012 as well as Best Director and Script at The EADS Festival and SANCTA in 2013. She is recipient of The 2014 Naledi Award for Best Community Theatre. She currently studies at Drama for Life at the University of Witwatersrand for her Honours in Applied Theatre

15:00-16:00

Closing

Venue: To be announced

Reflections on Conference with a Panel:

Professor Hazel Barnes

Professor Christopher Odhiambo

Professor Marcia Pompeo Nogueira

Limpho Kou & Adriana Cunha (Talk back session)

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Director- Warren Nebe T. +27 11 717 4729 Programme Manager (Academic) - Tamara Gordon-Roberts T. +27 11 717 4728 Programme Manager (Cultural Leadership, Fundraising and Partnerships) - Munyaradzi Chatikobo T. +27 11 717 4615 Programme Manager (Academic Recruitment, Student Welfare and Scholarships & Media and Communication) – Natasha Mazonde T. +27 11 717 4755 Programme Manager (Finance and Administration) - Caryn Green T. +27 11 717 4727 Programme Manager (Research) – Professor Hazel Barnes and Warren Nebe T. +27 11 717 4729 Programme Manager (Projects) – Hamish Neill T. +27 11 717 4735 www.dramaforlife.co.za

@Drama_for_Life

Find us on Facebook

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Drama for Life would like to extend a Special Thank You to the following partners;

1. GIZ

2. Brazilian Embassy and Brazil-South Africa Cultural Centre

4. BASA

5. Goethe Institut

6. The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities

7. Head of Wits School of

9. Wits Institutional Culture Committee,

10. Wits Resident Equity Scholar Programme