Download 7th Drama for Life (DFL) Africa Research Conference

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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:
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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:
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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 intercontinental 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?
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This year the 7 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:
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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
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Expand our knowledge and understanding of the arts as a vehicle for development, healing and social
transformation
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Deepen our understanding of the role that indigenous cultural practices, performances and rituals play in
development
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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:
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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.
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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 PostDoctoral 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 postcolonial 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
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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 narradrama 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, docudrama 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 multifaceted 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:
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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 codirector 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,
15
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
16
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 rolereversal 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 characterdriven connections.
17:15-18:15
Exhibition, Book launch and Cocktail Dinner
17
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 groundbreaking 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
18
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.
19
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
20
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.
21
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 (EE) 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
22
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
23
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).
24
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 of theatre and performance. For the past 15 years, he
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
25
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
26
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)
27
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
28
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
29