So, we ventured off to our final workshop this morning. Full of excitement from yesterday and with rehearsal and improvements well underway. The sun came out to greet us on our last full day.
It's understandable that after so many days with such great experiences
there was going to be a session that was more difficult, and that was
today. A combination of miscommunication and assumptions got the better
of all of us. As we arrived, already very late, we were held up for lots
of reasons - one of which being Matt, Lu and Marius going to check out
another venue because of an Indian wedding that was going on next door
that we didn't want to disturb. In the end we went outside.
Seeps, who seemed to be organising the event was very anxious and even
though we were running very late wanted to make sure we got a picture of
the whole group together and that we should let them perform for us. We
were treated to more songs and more dances by some of the smallest
children - but it wasn't the group we had expected and we knew the forum
was going to be difficult.
As the group started work all together Matt, Lu, Marius and I drove over
to the Stable Theatre to see a final dress rehearsal of a piece of
theatre we had been invited to and meet Caroline Smart, who runs lots of
arts events in Durban.
The project, which is lottery funded was a dance piece with able bodied
and disabled young people where they explored communication through
dance. Some of the performers were also from the local school for the
deaf so there was sign language incorporated as part of the routine.
A large part of the performance also looked at the large Indian
influence in Durban and explored these two different cultures through
traditional Indian dance and more contemporary styles.
One girl, Danielle who was in a wheelchair was a main focus of the show
and the professional dancer turned her smallest movements into a routine
they could share. The inclusivity of everyone involved was wonderful
and reminiscent of Amici Theatre I have seen before through Tina at St
Mary's.
It was also gat to see such a wonderful, organic venue - much better
equipped and resourced than the previous places we've been too but still
with a real charm about the work and the setting.
On the drive back I talked to Lu, Marius and Matt about the Berea area
we were in and there was some confusion over where we were taking Matt
to meet Sonny who he is interviewing as part of the Robben Island Bible
project. Marius explained that many street names have been changed since
the apartheid as their names have connotations of the leading
figureheads. Of course this has come up against a huge amount of
resistance and Marius explained that businesses have lost lots of money
changing their address only to be told the street names will revert to
their original titles.
When we returned to the community centre it was evident the students had
had a difficult time. They'd found it really difficult to connect with
this group as they had the others and as a result the work hadn't been
as in depth, as well as having to work with a very large age group and a
group resistant to do Drama. As well as that the group wanted to
perform for us all the time - singing and dancing and poetry. All of
which was brilliant, but we were trying to work with a structure that
didn't seem to fit in.
There were some successes, it wasn't a horrible day. 2 groups managed to
create and perform a piece of forum theatre to the rest of the group
and people willingly intervened and worked came up on stage. But
overall, there was a feeling of being a bit deflated. But we have
achieved so much in our time here and even though this was a difficult
group we still managed to create some work and engage the students in
the forum-ing process. If this had been day 1 we probably would have
seen this as a successful day.
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