SA pupils have joined drama students from schools on three continents
An innovative theatre project has been bridging the continental divide between drama pupils from Greece and the US since 1997. Now, for the first time, pupils in South Africa will be sharing the (virtual) stage.
Twenty-one pupils from Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg are taking part in the TheatreLink project — pioneered by the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) in New York. It’s a technology-enabled, educational collaboration in which drama pupils, their teachers, and teaching artists from the MTC work together via the internet to share their craft and create plays.
Drama classes are grouped into a unit of three schools. The schools write scripts based on an MTC production, which are then produced by students at their partner schools. Using distance-learning technology such as live video conferencing and streaming video, pupils and teachers consult with MTC teachers and their partner schools throughout the process. The five-month project culminates in a presentation of the plays to the teaching artists and the other schools.
“We get to see what talent is out there and to see how American students see drama,” grade 11 pupil Chanée Pillay, told the Mail & Guardian.
A fresh perspective
“It’s exciting because we are not just getting an opinion [on our work] from someone in South Africa but from someone on the other side of the world.”
Over the past two years, 216 pupils in 16 schools have been involved in the project. After receiving a brief from MTC teaching artist Judy Tate, the grade 11 Sacred Heart class worked together in writing the script for a play about a girl who has a physically challenged child by her best friend’s brother.
Sacred Heart’s script was sent to a drama class at a school in Florida in the US, and the South African pupils are currently rehearsing a play written by a class in a school in Texas.
Tate, a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer and professional actor, provided guidance and feedback during the script-writing process and will work closely with the class as they embark on rehearsals for the play they will be producing over the next few weeks.
Tate has worked in theatres throughout the US as well as in South Africa, including at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
A South African flavour
It was important to the Sacred Heart pupils that a “South African flavour” was given to the script they wrote, which included references to a sangoma, the school’s head of cultural activities Susan Baker told the M&G.
Pillay said the class was “protective” of the script it wrote and “we don’t want our partner school to mess it up”.
“It will be interesting to see how the partner school interprets [the South African themes in the] the script sent to them. At the same time we don’t want to disappoint our partner school with how we act out their script,” she said.
MTC’s education director David Shookhoff told the M&G the project set out to “develop skills, knowledge, and understanding related to playwriting and dramatic production”.
“They develop their abilities to think critically and to use their imaginations.”
Gaining insight
By bringing together pupils from diverse backgrounds and who are geographically isolated from one other, “they gain insight into communities and cultures different from their own”.
Shookhoff added the club was always on the lookout for school partners who are willing and able to participate in the project including having internet connectivity and the technology demanded by the project.
“One important additional criterion is geographical diversity,” he said.
“We were eager to collaborate with Sacred Heart for all those reasons [and], in particular, the idea of expanding to another continent afforded an opportunity to enrich the intercultural conversations that have become an increasingly important component of TheatreLink.”
Baker described the project as an opportunity for her pupils to learn from “a teacher and a playwright with great experience”.
“And she’s in Manhattan!” she said.
A highlight
Working with the Sacred Heart class was described by Tate as the “highlight of my teaching year”.
“The class has been phenomenal!” she said.
“From the very start they have been enthusiastic and hardworking … Their ability to think both creatively and critically is a testament to their teacher and school … During work on every draft of their play, they seriously considered my professional feedback andincorporated suggestions without delay.”
But the project is not without its challenges.
When the M&G attended a rehearsal of SHC’s play, meant to be viewed live via video-conferencing by Tate, the technology unexpectedly failed the group and Tate was not able to watch the rehearsal and provide necessary feedback.
“There are challenges with the technology but we have had one very successful discussion between the class and Judy,” said Baker.
All is not lost
But there were alternatives to video-conferencing including filming rehearsals and sending them to Tate.
Participating schools do pay a small fee and must purchase their own technology, but the project has been mostly subsidised by the MTC, Shoockhoff said.
Depending on the club’s budgetary capacity, among other limitations, it would be interested in adding one or more SA schools [to the project] should the opportunity arise.
Interested schools can browse the TheatreLink website at www.theatrelink.org or email Shookhoff at [email protected].