Drama for Life Launch 2011
March 23, 2011 Drama for Life Launch 2011
Tomorrow night, Thursday 24th March, Drama for Life (DFL) will launch their 2011 programme to the public.
DFL’s scholarship programme, currently in its fourth year running, aims to step outside of the statistics around HIV and AIDS and address the lived reality of individuals and communities dealing with complex issues related to this pandemic. Working within the African context, DFL advocates an applied arts approach that incorporates the dramatic, visual and musical arts amongst many other hybrid performance forms that speak to the cultures of people dealing with these issues.
The aim of DFL is to develop and integrate applied arts techniques that can engage with the human condition on an ongoing basis around experiences of:
Capacity Development in HIV and AIDS Education, Activism and Therapy
Human Rights and Social Justice
Peace Building, Transformation and Diversity Management
and Environmental Sustainability
The projects, interventions and post graduate programme have all grown directly out of the need for this form of intervention on the continent.
DFL is supported by patrons such as Judge Edwin Cameron, Dr. John Kani, Dr. Sibongile Khumalo and Pieter-Dirk Uys. These renowned figures in the arts and human rights arenas all share a belief in the relevance and importance of the DFL programme, as well as the positive social impact that its projects can have on individuals and communities.
Tomorrow’s launch event will showcase the 17 new scholars who will be joining the 48 alumni already representing DFL in 15 African countries.
Another exciting event for the evening will be the launch of the new DFL Projects Office, which will be the implementing agent for DFL.
Over the course of 2011, DFL is set to roll out an extensive and exciting range of new and established projects, all dealing with issues of HIV and AIDS, race, culture, gender and identity, human rights and social justice. These include:
Drama for Life Sex Actually Festivals in September and October
A Lover + Another National Poetry Competition from July to September
Life Beats. Arts. Journalism. HIV workshop in September
DFL Research Conference in November
DFL projects for 2011:
DFL Playback Theatre Company
An innovative form of story-telling theatre, which addresses various social issues according to a community’s needs, particularly those around HIV and AIDS, gender, race, culture and identity.
DFL Acting Against Conflict
Aims at addressing different forms of conflict, through experiential learning processes, in high schools, universities and other youth centres in South Africa.
DFL Zimbabwe Social Justice Project
Seeks to contribute toward Zimbabwean human rights, constitution building and democracy.
DFL Dramatherapy Project
Proposes a short-term ‘dramatherapeutic’ intervention with grade eight learners and staff, in schools of varying cultural and socio-economic structures, to explore identity formation and managing difference.
DFL Company Laboratory
Is a Practice-based Research Project, which aims to establish suitable arts administrative structures that nurture and develop skills that are aligned with the DFL techniques.
DFL Site Partnerships
The DFL Academic Programme, together with the Projects Office, has formed selected partnerships with formal and informal community and education sites. These partnerships are governed by an Applied Drama and Theatre Code of Ethical Practice.
“Later this year, DFL will break new ground when it takes DFL Sex Actually Festival to Gaborone, Botswana. The festival will be coordinated by DFL alumni and partners. This is a major achievement, considering that one of DFL’s chief objectives is to cross borders into Africa and create opportunities for the DFL facilitators to implement work based on the needs of their communities”, says Levinia Jones, DFL Project Manager.
The launch itself promises to be an event all on its own, with an array of performances including excerpts from Woza Zimbo! directed by Bhekilizwe Ndlovu and Warren Nebe, I Think it’s Hamlet by PJ Sabbagha (Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative), as well as poetry by the 2010 A Lover + Another poets.
Guest speakers for the evening of the launch will included Warren Nebe, the DFL Director; Dean of Humanities (Wits University) Prof. Tawana Kupe; newly appointed Head of Dramatic Arts at Wits School of the Arts, Dr. Kennedy Chinowya; and Dr. Sibongile Khumalo, celebrated and renowned musician.
The DFL launch is open to the public and begins at 6:30 PM sharp at the Wits Theatre. For more information, call the DFL Projects Office on 011 717 4734 or go to http://www.dramaforlife.co.za or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).