Drama For Life Conference Day Two: August 27
September 28, 2010 – On day two of the Drama for Life Conference, a stimulating partnership between Wits School of Arts (WSOA), the University of Pretoria’s music therapy and drama departments, the South African Association of Drama Therapists (SAAD) and the South African Network for Arts Therapies Organisations (SANATO), members of the public, foreign delegates, students, academics and art practitioners from all over the globe gathered again in the Wits Main theatre to continue discussion and debate.
The day’s programme focused on arts for HIV/AIDS education, prevention and rehabilitation. The first panel discussion was chaired by Professor Hazel Barnes. David Gere, who is a professor in world arts and culture at the University of California and executive director of the Art | Global Health Centre, opened up the discussion with his photographic documentary Through Positive Eyes. The project is a collaboration between his foundation called MAKE ART/STOP AIDS and South African photographer Gideon Mendel.
Gere related stories around his involvement in the project and the theoretical basis behind his approach. Through Positive Eyes is a montage of portraits of those living with HIV and AIDS and an example of participatory advocacy.
These photo essays, which are authored by the subjects themselves, show how advocacy efforts can be advanced when subjects take ownership of their own stories. When the storyteller guides the viewer through the image, the power dynamics of traditional photography shift.
By showcasing a range of narratives from Mexico all the way to Johannesburg, Mendel and Gere, guided by the belief that all human beings are best reached through stories, underscore the possibilities that open when we share stories beyond national borders. Gere said: “What happens when we listen is that we become those people for those few moments.” He emphasised how empathy is the gateway into involvement in and understanding of another’s world.
Barnes elaborated on the need to address the “empathy gap” and resolve the existing tension between those in need and the well-to-do in society. Summarising the rationale behind Through Positive Eyes, the speakers reinforced how participatory art projects can help to calm fear and open doors for those on the “outside”.
The second presentation was given by Dr Emelda Ngufor Samba, a lecturer in performing arts at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, specialising in theatre for development. Her area of focus in the discussion was titled “Dramatic Art at the Frontiers of Ontology: Reconsidering Aesthetics”. Samba, who uses theatre to assist with emotional healing, examined the links between socio-cultural values and theatre development practices. She did this by revisiting the tools both theoreticians and practitioners of art have put in place in pursuit of transformation and a search for sustainability. She asked: “Who needs healing and for what? Who needs a change in attitude and who needs transformation?”
In relation to her current theatre project We Are Rejected which was workshopped at a government-funded centre for the disabled in Cameroon, Samba related her experience around the use of experimental theatre as a form of therapy for trauma relief. She suggested that for psychological and physical engagement to take place, the distance between the object and the subject needs to be narrowed, and argued that theatre can be used to help dispossessed members of society.
Respondent Chris Odhiambo summarised the presentation by reiterating the need for reviewing practices of applied theatre.
In the afternoon panel discussions, Selloane Mokuku, a Drama for Life alumna and director of a coalition between the Lesotho government, UNICEF and various NGOs, explored the theoretical framework underpinning much of her work. She told of how Lesotho has the third highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world and how critical it is to address behavioural practices in society.
Employing the World Storytelling Institute’s model for playback theatre, theatre of the oppressed and folktales, her methodology is based on gathering real stories. She said: “We are trying to advance conversations around HIV and AIDS prevention, and creating an enabling space is one way of providing for the development of life skills.”
Back at the Wits Main Theatre, a round-table dialogue on questions of gender, sexuality and culture, and art as an HIV/AIDS intervention strategy, with inputs from Warren Nebe, Galia Boneh, Dr Kennedy Chinyowa and Professor David Gere, concluded the day’s proceedings. The panellists interrogated the significant role that the arts play in researching HIV and AIDS in Africa, how they can contribute, make a difference and be used as a reflective medium for bringing about change in attitudes and behaviour.
They concluded by arguing that art as a means to bring about social change has worked in raising awareness and consciousness, but not in helping to understand the contradictions between knowledge and actual behavioural practice.