Bernard Bongkisheri Wirsiy

Cameroon

Bernard Bongkisheri Wirsiy was born on August 9 1975, in Kumbo, in Cameroon’s northwest region. He obtained a BA in Theatre Arts and Cinematography from the University of Yaounde 1 in the 2008/2009 academic year.

As a theatre performer, he has featured in a number of productions, including The Crusade, Back to school, Nkuma and Workshop Negative. He has also appeared in a few radio and TV dramas, and has some silver screen time in the movies, City Mask, Facing Destiny and Too Late to Repent. He has been backstage manager on a good number of dramatic plays, and has done a stint as a cameraman. Wirsiy has also had a hand in organising and facilitating The Forest Dialogue (TFD) workshops in Cameroon.

Wirsiy sees his time at Wits as contributing to building his community development skills, especially in the areas of HIV and AIDS education. He also expects to extend his acting and facilitating skills, and is looking forward to using Applied Theatre skills to better organise and run TFD workshops on HIV and AIDS sensitization. He would also like to work with trainers in Applied Theatre.