Cheraé Halley

South Africa

Cheraé Halley grew up in the town of East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. 

From adolescence Cheraé was often involved in working with surrounding communities that fall within the Buffalo City Municipality. She was particularly passionate about the Rally to Read programme, a rural literacy education project that supplies remote schools in South Africa with reading material.

Within the arts environment, Cheraé took drama as an extra-curricular activity, performing in her primary school’s annual plays. She went on to study drama in high school and matriculated with a distinction. Cheraé was also awarded full colours for drama.

Cheraé is an honours graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand, where she received her Bachelors degree in Dramatic Arts. Cheraé went on to complete three years of South African Sign Language Studies as an extra course. 

Having studied Applied Theatre and Performance Studies, Cheraé has a burning desire to create theatre with both deaf and hearing people. 

As a student she has worked on small projects within the deaf community, via DeafSA (Deaf Federation of South Africa) and SANDA (South African National Deaf Association). 

Cheraé is a member of one of only two Playback Theatre companies in South Africa, where she is currently taking part in training.

Apart from this Cheraé is studying for her MA in Dramatic Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she has specific interest in performance and further investigating the use of South African sign language as a performance tool.