African Theatre: Youth

286 Pages·2006·133.515 MB·English

by  Jane Plastow, Michael Etherton

African Theatre
Youth
Cuest Editor
Michael Etherton
Reuiews Editor
Plastow
Jane
James Currey
OXFORD
African Academic Press
a Tsehai Publishers imprint
HOLLYWOOD, CA
Fint published in 2006 in the United Kingdom by
James Currey Ltd
73 Botley Road
Oxford OX2 0BS
wwwjamescurrey.co.uk
and in North America by
African Academic Press
a Tsehai Publishen imprint
PO Box 1881
Holllvood, CA 90078
wwwtsehaipublishen. com
792.0966 AFR
@James Currey Ltd 2006
Fint published 2006
723451009080706 ?/is
AI rights resered
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any mems, electronic or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
African theatre: youth
1. Children's theatre - Africa
I. Etherton, Michael, 1939- ll. Banham, Martin
792',.083',096
ISBN 10: 0-85255-590-3 (James Cuney paper)
ISBN 13: 978-085255-590-3 (James Cuney paper)
ISBN 10: 59907-011-1 (Tsehai Publishen paper)
ISBN 13: 978-7-59907-071-7 (Tsehai Publishen paper)
Typeset in 10/11 pt Monotype Bembo by Long House, Cumbria, UK
Printed and bound in Britain by Woolnough, Irthlingborough
Contents
Notes on Contibutors vii
Introduction by Michael Etherton, Cuest Editor x
Creating For & With Children in Ghana
Efua Sutherland: a retrospective
ESI SUTHERLAND-ADDY
1
Competitive Youth Theatre Festivals in Ghana
Stage Motion & Studrafest
AWO MANA ASIEDU with SARAH DORBGADZT
16
Three Malawian Student Performances
Playing pains
PIA THIELMANN
23
African Youth, Performance & the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Theatre of Necessiry
ESIABA IROBI
31
Young People's Drama & Social Action in Northem Nigeria
A case study of the Zaia'For Tomorrow...' Project
OGAH STEVE ABAH with Faith, Mahmud & Nuhu 42
Promenade Theatre in a Sudanese Reformatory
Divining for stories: The Cockerel & the King\ Ear
ALI CAMPBELL withJANE PLASTOW 6I
& a team ofSudanese practitioners
Youth Theatre in the Displaced People's Camps of Khartoum
Kwoto
LUKE DIXON
78
Theatre with Street Children in Senegal
ROSA STOURAC McCREERY
86
West African Child Rights Theatre for Developmenr
Stories as theatre, theatre as a strategy for change
MICHAEL ETHERTON
97
v
vi
Contents
The Impact of Child Rights Theatre in Sierra Leone
Umo is talking
PAUL MOCLAIR with MIKE CHARLEY & children
Daru
in 122
Sewit Chlldren's Theatre in Eritrea
CHRISTINE MATZKE & JANE PLASTOW 138
Project Phakama: Stories of South Africa, London & Lesotho
Landscapes ofthe heart
YVONNE BANNING, CAROLTNE CALBURN
& LUCY RICHARDSON 151
Approaching Theatre Work with Children in Zimbabwe
'Share what you have'
ROBERT MSHENGU KAVANAGH 166
On the Making ofJourneys: Young People's Theatre inZarnbra
Tansitha, Safe-T-Child & others
DAVE PAMMENTER 189
Hopeful Youth Drama in Kibera, Kenya
PHAN Y LY 202
Playscript
The Chosts Return
Devised by students at the (Jniversity of Botswana
Transcribed & with an introduction by David Kerr 218
Book Reviews
Sandra Richards on
Richard Boon &Jane Plastow (eds)
Theatre E Empowerment: Community Drama on the World Stage 252
Jane Plastow on
Louise M. Bourgault
Playing;for Life: Performance in Africa in the Age of AIDS 256
Martin Banham on
Effiok Bassey Uwatt (ed.)
Playwiting and Directing in Nigeia: Interuiews with Ola Rotimi
Ola Rotimi (ed.), lssues in AJican Theatre 258
Christine Matzke on
John Conteh-Morgan & Tejumola Olaniyan (eds)
Afican Drama and Performance 259
Dennis Walder on
Martin Banham (ed.), A History o;f Theatre in AJica 262
Michael Carklin on
Dennis'Walder, Athol Fugard 265
Index 269
Notes on Contributors
Oga Steve Abah is a Professor of Theatre for Development at Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Nigeria where he has taught since 7979.He is one of the
leading theorists in Theatre for Development, an area in which he has
researched since 1980. His current research has focused on what he calls the
'methodological conversation' berween TFD, participatory learning and action
(PLA), and traditional social science research.
Awo Mana Asiedu is a lecturer at The School of Performing Arts, Universiry
of Ghana, Legon. Her research interests include the reception of theatre,
African dramatic literature and theatre practice in Southern and Eastern Africa.
Yvonne Banning is a senior lecturer in the Drama Department at the
Universiry of Cape Town. She is also an active trustee and facilitator in a
number of professional and community-based theatre organizations.
Ali Carnpbell's field is the use of performance as a language of advocacy and
activism. His career spans 25 years from membership of Professor Dogg's
Troupe in the early eighties to 10 years as co-founder of BREAKOUT TIE,
during which time he toured with participatory work devised by and for young
people and met Augusto Boal, later making Boal's techniques accessible to
children, disabled people and other marginal groups. He used these
methodologies in AIDS educational work in Uganda in 1990 and continues to
work in development theatre in Africa, India and Brazil.
Luke Dixon is a theatre director and teacher. He has lived and worked in
South Africa and collaborated with other theatre makers in Sudan, Senegal and
Malawi. Luke is Artistic Director of theatre nomad: www.theatrenomad.com
Sarah Dorgbadzi is a lecturer in Acting in the Theatre Arts Department of the
School of Performing Arts, Legon and holds an MFA degree in Theatre Arts
from the Universiry of Ghana, Legon. For several years she worked with pupils
of the Ghana International School in Accra, producing their annual school plays.
vlt
viii
Notes on Contributors
Michael Etherton has worked for international NGOs in both Asia and Africa
in Development since 1988. Before that he worked in universities and colleges
in Africa and the UK. He is the author of The Development of AJican Drama
(Hutchinson, 1982), Contemporary lish Drama (Macmillan, 1988), and is
currently co-editing Research in Drama Education. Special issue on Impact
Assessment, Volume 11, No. 2 (Carfax Publishing: Taylor and Francis Group,
forthcoming 2006).
David Kerr has been involved in theatre and media projects, particularly on
social and human rights issues for over 30 years in Botswana, Malawi and
Zarnbia. He is currently Head of Media Studies at the tJniversity of Botswana
and is working on a manual on using theatre for communication about
HIV/AIDS.
Esiaba Irobi is currently an Associate Professor of International Theatre at
Ohio Univeniry, Athens, Ohio. He is the author of Why I Don't Like Philip
I-arkin and Other Poems (Nsibidi Africana Publishers, 2005) and AJrican Festiual
and Ritual Theatre: Resisting Globalization on the Continent and Diaspora since
1492 (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2007).
Phan Y Ly was a development worker in the UN and with international
NGOs in Vietnam before becoming the first Vietnamese scholar to pursue
graduate studies in Theatre and Media for Development in the UK. Ly is now
consulting for Plan International Vietnam on the use of theatre to promote
child participation. Ly is the founder and artistic director of SameStuff Theater,
an independent contemporary theatre group in Vietnam. Her on-going
projects include a Thai-Vietnamese theatre and multimedia collaboration
performance tour in South-East Asia on 'Cyber sex', and a two-women show
with a young American actor exploring how the post-war generation
experience the history of the two countries.
Robert Mshengu Kavanagh is currently Executive Director of the arts
education trust, CHIPAWO, Harare, Zimbabwe. He previously founded and
chaired Theatre Arts Deparrments at Addis Ababa Universiry, Ethiopia and the
Universiry of Zimbabwe. Publications include South Afican People's Plays;
Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa, and Making People\ Theatre.
Rosa Stourac McCreery has studied and worked in many countries in
Europe and Africa and is now based in the North East of England. She is a
of
performer, theatre facilitator and one the directors of Jambo Africa, an
organization facilitating and promoring African arts and culture.
Christine Matzke currently teaches African literature and theatre at the
Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt (Jniversiry, Berlin. Her
research interests and publications centre around theatre and cultural
Notes on Contibutors lx
production in Eritrea and, more recently, postcolonial crime fiction. She rs co-
editor of the African studies seies Matatu published by Rodopi.
Paul Moclair is currently responsible for the redesign of UNICEF Sudan's
Theatre for Life project, establishing 450 grassroots, child rights advocacy
theatre groups across the country. He has previously devised and implemented
Theatre for Development projects with street children in Sierra Leone, and as
part of Save the Children UK's HIV/AIDS programming in Kenya.
Dave Parnrnenter is the Programme Director for the BA in Community
Drama and Media, and course tutor on the MA in Theatre and Media
Development at the University of 'Winchester. He has facilitated workshops
using participatory theatre processes for social transformation in many parts of
the world. His most recent work has been in Greece in support of the Theatre
in Education net, and in Kenya where he is working on setting up an East
African Theatre for Development network.
Jane Plastow is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies at The Workshop Theatre,
I-Jniversity of Leeds, and Director of the Leeds Univeniry Centre for African
Studies. She has written extensively on African theatre and Theatre for
Development, and works practically in both the UK and the Horn of Africa.
She is currendy developing a major primary schools-based project using theatre
to empower children and communities in Eritrea.
Esi Sutherland-Addy is currently Senior Research Fellow, Institute of
African Studies, University of Ghana, and head of the Language, Literature and
Drama Section. Sutherland-Addy is co-editor of Women Witing Afriea: West
Africa and the Sahel (The Feminist Press, CUNY, 2006)
Pia Thielmann is a scholar of African, African American and Caribbean
literatures, and was a senior lecturer in the Department ofEnglish at Chancellor
College, Univeniry of Malawi.
The editors o{ AJican Theatre are sad to report the death of our friend and
Associate Editor Hansel Ndumbe Eyoh on 7 September 2006. Hansel's Leeds
doctorate (1979) was probably the fint substantial analysis of Cameroonian
theatre, and his 1986 publication, Hammocks to Bid.ges, a report on a workshop
for integrated rural development, is an early and authoritative contribution to
the theory and practice of Theatre for Development. This was followed by
Beyond the Theatre in t991.. His plays, always with Cameroonian themes, were
lively and socially and politically relevant, and he devoted much energy and
skill to working with children and young people in theatre. Hansel made a
major contribution to the cultural life of Cameroon, both as a universiry
teacher and a public servant, and did much to promote the theatre of Africa on
a world stage. With the Anceston.
Introduction
MICHAEL ETHERTON
This volume of African Theatre tries to reflect the extraordinary range of
drama, theatre and performance there is today in Africa, which is now
engaging young Africans. Some of this creativiry is by young people who are
addressing adults with their performances. They are using theatre and
performance to advocate for change in the adult world, a world that some of
them have already joined, young though they are. Their kind of theatre in
performance addresses their multiple disadvantages of poverry, exclusion,
exploitation. It also addresses their youth.
Other performance work is by both young people and adults, working
together, who combine their imaginations and performance skills to perform
to, and engage with, other young people. This reflects a desire to build new
constituencies among the youth, using theatre and performance.
Arthird strand is that of children's rheatre, what in the'\X/est is referred to as
Theatre in Education [TIE] and Drama in Education. Some of this is produced
by adults, written for younger children to perform; or it is a process of devising
by adults with younger children. Complementary to rhis, and perhaps indebted
to it, is the amount of theatrical performance by students in the high schools,
colleges and universities that presenrs the plays, old and new, in the African
Theatre canon.
An example of this student theatre is in the article by Awo Asiedu on
Studrafest, the Ghana Student Drama Festival. There are other competirive
festivals in other African countries. Although some are still part of colonial and
post-colonial theatre traditions and education systems, others offer new
productions to a wide range of audiences in their countries. These student
productions often break new ground in terms of staging and performance
techniques, particular in the drama and theatre departments of the universities.
Some of this work then extends into African drama on film and television.
Young Africans, therefore, see themselves advancing the mainstream of
African theatre and performance traditions in their country i for example
Zarnbian Theatre or Nigerian Theatre - but they also see themselves going
beyond the mainstream. They are also beginning to challenge what constirutes
'African Theatre' in rerms of purpose, devising,,content and aesthetics. This
x
Introduction xi
collection of articles shows both the support for the mainstream and some
attempts to forge a conscious alternative drama process.
The various accounts of youth theatre, drama processes and performances
not only indicate this youthful creativiry. They also, in content, indicate a
number of specific concerns ofyoung people in Africa today.
First, they indicate how young Eritreans, Batswana, Malians, Sudanese,
endeavour to contribute through their performances to the political processes
in their countries. Often, these political processes are going into, or coming out
of civil wars; and conflict remains unresolved. Luke Dixon describes how
South Sudanese youth use the travelling performances of the 'Kwoto' dance to
show solidariry with South Sudanese communiries living in Khartoum. These
performances celebrate and often extend South Sudan's dance traditions.
Chrisrine Matzke and Jane Plastow give a detailed analysis of the history of
children's theatre in Eritrea showing how it became part ofEritrea's struggle for
independence. Their article describes the role of young adults who involved
children in this process.
Paul Moclair, writing on young people's child rights-based Theatre for
Development [TfD] in Sierra Leone, meets some adolescents who were child
soldiers in the civil war and finds out how they feel now about the T{D
workshop they did in connection with their rights two years before. How did
it help them solve their problems, or not, during the difficult process of
demobilization, and rehabilitation? Moclair's article is as much about TfD as it
is about civil war and subsequent political processes. His action research gives
us some insights into the personal and independent views of these young
people.
Pia Thielmann, describing the overtly political Malawian student theatre;
similarly indicates how young people achieve powerful drama with very
limited resources. Her article celebrates the resourcefulness of these students'
theatre, which is very much a political act in itself. This reflects some of David
Kerr's work; and it is his work with Batswana students in Botswana that has
resulted in The Chosts Return, which is the play-script included in this volume.
Devised by the students, it gives an even more direct insight into their new
drama as an extension of political engagement. The play explores post-
colonial and neo-colonial pressures on young professionals working in the
media.
If adult politics is a primary concern of young Africans, so too is their
concem with the spread of HIV/AIDS. Esiaba Irobi explores the increasingly
crucial relationship between the scourge of AIDS, young Africans and
performance. His analysis introduces the concept of the Theatre of Necessity,
and demonstrates the convergence ofindependent responses by young people
across the continent to changng attitudes and solving problems. The detail of
this activism is articulated in Dave Pamrnenter's powerful account of how
young Zambian sex-workers use the methodologies of Freire, Boal, and a later
Rights-based Theatre for Development, to realise their worth, gain confidence
and communicate to audiences exactly what they think and feel about their
exploited lives. Pammenter depicts the comrnunicative power of this kind of
xii
Introduction
theatre devising. He suggests that the aesthetic of the performance of these
young people is inextricably tied up in its political sigrificance.
AIDS, together with young people's sexualiry, is also the over-riding issue in
Abah's article about the T{D sexual health project with young people in Zaia
and Jos, Nigeria. In this article there is the testimony of three of the young
performen. AIDS and sex are the themes of a great deal of youth drama and
performance the length and breadth of Africa. Ali Cambell used Promenade
Theatre to engage young audiences in the workshop he and Jane Plastow
conducted with young people and AIDS outreach workers in a reformatory in
the Sudan. My own piece on Save the Children's work in'West Africa shows
how young people used TfD to advocate for their rights and full participation in
civil society as a way of tackling the ever-present scourge of AIDS in their lives.
In all these accounts there is an absolute rejection of the prescriptive
message-laden theatre on HIV/AIDS by development agencies, including
INGOs (Internarional NGOs) and the UN, urging the use of condoms aLnd/or
total sexual abstinence. These ubiquitous development-as-messages perfor-
mances are seen by young Africans as both bad development and bad theatre. Ir
does not touch the realiry of their lives at all and fails to engage with the actual
difEculties of they face. The complexities in the lives of poor young Africans,
particularly, the awful choices and tough daily decisions they are forced to take,
are much more effectively communicated in the dramas and performances of
their own devising, using a range of methodologies that allow for effective
audience interacrion with the actors during the performances.
The third concern of young people is to find ways of using theatre
techniques much more holistically. How can both the drama and the
performance of it express their whole being, their individualiry, their particular
qualities of being youthful? This approach is reflected in the work that
McCreery did in Senegal with a number of groups of street children; and she
analyses how she tried to develop young people holistically through the drama
workshops and improvised performances. Plastow and Campbell's article on
the Promenade Theatre also explores how this holistic experience for the
children was achieved.
There is also a desire by young people to merge the content of their work
and their comrnitment to it with a style of personal presentation in everyday
life, and a specific sryle in their music, their dance and movement. Robert
Mshengu Kavanagh's article on CHIPAWO in Zimbabwe, and Yvonne
Banning's descriptions of the work of Phakama in South Africa, both describe
a youthful drama performance phenomenon that seems more of a children's
cultural movement than a one-off project. These large-scale initiatives in both
countries have generated powerful theatre, and are on-going and expanding.
The work involves comprehensive training in theatre skills and in
methodologies of devising performances. In the process, a new African drama
aesthetic is further defined. CHIPAWO has developed professional training in
theatre and performance skills with all age groups, including some brilliant
work, described by Kavanagh here, with very young children.
The collection in this volume in fact opens with Esi Sutherland-Addy's