Who wants to sit at home watching TV when you can change your life? That's the question a friend asked sisters Lisa and Nomfanelo Maholo on Friday, before hiding the remote and leading them off to the Egazini Outreach Arts Centre in Extension 6 for an exciting live theatre experience.
Who wants to sit at home watching TV when you can change your life? That's the question a friend asked sisters Lisa and Nomfanelo Maholo on Friday, before hiding the remote and leading them off to the Egazini Outreach Arts Centre in Extension 6 for an exciting live theatre experience.
British company Live Theatre's education and participation team had joined South African-based NGO, Isiseko Senkonjane / Swallows Foundation in presenting Testimonies 3. A way to get women to express their concerns through drama, Testimonies 3 was an offshoot of a project the group started in north-east London.
"This is our ninth and final workshop and some of the common issues that the girls have shared are those of traditional roles versus modern roles for women, traditional culture versus western culture, etc. We have also noticed some similarities between the Eastern Cape and the UK," said artistic co-director Amy Golding.
"From Home to Newcastle and Here Come the Girls are theatre pieces created by Live Theatre's Education and Participation team in London. They are part of a programme to integrate the young refugee and asylum seekers with members of Live Theatre," said playwright Gez Casey.
The project also aims to foster collaboration between playwrights and directors from north-east England and the Eastern Cape, and to produce a piece of high-quality theatre to be performed in both the Eastern Cape and north-east London.
"We will connect the groups through Skype to share their experiences and stories, and to learn about each other's cultures," Casey said.
During the course of the project, the organisers identified nine young women for a second batch of workshops in Port Elizabeth this week.
Third-year Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University student Ziphozakhe Hlobo, 19, was roped into the project by her sponsor. "I received a call from my tuition sponsor telling me about this project, mainly because of poetry competitions that I normally enter," said Hlobo.
She has been on the road for almost three months, holding workshops with 10 to 20 young women at a time, in Graaff-Reinet, Dordrecht, Mthatha, East London and Port Elizabeth.
Grahamstown was their last stop. "I have learnt a lot – how other women feel about being women, our women heroes, how the youth view their values and norms, " said Hlobo.
The Maholo sisters, meanwhile, were among the 15-odd girls and young women who took part in the Grahamstown edition of the project. "It was fun," said Nomfanelo. "I am enjoying these exercises."
