Around 200 pupils from Grahamstown schools gathered in Noluthando Hall on Thursday for a preview of one of Joza's home-grown Festival offerings.
Interplay, which will plays at Dicks from Thursday 28 June to Sunday 1 July and features an almost all-Joza cast, is intended as an entertaining way to teach ordinary people how to use the internet.
Around 200 pupils from Grahamstown schools gathered in Noluthando Hall on Thursday for a preview of one of Joza's home-grown Festival offerings.
Interplay, which will plays at Dicks from Thursday 28 June to Sunday 1 July and features an almost all-Joza cast, is intended as an entertaining way to teach ordinary people how to use the internet.
Pupils from CM Vellem and Samuel Ntlebi primary schools, and Nombulelo and TEM Mrwetyana Secondary Schools proved an enthusiastic audience, cheering and interacting excitedly with the on-stage action.
The 55-minute drama was conceived of by Susan Hansen, a PhD student in the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. Her work is based in the faculty's Centre for Human Centred Technology Design Research and she's doing it in partnership with Rhodes University.
Hansen said the purpose of the play was to inform people from Joza of the possibilities, as well as some of the limitations, of the internet.
We wanted to show people that has advantages and some disadvantages. You can't say will solve all your problems, even though it is a very good tool. Some of those girls who acted there have just passed their matric last year and I was very proud of their performance. They were brilliant, said Hansen.
She said as part of her PhD research she thought she should do something that would empower township people.
This was a basic way of showing them how to use the internet, Hansen said. We are planning to take this to other areas like the Transkei, where people are also not well educated. We are planning to make this a sustainable thing, as we also want to take it to schools.
Director Thozi Ngeju and writer Linda Nelani are both from Joza. Hansen said all the actors were from Joza, apart from two Rhodes students.
The play will be performed at Dicks from Thursday 28 June to Sunday 1 July during the National Arts Festival and the Festival website offers the following summary:
Fafa’s husband has recently passed away leaving several hundred pieces of his artwork. Webster – a happy-go-lucky man – can’t find a job and makes his living stealing. Interplay follows the story of Fafa and Webster as they learn how the Internet can create opportunities for them.
See http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za for booking details and more information.
