Ubom!, an Eastern Cape theatre company, is adapting the "Learning Guide: An Undergraduate’s Guide to Learning at Rhodes University" into an expressive on-stage performance.
Ubom!, an Eastern Cape theatre company, is adapting the "Learning Guide: An Undergraduate’s Guide to Learning at Rhodes University" into an expressive on-stage performance.
The Learning Guide production focuses on animating the many academic issues explored within the guide.
These include plagiarism; Duly Performed (DP) certificates and removals; and referencing.
It also showcases the social issues many first-years deal with upon entering university.
Chrissie Boughey, Dean of Teaching and Learning at Rhodes University, compiled the guide to assist undergraduates in the transition from a high school set of learning skills to one fit for university.
The difficulty lies in showcasing something as abstract as a learning guide through a visual means such as stage performance, Jess Harrison, director of the performance said.
She accredits the script to a collective effort from the cast. “It really was a collage of work”, she says.
In addition to their daily rehearsals, actors will also sit in on first year lectures across different faculties at Rhodes.
“This is to study the reception and digestion of the work amongst the students,” says Harrison.
The Learning Guide production also touches on the cultural and language clashes that exist in South African university spaces and even includes some past and present South African political issues.
In true Ubom! fashion, the performance is set to be loud, fast and expressive so as to keep the young audience engaged.
There are also plans to have it tour other tertiary education institutions.
“We’d just have to make it less Rhodes focused,” Harrison says.
The Learning Guide will show for a total of six nights on the 14,15 and 16 April as well as 22, 23 and 24 April.
