“Take a Child to the Theatre Today” celebrated in South Africa during March.
ASSITEJ South Africa is once again participating in the ASSITEJ International World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People’s “Take a Child to the Theatre Today” campaign in the month of March.
The ASSITEJ World Day of Theatre for Children takes place on 20th March and is an ASSITEJ campaign, promoted and celebrated through the message ‘Take a Child to the Theatre Today’. This focus enables National Centres, individual members, companies, arts organisations, academics, teachers, artists, practitioners and others interested in theatre for young audiences to connect with the idea of World Day and ‘make the case’ for children’s entitlement to theatre and the arts. The event is connected globally through the hashtag #takeachildtothetheatre
The campaign places emphasis on ensuring that all children and young people have quality theatre made especially for them..
Jenny Sealey, artistic director of Graeae Theatre Company and former co-director of the 2012 London Paralympics says of this year’s campaign in her ASSITEJ World Theatre Day message “As 2016 marks the 10th year since the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People was adopted at the United Nations, it is a great opportunity to hold hands across the globe to continually fuel that passion and to work as a community to ensure we are able to make, create and share theatre that matters, by and for those who matter.
The ASSITEJ Theatre4Youth co-ordinators across South Africa have motivated artists nationwide to be involved in celebrating this occasion and to make the event as inclusive as possible.
In reflecting on theatre for young people in South Africa, director of ASSITEJ SA and President of ASSITEJ International Yvette Hardie says in her World Theatre Day message: “When a group of South African township-based youth started to work on a play for very young children, they discovered that making the work required that they nurture, rediscover, or in some cases, discover for the very first time…the innocence, the tenderness, the vulnerability, and potential wholeness within themselves. This began a profound healing process for these young artists which deeply affected them and which has motivated them to continue exploring in the field…By nurturing ourselves into greater wholeness, we are able to enter into a more whole relationship with our audience. We are also able to offer parents and children, families, teachers, care-givers and their charges, opportunities to see the world through the eyes of the youngest amongst us. ”
Ahead of the ASSITEJ International gathering and festival ‘Cradle of Creativity’ due to take place in Cape Town in 2017, the wide-spread South African participation in this year’s campaign sets the bar for a powerful national footprint on the international stage.
For more info visit www.assitej.org.za or contact Yusrah Bardien on comms@assitej.org.za
For the full ASSITEJ World Theatre Day messages visit http://www.assitej-
Note to editors
Workshops
Vamos Theatre – Full Mask Theatre Workshops in South Africa
Vamos Theatre, the UK’s leading full mask theatre company, is offering a series of workshops with participants from partners ASSITEJ, HTP, CWBSA and FTH:K to introduce them to this exciting and unusual theatre style. Full mask uses no speech, is based on physical clarity and precision, and involves techniques that are useful not only to performers but to directors, teachers, business people and others.
Cape Town – Our Nia Space, Observatory
18 March 10.30 till 16.30 (professional workshop)
Johannesburg – at Hillbrow Theatre in partnership with Clowns without Borders
24 March 10:00 – 16:00 (Professional Workshop)
Spaces for the workshop are limited. Cost is R150 p/p and R40 for ASSITEJ SA Members. To confirm your place, please email Chandre at info@assitej.org.za
Obs Family Festival: Dance /-speak on Monday 14 March
The workshop is aimed at teenagers attending the performance of Stof Rooi. To physically reflect on the performance and further enhance creativity and skill, dancing your way through the process. Each member of the workshop will have to come prepared with comfortable rehearsal clothes and a willingness to experience something new. Transport home can be made available to learners.
Facilitated by Jason Jacobs and Dustin Beck
For Teenagers (30 max)
Monday 14th March : 3 – 5pm
Contact Chandre on info@assitej.org.za for bookings
Obs Family Festival : First Touch with Theatre – 21 March
An invitation for the whole family to experience theatre. Theatre is exciting, fascinating and vibrant. It is about interaction, imagination and perception. And most important: it is about joy. This workshop provides children and their parents a first insight into the colourful world of theatre. In a playful way, we are going to explore, invent and create theatre together. We try out how it feels to go up on stage, to slip into other characters and experience the feeling of receiving applause from the audience. Let´s make our first touch with the stage!
Participants of the workshop should be prepared with comfortable clothes.
For Families with Children aged 4 – 8 years
Monday 21st March : 11.30am – 1pm
R50/parent and child
Facilitated by Petra Jeroma, Johanna Kraft and Theresa Frey
Contact Chandre on info@assitej.org.za for bookings
