Since my inception (at the university) my motive for being an artist has always been a socio-political one — it was not to be a super star in television soapies, or to be famous, but to go back to my community and use creative arts as a transformative tool for the people. This seed was planted long before my professional encounter with theatre and my formal training; it was planted in high school arts and cultural activities where the use of arts was simple: for the mobilization, conscientization, and politicization of the students and the community at large. After my graduation, and after three years of acting training based on an individual approach, I resuscitated that original driving motive of theatre.
I was first reminded of what is art in society and what is society in art, what is its purpose and the aesthetic that supports that purpose. I then imagined myself in the past: a couple of decades ago, just graduated from various life experiences, formalized and informal institutions, from interactions of various philosophies and pedagogues of creatives arts and theatre, all mixed up with the fast beating heart of cultural aesthetics that is subconsciously embedded deep in my African being and can only be accessed by metaphors and in fragmentation of incidence, representations, and presentations.
These are the stories from my grandmother and mother, these are my poems, metaphors and idioms from my father, they are the smells, and tastes that remind me of home, and their absence in any form of engagement stimulates homesickness. I need them to understand my world.
Just imagine…
a theatre and creative arts practices with full knowledge of their purpose and their supreme mandate to the society they locate themselves in and from
a theatrical practice whose job it is to bring the darkness closer so as to see the light better
a laboratory of thinkers
a kraal of dreams
a bank of visions
a well of herbs of stories
a plantation of inspiration and a market of wisdom
a place of cross-generational exchange of views and knowledge a time and space of dream interpretation of sleeping time and waking time
Imagine a theatre of dream interpretation, fully incorporating the language that is familiar to the listener and so deep in its complexities that its meaning and teaching reach far beyond the performer. It engages with young people using creative arts. It revitalizes my spirit as an artist with holistic purpose.
Its approach of interdisciplinary work opens my mind to the true African aesthetic of making performance. Its process of inclusive creation ensures that its skills are transferred to all who participate. This is exactly how the African skills of storytelling and other forms of performances are thought from one generation to the other.
Its approach and philology of training centers itself around the notion of Ubuntu in teaching and in performances. This philosophy is still central to my work and my leadership practices today.
So I imagine…
a theatre whose processes include the maximum participation of the participants in creation
it is interdisciplinary
it entrances in the making of the performance
it is site-specific and about public art aesthetics
it is processional and about a spirit of mass community engagement
it is ritualistic and engages with life/live elements
it is of the now and about the fresh voices of the participants
it is a total reclamation of the stolen memory in African performances
it is contemporary
it is a kind of approach that heals
that develops through telling the stories that matter
the lost to those who tell it
it is a total resuscitation of an African spirit in creative arts
I am guided by a spirit
of nothing about us without us
by our voices about our voices
for our healing