Intwasa Tackles Child Abuse and Rights through Theatre

According to dramasource.com, Community Forum Theatre is a technique pioneered by Brazilian radical, Augusto Boal. It is a play or scene, usually indicating some kind of oppression that is shown twice. During the replay, any member of the audience ('spect-actor') is allowed to shout 'Stop!’, step forward and take the place of one of the oppressed characters, showing how they could change the situation to enable a different outcome. Several alternatives may be explored by different ‘spect-actors’. The other actors remain in character, improvising their responses. A facilitator (Joker) is necessary to enable communication between the players and the audience.

The strategy breaks through the barrier between performers and audience, putting them on an equal footing. It enables participants to try out courses of action which could be applicable to their everyday lives. Originally the technique was developed by Boal as a political tool for change (part of the Theatre of the Oppressed), but has been widely adapted for use in educational purposes.

In fulfilling this self imposed mandate, Intwasa Arts has established 5 Centres in which it is training “out – of – school youths” on the basics of theatre, which entail research, script writing and acting.

The 5 Centres, which constitute of 20 trainees each, are Old Pumula, Mzilikazi, Makokoba, Robert Sinyoka and Methodist Village, on the outskirts of the city.

This Field Correspondent caught wind of this initiative through ZDDT’s Community Outreach Programme in which the Trust identifies positive developments taking place within the city, with the aid of Councillors and Community Action Teams. This, in turn, enhances the leadership roles of those chosen to represent the local people.

Having established a rapport with the Intwasa Arts’ Pumula (Isilwane Youth Centre) Centre Facilitator, Memory Kumbota, this Field Correspondent was invited to a ground breaking stage performance at the Ward’s Open Air Hall, Es’phakeni Culture Centre, which is home to internationally acclaimed Imbube group, Umdumo Wesizwe Cultural Ensemble.

Imbube is an Nguni/Southern African traditional Performing Arts-form comprised of Acappella songs accompanied by traditional dance and is employed to address topical issues in any given community.

Intwasa Arts Director, Raisedon Baya, said the Community Forum Theatre is aimed at giving the youths a voice to air their concerns and grievances, as it is an outlet of expressing their views and feelings about issues affecting them in their day to day lives.

He said the initiative, which is still is its pilot stage, is also meant to produce feasible and applicable community-based solutions for the challenges affecting children and the youths.

“We are experimenting with forum theatre as a tool for development and change. We have gathered 20 out–of–school youths in each centre, whom we have trained in research and acting. After 4 to 5 months, we will recruit new members as we believe that the current ones would have been trained properly by then.

“We then send the youths to go into their communities and research issues affecting the children and then these issues can be assembled in a script and addressed in a play. In this community (Pumula), they came back with issues to do with child abuse and drug abuse and we blended the two issues and dramatized them in a play. After the drama, the community is expected to chat about the issues being addressed in the play and try to come up with possible solutions to the problem,” said Raisedon Baya.

He said the youths showed enthusiasm during training and the community has also been supportive throughout the training stages.

Despite a small turnout at the Hall when the group premiered its play, it was a successful event and the group aims to advertise performances more effectively in the future

The Centre Facilitator for Pumula, Memory Kumbota, expressed confidence in the process, saying the youths have shown great skill and understanding of the concept.

“The just ended show is the end of the first part of the process. We taught them research skills, which they used to look for issues affecting them and their counterparts in this community.

“These youths have got sharp minds. We found out that the children have many have challenges and they know these challenges but they are not being heard. We hope that this training will enable them to be able to reveal their thoughts and feelings through Drama,” he said.