Our Grahamstown adventure

The story of Sipho

The adventure of Sipho begins with an idea I had back in 2014 to take Chintsa East Drama to perform to South Africa’s largest Arts Festival -  Grahamstown Arts Festival. After going through the process of becoming a Friends of Chintsa project, I begun to put in place a fundraising strategy to get the R25,000 we needed to go to Grahamstown. Having met the lovely Michael Ambrosio, our journey had a shaky start. But I was overwhelmed with the local and international support that Sipho received from our fundraisers and crowdfunding campaign.  If it was not for your help, then we honestly would not have even stepped foot in Grahamstown.

The story of Sipho begins with the creative Tom Muller, founder of Acacia Tree Nursery School. A story which was told to me in 2014, I revisited the story with Tom and adapted it into scenes. However, I made the conscious decision not to script the performance as I wanted the students to take ownership of the performance and improvise the scenes themselves. This was a great way of giving them experience in improvised performing, but also it contrasted the beginnings of Chintsa East Drama. When I first begun the project, we started with the basics of performing and we went on to perform The Gingerbread Girl. It was a scripted play, that the students learnt and performed at Tea in the Trees. The difference in skills set that the students brought with them from our previous project was overwhelming. My role centered on facilitating the students movements, and not always leading and directing them. (As was my role in 2014). With this blog I hope to give an insight into our Grahamstown journey.

On the road to Grahamstown!

Day 1

Too little sleep and too much luggage... we managed to to pack eight over excited children into the bus. We also had the help of the lovely Sarah who was our tour guide for the day. Our adventure started with much trepidation, with questions flying around the bus. “Are we still in East London?” “How many hours away is Grahamstown?” Luckily we were at PJ Olivier School by lunchtime. Perched on top of Grahamstown our accommodation had cracking views across the whole of the city. Phumla was staying with the boys and I had a spot with the girls in the group. By the time everybody had unpacked, nobody was hungry except me and Sarah! It turns out that bus journeys are conducive to snacking.

In the afternoon we went exploring and found the Drosdty Lawns which was to be our performance home for the next few days of the festival. It was at this point that I realised that everything was a learning experience for my students. We discovered artwork which represented the work of bees and spent ten minutes discussing its ins and outs. We also met Sean our tech guy, to discuss our technical requirements. I was very impressed with the organisation and professionalism at the festival.

Postering our way around Grahamstown.

We had a busy afternoon of rehearsing at the Lawns, as well as registering and postering! Much thought went into our location and positioning of our posters. They also loved checking out the eclectic mix of artwork that the stalls had to offer at the Drosdty Arch. We had some much deserved chicken curry for dinner, followed by Sundowners at The Monument. For those of you not in the know, Sundowners is a great free event which showcases snippets of performances that can be found in the fringe programme every evening. Our 8 dramatists loved the atmosphere and variety of the event. Especially, as Mortimer Williams was our compere.

“The actor from the TV was in it! From SABC2!” “I loved the feel of it, everybody was really friendly!”

After our fun filled day we hopped onto the helpful Hopper Bus. “Charlotte,why is it called the Hopper bus? Is it because you go to Hopper?” I explained how it is because you just “hop on and hop off!”... this soon became our trip’s catchphrase. Our day did not end there, as it was about to take a turn for the eventful. I managed to get myself locked in the toilet. After much rattling and shaking, I contemplated trying to wriggle out from the toilet but I got stuck. “Help! Help!” Luckily, one of the girls came to the rescue and swung the door open. We learned never to lock ourselves in.

Afterwards we thought that it would be a great idea to make everyone tea! Suddenly, the lights went out. “Don’t panic everyone, it’s just loadshedding. We’ve got candles!” After getting ourselves organised we realised that the rest of Grahamstown was not in darkness. “Charlotte, I think Grahamstown made an agreement with Eskom to keep the lights on for festival.” Pointed out Sarah helpfully. We began our investigations and realised that we were the only part of the school that had been plunged into darkness. After our helpful caretaker arrived, he fixed tour problem! But he suggested that kettles were not the best of ideas as the plugs were not used to high electrical voltage. And with that we said good night to our first day in Grahamstown.

Day 2

The Green.

After hardly any sleep… we got up early and had a yummy breakfast. We loved our hot breakfast! Not only did we get cereals and toast for breakfast, but also a fried breakfast thrown in for good measure. I was impressed by the politeness and helpfulness of the children, and received some lovely feedback from the hospitality staff at the school. Each day we created a sandwich factory so that our lunches would be ready to a go go. Prepared for the day ahead, we trekked across to The  Green. Everyone found it overwhelming because there were so many different stalls and things to see. After having some tasty ice creams, we stumbled across a life sized model of a lion.

The morning had an undertone of nerves, as our first performance of Sipho was at noon. After dressing up to the nines in our costumes, we prepared for Sipho, warming up our bodies and voices. I also threw some focus games into the mix as it was distracting being a park full of new noises, different people and surroundings. It was a smashing success of 30-40 people watching Sipho, I was proud of their first attempt at performing and excited to see what the festival would  bring to their performance.

Sipho and his dad,hatching a plan. (Courtesy of Cue Pix)

Sipho's fed up mother. (Courtesy of cuepix)

Here's the goats! (Courtesy of Gill Smulders)

How did you feel performing in front of people?

"When we were acting I loved the feeling that it made. It felt good! I was scared of being in front of so many people. After we were performing, I felt free."

“The first time I was so afraid. I was told by Sarah to take a big breath, but it didn’t work. Everyone’s watching you and all I wanted to do was wee. I was happy to be the father, my wife was also cheeky.”

We had a picnic lunch and then we walked to watch A Man and a Dog by The Kalk Bay Theatre. It is an autobiographical, one man physical theatre performance about “coming-of-age story of a young Zulu boy’s search for the parents he never knew.” (The Kalk Bay Theatre) After watching the show, we reviewed the show! It proved to be a great opportunity to discuss linear and non-linear theatre. Our students have only focused on linear theatre before, so it was great to expose them to a different form of theatre.

“I liked the different order it went in, back forwards and it did get confusing”

“I loved the different voices and characters the man did”

The evening brought our favourite ritual - shower time! It became a big part of our daily routine, having a hot shower in the morning and a hot shower in the evening. Who am I to deny such fun, especially when we weren’t allowed to use a kettle! We finally got to bed after 9pm. I was learning how even though a child can be tired, they can find a new level of energy and excitement  to operate on until they finally close their eyes.

Day 3

Exploring Grahamstown.

I was woken up by the sound of knocking. We had overslept, Phumla had to come and hustle us up! It felt like I was back at school.  We decided to visit Grahamstown cathedral, which proved to be a hit with everyone. Nearly everyone in Chintsa East Drama go to church, so they enjoyed learning about the history and parts of the cathedral. From seeing the colourful stained glass windows, to watching the choir practising at the back of the cathedral.

Next stop - Jilted by Capa. A lively, succinctly choregraphed performance about what happens when someone is left jilted at the altar. There were some comedic elements, but it was a bit heavy for the children at times but they still loved watched a different form of theatre. The actual process of going and sitting in a theatre turned into a process for the kids because even an hour can be quite lengthy to sit still in the darkness. Failing that, it is also a great spot to have a bit of a nap!

We were well into festival swing with our second performance of Sipho. Already the kids had  a new found confidence, they had begun taking influence from what they had been watching… turning Sipho into a new show to watch in front of my eyes. Me and Gill  could not stop laughing!

Sipho and his dad hatching a plan! (Courtesy of Gill Harris).

We had our celebratory dinner at Spur, which proved to be a highlight of the trip! Bright lights, colourful menus, and a bells and whistles play area with computer games. Pizzas, chicken, chips and ice cream later, we rushed out the door to watch the slap stick, side splitting ZikkaZimba's Production of Lake! This proved to be the ultimate favourite of Chintsa East Drama.  It is a story of two lost royal twins, who are brought together by their need for water. There was never a dull moment, the actors had the audience in stitches.

Our special dinner!

Their day was made even better (if that is possible) by meeting one of the actors Jaques de Silva. Cool,calm and collected they chatted to him about the show and even had a go at holding one of their puppets.

Jaques from ZikkaZimba.

We finished the night with milk, biscuits and bedtime stories. “Please tell us a story Charlotte” So I began with the Three Little Pigs, carried on with Goldilocks and the Three Bears and finished with the Three Billy Goats Gruff. By the end everyone was falling asleep. It was special.

Day 4

We started our last day with Hot Chocolate and biscuits, nothing wrong with a bit of sustenance in the morning! Full of energy we marched down to The Green. Phumla and I let the kids go off into their own groups and explore it by themselves! (Also giving us a sneaky chance to get some shopping done).

Next on our to do list was was going to see Undermined by KBT Productions & Here Manje. Mine and Phumla’s favourite performance of the trip. The 2014 Standard Bank Ovation Award winner “tells the story of Madlebe, a story of hope, perseverance and friendship that captures the hearts of audiences."Inspiring storytelling techniques, using physical theatre and comedy to bring a true story to life.” (KBT Productions)

Our last performance was like nothing I had ever seen…! The students took a large influence from the cast of ZikkaZimba who injected new ideas, energy and text into our performance. Our eight performers were brilliant. Improvisation was flying around with such confidence. It was exciting and entertaining to watch it unfold. After finishing our performance we hopped onto our bus, and jam packed all of our possessions into it. The bus trip back home was filled with songs, laughter and jokes about our trip. We dropped off eight tired children at 9pm and said goodbye to Grahamstown

What’s next?

I have never been prouder to watch the journey of each young person throughout this process. Not only have they learnt about drama and theatre in different contexts, they have learnt key life skills. Whether it was calculating how much spending money they had left to spend, or working out who was in charge of sandwich making. Since we've been back we have been reflecting on our experiences and researching online media about our show.

"I was expecting Grahamstown was a beautiful place like in town, but there were no shacks. I expected that it was going to snow. At night the lights were beautiful like crickets."

Well done Chintsa East Drama and thank you to all of our supporters.

The Arts “enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton.

We are bringing Sipho to our family and friends in Chintsa next week: 1st August/ 3pm/ The C Club.