From September 9-10, 2017 The Hub had fun hosting Jessica Lejowa for a weekend workshop on theatre. Jessica is a theatre practitioner, educator, researcher and facilitator with experience at University of the Witwatersrand, Grahamstown Arts Festival and more.
The workshops started with participants learning an approach to devising theatre step by step, and an introduction to the use of dramatic techniques and devices. The day kicked off with introductions, sharing of house rules, high energy ice breakers and the discussion of a topic or theme as a starting point for creating theatre. By the end of the day participants had devised short comedy scenes from their theme of taboo topics through guided improvisation, and started their actor’s journals.
On day two, participants used what they had learned the day before to put together short performances around the topics they had chosen as taboo. They tackled a range of difficult and sensitive topics, and their performances were followed by group feedback discussions. The skills the participants learned can be useful in numerous fields in addition to theatre: from film making to photography and professional settings such as meetings and pitches.
Big thanks to Jessica for spending the weekend with us! We hope to have her back soon. Many thanks also to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and Anthony Maeder for their support of our weekend workshops, and as always to Cafe Mojo for keeping us well fed throughout the weekend!
The Hub 