Pukka Theatre’s: After-school awesomeness
Our first project was St Paul’s Primary in the BoKaap with a group of 36 learners. The journey culminates in a theatre production — performed and otherwise executed almost exclusively by the kids. We invite school mates, teachers, family and other Capetonians to be the audience..
We wanted to see if South African kids would a) want to participate in making their own theatre production, b) if we would be able to harness their resilience and c) if it would be an experience that children felt motivated to keep attending. The kids did keep coming, attendance wasn’t perfect, but when kids realised that we were there to see this project through and we were striving to make it good as we possibly could some kids came back and they stayed to be part of making the magic.
In order to fund the project, I started a crowdfunding campaign using Indigogo’s platform Generosity. I also needed some collaborators to make this possible project, the first being the wonderful Maryke Nel, who developed illustrations for the Pukka Theatre Journal with me.
All our workshops and rehearsals are designed and facilitated by industry professionals. Pukka players participate in designing and building everything from costumes to set pieces. Kids develop their own script with the goal of telling stories that are true to their experiences and challenges. Kids are also responsible for marketing and selling tickets to their performance.
There were many volunteers and lots of different workshops; from Rouvé Hattingh preparing the most amazing costume making workshops for the kids, to carpentry workshops, to the backdrop painting workshops lead by the UCT art students, the kids were racking up quite the skill set and range of experiences.
DESIGN
ART DAY
Art Day is a workshop that is open to the whole school, we had 70 odd kids attend. Each kid receives a ‘canvas’ and are facilitate in the creation process of an artwork, using paints, crayons, pencils, pastels, glitter and many other fun materials.
The goal is to create artworks based on the theme , outer space, which are then transformed into marketing materials for the show including the posters and the programs.
STORY WRITING WORKSHOP
We created an original work The Little Martian inspired by the The Little Prince in which four friends travel through the outer limits and spaces of their imaginations to made up worlds of Tears, Teeth and Macaroni.
BUILD
CARPENTRY WORKSHOP:
We had 24 kids sign-up for this activity are in for a team challenge. this was a workshop also open to the whole school. Teams received ‘puzzle kits’ with the necessary tools and materials and were asked to solve the puzzle together. We used the kids’ handiwork, such as rehearsal blocks that they constructed themselves as our set in the production. The rehearsal blocks were then donated to St Paul’s Primary.
COSTUMES WORKSHOP:
Every kid in the production is tasked with making their own costumes for the performance. Each received a costume making kit, with instructions and materials. Kids are responsible for designing and creating their character’s look by completing the activity that is designed to ensure that the kids can be successful. The wonderful costume designer Rouvé Hattingh, created the most amazing DIY costume kits, they all looked fabulous!
BACKDROP PAINTING WORKSHOP:
Painting the backdrop is a wonderful activity for the younger children in the shcool. It requires working together on something (literally) much larger than themselves. Kids essentially took part in a giant paint-by-numbers game. We invited other learners to also collaborate on this project not just our core group. This was also facilitated by our wonderful volunteers from UCT!
PERFORM
A core group of 30 children , ages 6–12, attended 8 weeks of rehearsal in preparation for the performance elements of the production. We explored various forms of stagecraft such as acting, song and dance as well as technical skills, such as operating lights and sound, and stage management. 60 people attended the special performance at Youngblood which was an invitation even for professional artists community and the family and friends of Pukka theatre’s primary school stars.
We had a second performance at St Paul’s primary, almost the entire school saw the performance and it was a huge high-light for our kids.
Collaboration is key, it forms our community
Our outrageously competent volunteers are the driving force behind the scenes, giving their times, kindness and expertise to share artistry and encouragement with students.
We had an overwhelming amount of support from the students from Michaelis School of Fine Art from University of Cape Town. I hope that I can offer students the chance to learn our pedagogy of play, and real world facilitation experiences so that they too can grow and teaching artists.
If you would like to share your super-powers as part our cast of super-volunteers and collaborators, please get in touch!
Then there exists an incredible organisation Youngblood who hosted our special performance for our invited guests. They really went the extra mile to help make a magical day of performance excitement! We got red carpet treatment from Ina, Marie and Natasha. What a privilege it was to have your support, the kids were in their version of Broadway on Bree Street, I am sure of it!
Thanks to Markus and Tom from F-sharp for the technical assistance in lighting up our show, and assisting our young stage managers and board-ops!
It was a truly illuminating experience! hehe. So illuminating that one of our kids, Lilandile Njobo was spotted by director and choreographer Ina Wichterich and invited to audition for a production she was working on Work in Progress and he got the part!
There are also so many more to thank. Estelle Joubert and her company for sponsoring T-shirts ensuring our young performers looked dapper! Friends Annermarie Hattingh, Wian Hattingh and Tasmin Strydom who helped with technical rehearsals, performances and family Belinda Slabber for lending a spare clothing rail and Christine Immelman (my mom) and Cecile Trümpelmann (my Oumi) for preparing a actors lunch and production treats. You are all great team players! But most of all, I want to give a huge round of applause to those kids, who preserved, who showed up for rehearsal even when the going got tough and who collaborated in creating a wonderful piece of theatre.
After the process, we surveyed the kids and asked them if they thought the experience worthwhile, what they learned, and if they would do it again, and it made us very happy to discover that almost all the kids believed they learned something new, they all had resilient moments and surprised themselves by doing something they didn’t previously believe they could do and all the kids said that they would want to make a Pukka Play again.
Making real theatre making is a collaborative effort, by that we mean as individuals we part-take in projects and ventures (or rather adventures) that are bigger than ourselves. It is the experience of being part of something that requires effort from many people who work towards a common goal, in this case it was persevering and having fun while telling the story of The Little Martian on stage in front or a real live audience.
