A celebration of differences on National Children’s Theatre stage
Director of the play, Noko goes to School, spills on his love of the arts and what audiences can expect.
What does a leopard, hyena, guinea fowl, warthog and porcupine Noko have in common? They all go to the same night school in the safari, of course!
Well, at least on the National Children’s Theatre (NCT) stage they do, in the sweet, light story, Noko goes to School. In the play these five characters are all friends but one of them is constantly being picked on, laughed at and bullied by others.
It takes an imaginative mind to see a leopard befriend a guinea fowl, let alone a hyena befriend a warthog. To get a better perspective on the man behind the play, Northcliff Melville Times got to know its director, Dale Scheepers.
As he sees it, the arts chose him, as he was able to play the piano since he was about five years old, playing just by ear and teaching himself. Later, he would get his tertiary education at the Campus of Performing Arts where he studied music performance and music production. His love for the arts comes from the fact that one can take emotions and experiences and transform them into art so to set it to the stage.
The Melville resident had always wanted to be a music director. Then the desire to be a creative director of a whole theatre show developed over time. However, just doing the music stopped stimulating him creatively, and directing ignited that all over again.
Directing this play, which runs until August 6, has meant a lot to Scheepers as it was the first place he performed in his very first musical. “It’s also the first place I directed the music for a musical theatre show,” adding this is why directing at the theatre is particularly special to him.
In the play, when the other animals discover Noko eats worms for lunch, they carry on to call him weird and a freak. He really doesn’t like all the bullying and, since they all look up to Noko, they all agree to accept his invitation to come and spend time with him in his burrow. Now they can see how differently he lives to all of them, and help them realise that being different doesn’t make anyone weird. Throughout the musical, they learn about diversity and why it’s important to accept and respect each others’ differences.
From the play, Scheepers hopes the audience can relate to at least one of the characters in the show. “I hope children and adults start to realise, understand how someone feels when being bullied and made fun of just because they’re different… we are all still people.”
For him environments like NCT are important in our community for many reasons. As there, children’s plays and musicals are generally educational. Even though they might not appear to be so at face value, underneath all the lights, costumes, singing, dancing and fun characters, is usually an underlying theme that addresses things children might go through or experience in their everyday lives.
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Amanda Strydom performs 30th-anniversary edition of her beloved play
