Audiences will experience the power of performance throughout August when Drama for Life’s full-time professional theatre company and the internationally acclaimed Swedish national theatre, Unga Klara join creative forces at the Wits Theatre complex. to explore the role of the arts in building a child-centred society.
The groundbreaking collaboration will take place at the 11th Drama for Life International Conference and Festival, with the theme Transforming Arts/Transforming Lives: Towards a child-centred society, reflecting the biggest binational investment in children’s culture in Southern Africa to date.
“The embassy is thrilled over the continued cooperation between Drama for Life and Unga Klara at the 11th Drama for Life International Conference and Festival next month. Together they will unleash spectacular creativity and touch the lives of many children and young adults,” said the Swedish ambassador to South Africa, Cecilia Julin.
On the festival’s menu is cutting-edge research, performances, installations, dialogues, training, workshops and more. Those attending will get the chance to interact with fellow artists, arts healers, therapists and educators, cultural leaders and managers, academics, researchers and activists.
Unga Klara, Sweden’s national theatre for children and young people, will stage four trailblazing productions during the festival; Because I Say So, My True Selves, Girls Will Make You Blush and X. The company will tackle complex issues through heightened theatricality and innovative performance aesthetics.
“Collaborating with an illustrious theatre company such as Unga Klara promises to be a major highlight of our conference and festival this year. We are extremely excited about the partnership – particularly since Unga Klara’s work ties in so seamlessly with our child-focused theme this year,” said Drama for Life director Warren Nebe.
Nebe said it was through these partnerships such that people can truly harness the power of theatre, drama, poetry, song and dance, to reflect on – and attempt to understand – the world we live in, and the world children will inherit in the future.
Transforming Arts/Transforming Lives: Towards a child-centred society aims to respond to this situation, reflecting on how innovations in the performing and applied arts, arts therapies and education, and performance as research can address these challenges to find a way forward.
“Children are wholehearted, compassionate humans with an extraordinary capacity to make meaning of the world they live in. They are the cornerstone of our society’s future – the litmus test of our humanity. Yet we continue to fail our children,” said Nebe.
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