Heritage Day Celebrations Culminate in A Theatre Production at Eduvos Umhlanga Campus.

Post by Eduvos, September 22, 2023.

Derosha Moodley, the talented Literature Lecturer at our Eduvos Umhlanga Campus reflects on their recent Humanities events in this faculty feature.    
 
On Friday the 08th of September 2023, twenty Umhlanga campus Vossies reached the end of their six-week adventure into the world of the theatre by performing a play entitled Masambe sýe eKhaya (We are visiting) to commemorate our Heritage Day celebrations before the summative assessment period begins.    
 
The play follows a group of students who can’t decide on when to schedule a beach trip outing so instead, they visit each other’s homes during specific rituals and festivities throughout the year. The audience saw an isiXhosa family negotiating their young son’s preparation for his initiation ceremony, the group of students then observed their friend’s Umgidi. Thereafter, the group of friends went on a road trip to Nongoma to attend an isiZulu uMemulo celebration with a romantic twist, after a dazzling array of song and dance at the river and village the students landed at a Hindu home on the morning of Diwali. A Bollywood dance performed by the full cast concluded the famous colourful holiday. The last stop was at Church for Christmas where something scandalous regarding Santa took place and the real reason behind ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ was taught to all by Gogo. All ended well as the cast and characters reflected on their cultural experiences shared.   
 
As a theatre professional, sharing my knowledge with Eduvos students was not only important for their social, emotional, cultural, and public speaking skill development but it was important for me to share this very special part of myself with my students whom I teach quite theoretical subjects to. I felt that experientially learning textbook concepts like interpersonal collaboration, intercultural communication, ritual, and dialogue came alive for the students through the theatre. The playmaking approach chosen was workshop theatre.  Workshop theatre allowed the ideas students had on the concept of Heritage to become core scenes, which then evolved into a script with beautiful dance and musical linking devices used to support their unique narrative.  
 
The theatre became a safe space for all involved as evidenced from the words, tears and emotions felt at the end of the process. Having students from Commerce, Law, Information Technology and of course the Humanities participating in this play made theatre an interdisciplinary marvel “The learning environment is not simply a place for inculcation of knowledge.  It is a place to learn about living with others, to figure out how to become an active participant in the world and to realise your agency” (Brady, 2018) our Vossies found new confidence, power, and ability within themselves during this theatre process.  I found it remarkable the kind of alliance that happens during the creation of a production, the on stage cast and backstage crew created an efficient workspace where props were miraculously found, fixing, and creating the set design became precious artwork, the musical choices were endlessly debated on and the pooling of resources from friends was astounding.   
 
Students who portray what a character is feeling like during a difficult circumstance actively develop emotional understanding of others, role-plays develop insight, empathy and pro-social skills (Hromek & Roffey, 2009). The theatre is a giving space both emotionally and technically. To know that our Vossies now have stage experience, made new friends, and learnt to love their voices and each other’s cultures all in one production…it certainly made this project most valuable for social and emotional development on campus.   
 
The cast, crew and I are in gratitude to the Umhlanga campus team for all the support and assistance given to us to make this theatrical dream come true. We brought the theatre to Umhlanga campus Vossies and we could not be more grateful to Eduvos for giving our students an unforgettable experience for Heritage Day.  

References  
Brady, M. (2018). The Role of Play in Secondary English Classrooms. Changing English, 25(3), 221-232.  
Hromek, R., & Roffey, S. (2009). Promoting Social and Emotional Learning With Games: “It’s Fun and We Learn Things”. Simulation & gaming, 40(5), 626-644.  

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