Leiden High x Anna Foundation x Drama Factory
On Saturday 12 November 2022, the Drama Factory in Somerset West hosted an inspiring crossover collaboration!
The Anna Foundation is a nonprofit organisation that provides after-school programmes for children in farming communities and rural areas across the Western Cape. Based on the principle of the three Rs (reading, running and ‘righting’), the Foundation creates opportunities for young people to improve their literacy and numeracy levels, their health and fitness, and their motivation to learn. The Anna Foundation trains facilitators from each community to support and sustain learners through their journey of education and self-discovery.
The Foundation’s programmes also introduce children to drama and the performing arts. But opportunities for these learners to enjoy live theatre in their home language(s) of Afrikaans/Kaaps have been limited. Enter Samantha Pearce and her drama group from Leiden High School in Delft, Cape Town!
Followers of the TCC’s activities may recall reading about the Leiden ensemble’s Afrikaaps Hamlet, which they performed at this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival. In fact, under Pearce’s guidance, Leiden has entered four productions at the Festival in recent years - with versions of The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor in addition to their Hamlet - and, in the process, the group has pioneered contemporary practice in translating Shakespeare into Kaaps.
Watch this video to learn more about Leiden High’s participation in the Shakespeare Schools Festival (April 2021).
Samantha Pearce and members of the Leiden High drama group at a TCC workshop run by Clayton Stromberger (visiting from the University of Texas at Austin) in May this year.
Walking/running the talk: TCC Director Chris Thurman (red cap) with a group of Anna Foundation athletes at the Groot Constantia trail run in October.
It was a great pleasure, then, for the TCC to facilitate a performance of the Leiden High Hamlet for children from various Anna Foundation programmes. Thanks to the generosity of Drama Factory founder and manager Sue Diepeveen, and with the wonderful support of the Foundation’s Rebecca van der Spuy, an opportunity was created for the Leiden drama group to build on their experience at the Shakespeare Schools Festival, to deepen their knowledge of theatre-making, to share their talents with an enthusiastic audience and to offer an inspiring example to other children of the power of creative expression through performance!
The Mousetrap scene
A death-dance
Ophelia rejects Hamlet rejecting Opelia
Polonius and Claudius hatching a plan
The hollow crown (backstage)
Learning the ropes in the lighting box during rehearsals
Samantha Pearce shares some behind-the-scenes information with the audience after the cast returns for a curtain call