With a focus on youth empowerment and accessibility, the Artscape Theatre will launch its annual education and youth programme on 19 March 2025.
The programme is aimed at creating a platform for previously marginalised art forms, enhanced accessibility to audiences; and offering learners the opportunity to showcase their artistic prowess on a professional stage.
The productions include the four Grade 12 setwork productions which aim to expose learners to the required curriculum-based outcomes set by the Western Cape Department of Education.
These setworks are presented in all three official provincial languages including surtitle translation for the isiXhosa production Buzani Kubawo to engender inclusivity. The Afrikaans production Krismis van Map Jacobs celebrates the legendary Adam Small, and My Children! My Africa! of the iconic trailblazer Athol Fugard. Abrahamse & Meyer Productions presents Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Meanwhile, the High School Drama Festival and Schools Arts Festival are just some of the projects aimed at further youth development by creating access to a professional stage as well as an outlet for creativity.
Up to 15 schools per night dance, dramatise, perform poetry and choral songs, among others, often marking their first visit to Artscape while the High School Drama Festival showcases the work of the budding literary creativity of learners.
The Youth Jazz Music and Youth Classical Music Concerts respectively (the latter that has stood the test of time for more than 53 years), have seen participants excel as professionals both locally and internationally, including scooping major awards.
Artscape CEO Marlene le Roux said: “Learners and youth often express that these productions were their first visit to Artscape. Later, when they return as adults for the commercial shows, they enthuse about their appearance on the very same stage on which they see a professional artist perform, or they reminisce the moment of their historic first-time attendance as a learner.
"Their regales are a testimony to the audience development outcome we seek as a pivotal objective too. These are just a smattering of the change that we seek to effect as we focus on arts education at our cultural institution – an avenue that has been recognised as a significant vehicle for youth empowerment in post-apartheid South Africa.”
Weekend Argus