curtain

Aims & Objectives

Children
Children
Young Adults

arepp:Theatre for Life’s vision is a supportive society in which the individual members are active directors of their own lives, taking responsibility for making informed choices which lead to empowered decisions for their holistic growth. This, in turn, contributes to the constructive development of their society.

To achieve this arepp:Theatre for Life's mission is to produce travelling applied theatre presentations in schools, providing interactive, social life-skills education to school-going youth, to develop self-efficacy and resilience in relation to sexuality and relationships, and the attendant attitudes, behaviours, values and views that are inherent therein.

Self-efficacy is the perception, ability and competence of a person, group or community to understand, influence, change, and maintain their concept of themselves and their attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, values and life-style choices, and includes their capacity to be tolerant, flexible, and adaptable.

Resilience is the capacity of a person, group or community to respond to, transcend, withstand and recover from changes, setbacks or adversity.

The initiation and reinforcement of self-efficacy and resilience in individuals, groups and communities promotes a change in social attitudes, choices, behaviours and morés regarding sex, sexuality, relationships and gender, contributing to a reduction of the rates of HIV transmission, discrimination, human rights abuses, abuse, gender-based violence and rape, and thus the increased mental and physical health of society.

The specific objectives of each arepp:Theatre for Life presentation are:

  1. To increase and develop the self-efficacy and resilience of South African school-going youth through:
    • the provision of relevant information,
    • increased awareness and understanding of the self, the issues and the context,
    • encouragement of a positive self-concept,
    • enforcement of self-esteem and self-value,
    • and the development of problem-solving and decision-making life-skills.
  2. To increase the number of youth in South Africa who are exposed to and have an appreciation of theatre as a cultural art form and means of expression.

The outcome that arepp:Theatre for Life expects from each presentation is an increase in the perception, ability and competence of the audiences to understand, influence, change, adapt and maintain their concept of themselves and their own choices, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, values and views, and in their acceptance and tolerance of the choices, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, values and views of others.

The expected long-term impact of the project is that the audiences will develop resilient self-efficacy and so be enabled with informed choice for sustainable decision-making with regard to their sexual and reproductive health, and their relationship and life-style behaviours in order to: