The focus and work of arepp:Theatre for Life is social life-skills and self-efficacy education through Edutainment Theatre presentations. The presentations have two aspects: the live performance of a play specifically designed for the targeted age group to foster identification and emotional recognition; followed by a facilitated peer discussion, to encourage debate, and further cognitive personalisation, internalisation and contextualising of the issues presented. These presentations display, encourage, demonstrate and examine life-skills at work, in ‘real life’ situations, and most importantly, in context.

Performers conducting a facilitation with grade 7’s after a performance of About Us: Don’t Think So. Free State 2005

The nature of theatre is in the art of storytelling, engaging the audience in a dramatisation of 'real' issues and ‘real’ lives, and so allowing the issues to be addressed without stigma or condemnation.

In order to change attitudes you have to allow the holder of them to encounter them as they are, in their context, as part of their lives and with their ‘true’ impact and consequences. It is only then that you can encourage someone to change his or her mind, when it is of their own accord, their choice. It is impossible to force or intimidate someone to truly change; this has to come from within.

This is the strength of Edutainment Theatre. The performance is live, presented in the real-life context of the audience, and the characters are therefore ‘real’, their concerns immediate, and their issues tangible. Because the characters are not ‘preaching’ or ‘teaching’ a message, but instead 'living' the issues that they are dealing with, much the same as the audience is, the audience are more engaged, less suspicious, and not as easily offended by subjects which border on taboo, personal belief, self perception or privacy. A performance enforces and strengthens the desired messages because they are subtle and they seem to be ‘real’.

Audiences watching Look Before You Leap: Replay. Soweto 2004

Engaging in a performance in this way provides the audience with the opportunities to safely rehearse the consequences of attitude changes, and thus facilitates the making of these changes. Edutainment theatre is thus particularly suited to impact on individuals, creating mini epiphanies, which raise people's levels of awareness and consciousness about their rights, their personal worth and the way in which they relate to others.

Once the performance is over, the emotional experience needs to be internalised and contextualised by the audience in order for the issues and messages to be personalised and enabled. The emotional experience needs to be supported by an intellectual one to holistically enforce the learnings.

To achieve this each arepp:Theatre for Life performance is followed by a facilitated discussion. The discussion provides an intellectual space for the emotional experience to be contextualised and validated, facilitated by trusted role models, which allows for open, honest and personal communication. An environment is created which fosters debate and encourages participation and personal interaction with the issues. The audience feel able to engage in this discourse because they have identified with characters and shared the experience. Sharing their understanding now aids in raising their confidence and self-esteem.

An arepp:Theatre for Life presentation therefore has the potential to:

• engage the audience and transmit factual information
• present characters for the audience to identify with and thus personalise the messages
• create an atmosphere for open, uninhibited discourse
• explore complex issues in a way that is accessible to the audience
• demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate attitudes and behaviour patterns and challenge them through interaction between the characters
• provide the opportunity for the audience to engage in a range of concerns, issues, values and attitudes which are relevant to them
• challenge the audience to think about why they hold a specific set of beliefs and attitudes
• provide the opportunity for the audience to respect and value other people’s views, and to gain trust in their own instincts by having their views validated by others
• encourage the audience to find their own solutions and to refer them to other sources of information

Grade 7's watching "About Us: Don't Think So". Umlazi 2002

The arepp:Theatre for Life presentations are also, therefore, best done in a prepared environment where other structures exist which will already have made an input that is likely to make audiences more receptive, and which will help to maximise and support the impact once the presentation is over. arepp:Theatre for Life acknowledges that it, itself, does not and will not provide ‘hands on’ follow up and support beyond the presentation. The reason for this is based in the nature of the expected outcomes; because the purpose is to encourage audiences to make the decisions that are right for them, in their contexts, the types of follow-up and support that may be required will differ from individual to individual and audience to audience. arepp:Theatre for Life does not presume to make those decisions for it’s audiences, but rather aims to put them in contact with as many varied support organisations as possible in order to facilitate their own needs and choices.

Therefore, to ensure that support and follow-up is available and provided, arepp:Theatre for Life attempts to work in close conjunction with the individual teachers, the schools, the relevant government departments, and the appropriate health, education and welfare organisations in each area, arranging all tours with their knowledge, and providing each school with a contacts list of all the organisations in their area and the details of the types and nature of the services they provide.

A teacher’s workbook on how to utilise the arepp:Theatre for Life show in their normal curricula sessions is distributed for re-enforcement and to aid in follow-up and support. The aim is for a tour to be arranged and designed to complement the various organisations’ current and ongoing programmes, as well as the programmes and policy of the relevant government departments.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

In order to achieve our aims, we apply the following criteria to each of our shows, where applicable:

• The issues and needs are researched
• The shows are educationally sound, and appropriate to age groups and development
• The shows enhance and support such things as the life-skills curriculum and the campaigns/work of other organisations related to the issues
• The shows are of a high performance quality
• The shows are performed, at least in part, in the home languages of the audience
• The shows have their greatest impact with audiences of 200 or less, and will not be performed to audiences of more than 250.
• A show will not be performed to an inappropriate age group
• The shows will not be performed outside
• Each performance / tour will be arranged at the request or in conjunction with an ‘issue’ related organisation in the area, in order to best provide follow-up support and information for the audience and to ensure the optimum utilisation of the performance
• Shows are constantly adapted and re-done to incorporate feedback and changes