Make
Theatre, Make
a Difference.
a Difference.
The Winter/Summer Institute
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Make
Theatre, Make
a Difference. |
The Winter/Summer Institute
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WSI's Contamination Waltz in GHANA Ebenezer Koomson MPH, Ghana Health Service In the works for WSI: * Kae Kapa Kae Ka Mmino: Music is Everywhere
12 track CD from WSI 2011 in Lesotho * Make Theatre / Make a Difference - trilingual manual (English/Sesotho/IsiZulu) of WSI's creative process |
Join Us! |
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Launched in June 2006 by eight colleagues from the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), the Republic of South Africa (RSA), and Lesotho, WSI is a multicultural, collaborative effort among faculty facilitators and student performers from three continents as well as community participants from the rural mountain villages of Lesotho's Malealea Valley. Our biennial program challenges participants to create issue-based, aesthetically provocative, entertaining theatre. Since its inception, the Theatre for Development (TfD) focus of WSI has been a response to the community health situation in Lesotho. Along with much of sub-Saharan Africa, Lesotho has a staggering HIV infection rate—currently estimated at over 23% ¹ (the 3rd highest in the world), and disproportionately affecting young women between 18 and 24. As part of addressing the pandemic, WSI examines the ways in which complex social issues impact the spread of the virus.
Our 2008 Residency video,"The Contamination Waltz," illustrates a concurrency network and shows the process of building a scene
| This year, students and faculty from New York, South Africa and Lesotho spent the entire WSI residency in the rural mountains of the Malealea Valley working in collaboration with local villagers—creating theatre together that dynamically reflects community concerns about the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
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In 2008, we explored the effects of stigma and denial
in regard to getting tested for HIV, along with the
potentially dynamic role played by "concurrency" —networks of simultaneous, ongoing, committed sexual relationships with a small number of people. Our 2008 performance, It's Just You and Me ... and My Wife and Your Boyfriend (Ke 'Na Le Uena Le Mosali oa Ka Le Mohlankana oa Hau Feela), also played the National University, the capital, and the Malealea Valley. In Malealea we collaborated once again with local villagers and performed in the festival for an even larger crowd. The collaborative creative process WSI has been developing, which begins months before the multinational group gathers in Lesotho, is discussed on The Communication Initiative Network, and will be featured on our Watch/Listen page so check back soon.
Procession
of WSI actors and Malealea villagers to the final Festival performance
(2008)
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WSI actors Katleho 'Moleli (Lesotho) and Rethabile Mokete (Lesotho) rehearse "concurrency" with Malealea villagers (2008) To date, WSI has included students and faculty from: the National University of Lesotho; the State University of New York, Empire State College, New York City (US); the University of Sunderland (UK); and the University of the Witwatersrand (RSA). The Institute's primary theatre work takes place
every two years in sub–Saharan Africa,
with residencies, research endeavors, fund raising, and performance
projects in participating countries during the intervening period. The
ultimate goal of the Institute is to empower both student and community
participants with the tools and resources necessary to create similar
theatre projects in their own communities and lives. |
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Thanks for your ongoing support!
To make a tax-deductible donation, click here: |
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| Principal photography by Brooke Bassin, Eric Feinblatt, Margaret McGeorge, Rik Walton, Limpho Mokuku, and Jussara Santos-Raxlen | ||||||
