The WSI project involved thirty-one students and faculty from the four participating schools who came together in June and July in Roma, Lesotho to create a play which would ultimately be taken into the rural communities of the Malealea Valley for further collaboration with local villagers.

The Theatre for Development (TfD) focus of this first Institute was a response to the community health situation in Lesotho. “Along with most of sub-Saharan Africa, Lesotho has a staggering HIV infection rate – currently estimated at 37-50%, and disproportionately affecting young women between 18 and 24. As part of addressing the pandemic we wanted to look at how gossip and silence, in Lesotho and in each of the cultures we represented, could lead to disempowerment and danger in the face of the most significant challenges of modern life.”

Readings of relevant material, like Catherine Campbell’s Letting Them Die and University of Pretoria’s Jonathan Stadler’s work on rumour, gossip and blame as well as a series of presentations on topics ranging from language taboos to the role of customary practices in the spread of HIV/AIDS established a shared platform from which the multi-cultural company could build creative group work.

“Using ideas and inspirations from the readings and presentations as a starting point, the faculty devised improvisational “tasks” for students/actors, and facilitated in varying degrees as the work progressed. Creative work was structured and guided by faculty, but the core of the work was actor-driven, actor-improvised and actor-imagined - drawn from a cultural interaction of stories, dreams, myths, songs, dances and lived experience. The resulting theatre piece, Dance Me to the End of Love (Ntjeke Ho isa Pheletsong ea Lerato in Sesotho), was a montage of scenes derived from the improvisational work that had been deepened and refined through the creative shaping and direction by the faculty.”

The play began with a procession of songs and movement. Music, played and sung by the actors, was woven throughout the montage. Using a mixture of primarily English and Sesotho (with bits of Zulu, Portuguese, Tswana, Spanish, Xhosa and Afrikaans), the cast played multiple roles. Four Gossips (2 male; 2 female) served as transitional commentators, scene announcers, and translators, and a silent trickster assisted the gossips, and helped define the flow of the play.

Dance Me to the End of Love was performed on the National University of Lesotho campus in Roma on July 3 2006 and at the Maseru Sun Hotel’s convention centre in the nation’s capital on July 4 2006 . After each show, a post-play bilingual discussion with the audience was facilitated by WSI faculty member Selloane Mokuku.

After being revised and rehearsed (to translate as much of the play into Sesotho as possible), Dance Me to the End of Love was performed for a Sesotho speaking audience of Malealea villagers on July 6 2006 in front of the community health clinic where HIV tests are given.

The performance was the first step in community dialogue and collaboration with village residents. Post-performance there was a bilingual discussion with the audience, again facilitated by Mokuku; and then 30 participating villagers began work with the institute actors and faculty. After dividing into three groups, each with enough Sesotho/English speakers to translate, the next five days were spent in rehearsal sessions. During this time, facilitating and directing roles were largely passed from faculty to institute actors. Using a process similar to the one they had just experienced, Institute actors worked with village actors to improvise scenes based on villagers’ responses to the performance.

HIV/AIDS, Youth.