Live Literature Festival: Learning outside the classroom
THIRD term for schools is a busy time for students as they make final preparations for national examinations. Every candidate is thinking examinations, especially how to pass them. To help literature students prepare for their final examinations Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo and Centre For Talent Development (CTD) brings another edition of their Live Literature Festival 2-7 October at Bulawayo Theatre. This is a six-day event of dramatic performances of O and A-level literature set books.
The festival is a very exciting week for students as they get to experience the beauty of learning outside the classroom. In the past the project has seen thousands and thousands of O and A-level students from schools from as far as Plumtree, Lupane and Filabusi thronging Bulawayo Theatre to watch live stage performances of various literature set books by a group of amazing young actors and actresses also still at school. Most of the students who have watched the various performances in the past have said the experience is “fun, exciting and made school work more enjoyable” — which is essentially what The Live Literature Festival is all about — making learning fun and enjoyable for the students.
The driving philosophy behind the project is that literature was ‘‘never meant to be just read and studied in the classroom but was meant to be enjoyed outside the classroom”. Even the great Shakespeare did not see his work confined to the four walls of the classroom and subjected to endless scrutiny by both teachers and students. As a playwright he always saw actors and audiences interacting and enjoying the products of his creativity. The Live Literature Festival seeks to use live theatre to simplify or give a better understanding of the literature texts being studied in schools and colleges. In the last years the project has added adaptations to its list of presentations.
Since the education system is focused on passing national examinations The Live Literature Festival tries to help students achieve this goal while at the same time experiencing the true magical moments of theatre. This theatre-in-education project is a learning platform for both the young actors that act out the plays and the students that come to watch them. It is a platform to learn away from the classroom — giving everyone the chance to learn and think beyond the classroom set-up and more importantly to enjoy while at it.
What started as merely a project for Bulawayo schools now attracts schools from Matabeleland North and South. And the platform continues to grow. Centre For Talent Development is a youth oriented organisation whose focus is drama as the starting point of any learning. Group members are High School and University Students whose passion for drama started way back. The List of Plays for 2016 Master Harold & The Boys. (O-level setbook). One of Athol Fugard’s masterpieces. The play takes place in South Africa during the apartheid era and depicts how institutionalised racism, bigotry or hate become absorbed by those who live under it.
Dancing in the Dust. (A-level setbook). Another adaption from the novel of the same name by Kagiso Lesego Molope. Set is in the 1980s during the time of school boycotts, stay-aways, bloody police crackdowns and hippos in the streets. A gripping tale about the struggle for freedom seen through the eyes a young girl.
No More Plastic Balls & other stories. A collection of short stories which were adapted for stage. This is an A-level set book.
Impilo Yinkinga. A Ndebele novel being studied by O-level students. The novel was also adapted for stage.