Above: Lalela actors gave rousing performances at this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival at the Star Theatre at Cape Town’s District Six Homecoming Centre.

We were excited to return to the stage this May with a special Lalela rendition of Romeo and Juliet for the Shakespeare Schools Festival South Africa.

Inspiring with creativity is one of the values we hold dear at Lalela. While the visual arts form the core of our programme, we believe in broadening children’s creative experience through other art forms, theatre and music. It’s all about igniting our learners’ imaginations and guiding them to view the world –and themselves—in a more positive way, getting a real sense of the power of art and creativity to change lives.

Our participation in the annual Shakespeare Schools Festival South Africa is one such example. For many years we auditioned aspiring young actors from our Hout Bay high school programmes to join Lalela’s fledgling theatre troupe—and we had the great honour of putting on some incredible productions, from The Tempest to Macbeth (our own versions, of course!). Then Covid-19 hit, and we were forced into a long hiatus. Not since March 2020 were we able to offer our Hout Bay learners the life-changing opportunity to audition for and then perform in or gain experience as stagehands in these joyful productions.

So it was that May 2023 saw our triumphant return to the stage as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival with our own wonderful rendition of Romeo and Juliet.

We owe our heartfelt gratitude to our indefatigable director (and all-round wonder woman) Claire Baker, who’s given so generously of her time, expertise and tremendous energy to get these productions off the ground. Claire has become something of a legend among Lalela students, for good reason! Through multiple rehearsals, into the evenings and on weekends, she was there to guide, support, encourage—and yes, also direct—our young thespians, sometimes under difficult conditions.

Thank you also to our amazing team of volunteers—all Lalela alumni—who stepped in to help with stage direction (brava, Lerato!), light and sound (Aphendule, we love you!), and all the other important behind-the-scenes organising and managing (we see you, Zama!).

We also got Lalela learners across all our Western Cape-based programmes involved with painting elements of the set and props, and the results are quite spectacular!

We asked a few of our participating actors to share their experiences of this life-changing opportunity:

Thembeka, Narrator:

“I’ve never done something like this before, but for my first time, it was amazing! The rehearsals we had were super-fun and hard at the same time. To stand together as a team and as a family. Claire, our director, put all her hard work and energy and love into all of this and through this experience we in turn had to make her proud and show her how much we appreciated it! I’ve been in Lalela for about four years and it has been the greatest experience ever, and I’m really thinking of going into this as a career. Being on stage is such an amazing feeling. It wasn’t easy but we definitely had the night of our lives on Monday night. We were so proud of ourselves that night; it showed us how hard we’d worked and everything was fantastic. Some were even in tears. It’s all thanks to Claire to bring us together and show us what it is like to be on stage. Most of us just want to come back to this, to experience this joy again.”

Lenon, Actor, playing the part of Paris:

“This was a really fun experience! Paris is quite a peculiar character in the play. Playing this role showed me so much because I got to understand my character more. My vocabulary has also expanded, because the language we use is Shakespearian. It’s taught me a lot more about the olden days, history, I actually went and did some more research. (Playing Paris) also made me think a lot about my own character; there’s a resemblance to me, I could understand him.”

Khanya, Actor, playing the part of Tybault:

“The experience was a great one for me! Although I faced some challenges, whereby I thought I was not doing enough or giving enough, it was everything for me – performing in front of a large number of people, engaging with the other cast members, learning the basic rules of theatre—like not facing your back to the audience, and how to project your voice. I got to understand the importance of confidence. I have never performed before. Everything was new to me. I’m grateful for this experience, and for being able to socialise and make new friends with the cast members.”

Xolani, Actor, playing the part of Romeo:

“This was my first experience in the Shakespeare Festival and my first time acting overall. It was a new experience ‘cos I had to really push myself to the limit and take the time to understand my character and my lines. It was overwhelming at first but over time I got used to it and it got to be a fun experience, and learning all this new language and getting to interact with my fellow cast members. This for me really opened my eyes to all the new possibilities acting can bring for me, and I hope I get to do more of this, and to be in next year’s Shakespeare Festival the play.”

Xolani, we certainly hope to see you, and your fellow actors, up on that stage again next year!