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Educational theatre models workin driving people to test for HIV

Looking back, when Professor ]immie EarlPerry began his musical theatre career,henever envisioned it would lead him to livingin South Africa, heading the EducationalTheatre and Creative Arts Departmentat the Africa Centre for RN/AIDSManagement at Stellenbosch University.

In fact, he had a different plan for himselfalrogether. Raised in a very musical family,Perry knew from a young age that his life'spath would literally follow the music, livingout his profession on stage.After completing his school education, he

attended Princeton for his graduate work atthe Westminster Choir College and thereafterheaded direCl:lyto New York in search of acareer in show business.Not long after his arrival, he was accepted at

the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.He touted across the country with a number

of internationally acclaimed productionssuch as Cats, 0'vfiss Saigon, 'Dreamgirlsand Sallyandtom. From there, he went onto Europe and toured with a couple moreinternationally acclaimed productions toadd to his impressive repertoire, including

tarlight Express, Jesus ChriH, SuperHar andSA Gospel Singers.Simply put, Perry was living a life filled withsion for theatrical entertainment.

aHiltfing- Perry's European tours thatmet up with Professor Jan du Toit from

nbosch University who headed theCentre for HN/AIDS Management.

ing met previously, Perry invired thessor to watch a show in Germany inh he was involved at the time.

Perry had no idea that the professor wouldinvite him to come visit South Africa with theaim of heading the Community MobilisationUnit, inevitably changing his life path.

A new directionChuckling and shaking his head, Perryreflected on what at the time, Perry thoughtwas a fortuitous meeting. "At that stage, Ihad no idea about what he had in mind, burafter he saw the show, we talked. I imaginehe found in me the necessary skills that couldfulfill his vision of what he wanted. He offeredme an invitation to come to South Africa,view the country and visit the Centre and tosee what it was doing. "I stayed for 10 days,went back to Germany, decided as quicklyas I could whether I wanted to do this, orcontinue on the path I was on."And in 2004, Perry moved to South Africa

to mobilise the vision ofProf Du Toit,which entailed creating a model that woulddisseminate information about HIV/AIDSfrom a grassroots level to the vulnerablecommunities in the Srellenbosch area. TheAfrica Centre for HN/AIDS Management atthat stage was still in its infancy.At the end of2000, the Presidency challenged

the university to create a programme model"that would tal<eHIV training and capacitybuilding to the managers and labour leaders ofthe country's workforce".In order to mal<ea significant impact

on the effects of the pandemic, it was nolonger sufficient to focus on preventionand awareness programmes in ruralcommunities, but to expand the focus tothe workforce at large.

This realisation spearheaded the university todevelop a postgraduate diploma in HIV/AIDSManagement (PDM), which began in 2001to address this very issue. Two years later, afterthe university gained success from the PDMprogramme, the Centre was established.

Initially part of the Department of IndustrialPsychology, the Centre branched off tobecome its own entity for education, researchand HIV/AIDS management programmes in

the workplace.Prof. Du Toit's research found that

while the government and both localand international non-governmentalorganisations were involved in providingprogrammes to support the impoverishedand rural communities by disseminatingHIV/AIDS information and encouragingtesting in both African and Englishlanguages, there was a particular group thatwas left out of the focus area.

"He realised that all the other cultures andcommunities surrounding Stellenbosch, andprimarily in the country, were being focusedon either through overseas intervention orthe country's intervention programmes, butthe coloured communities were left out.

Prof. Du Toit realised that there was a need[to focus] on the farms around Stellenbosch,which has primarily Mrikaans-speaking

labourers," said Perry.TIlls iswhere Prof. Du Toit felt Perrywould be

most instrumental in developing a model thatwould send the messageeffeClivelyto the ruralfarm-working communities in Stellenbosch.While educational theatre exists in South

Mrica, Perry found that thete wete certainareas within educational theatre, whichtequited adjustment. "When I arrived in thecountry, I tealised I had to seewhat already

existed in Educational Theatre. I wentaround the country and there are definitelyorganisations involved in educationaltheatre, but the productions I saw I feltcould be presented better." He found that acombination of factors, such as the length oftime of the produClion, caused problems. Ashorter production was more effective.

In order for the production to be takenseriously, it was important to have people on

board who were as driven and passionate -people who on the ground level understoodthe initial concept right to the end goal. "I hadto find the kind of people who would work

with me, actors, technical people - people whohad the same commitment and passion as I do

towards this work."The people I have working with me are

full-time employees and they've been doingit with me now for four years and they'recommitted, they're trained HIV/AIDS peereducators who come from Cloetesville,which is an Mrikaans-speaking, colouredcommunity," Perry said.The kind of work in which Perry is involved

in South Mrica is far more enriching thanhe could ever have imagined. "Developingthese six actors [for both productions], whopredominantly are all under 30 years old,as people with a work ethic that they neverhad before, with a decent salary, has been

an incredible experience and a fulfilling oneoutside of the Awareness Programme itself,"Perry said.

How the story unfoldedThe script itself was the brainchild of South

Mrican actress and television presenter, VickyDavis, who has appeared on SABC 2's popularsoapie 7de .(gan (asTessa Krige) and theMrikaans lifestyle show, Pasella.

Davis comes from a family of writers andacademics - her mother is both an editor and

writer, and her brother works as a lecturer atthe Mrican Centre as part of the AcademicProgramme - he is also Perry's assistant. .(ucky,

the Jfero has been shown to over 100 000people and been used as an intervention

method 200 times with good results.Perry admits that without the support of

the right people, his vision would never havecome into being, particularly seeing thatbeing an American, it would be incrediblyhard to create a production in a language hedid not understand. "I could not have comehere and developed this idea on my own. Ihad sourced out people who understood what

we were trying to do and tried to capturemy vision of what I wanted to do, and thenVicky came along.When Vicky wrote the script, she did it,

of course, in Mrikaans but with an Englishtranslation under the dialogue so I couldunderstand what was going on. But that has

since helped me a great deal in understandingthe language better," he said.

Davis portrayed the main protagonist, Luckyas a supethero. The icon of supetheroes is astrong one in every society, and it was theperfect conduit with which to pass"on the