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03 September 2018 Photo Dion Van Niekerk
Drama department gets moving with physical theatre
Elements of physical theatre incorporated in this year’s production of Tok-Tok. Pictures are Charl Henning and Erick Strydom
Dion van Niekerk, a lecturer at the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of the Free State (UFS), had the unique experience of attending a seven-day Physical Theatre summer school at Retzhof Castle in Austria. Also on the course were Charl Henning, a master’s student, and Erick Strydom, a former student, 

“We learned about the physicality of theatre, which means training for nine hours a day,” Van Niekerk said. “We researched the connection between physical action and voice, gesture, movement, dance and word.” 

New approach to teaching aspiring actors

Many theatres are doing away with sets and costumes and focus mainly on the actors’ bodies. You will find it in mime, clowning and dance. It is a way of telling stories by using only body language. “It gave me insight into what is happening in theatres across Europe,” Van Niekerk said. It also provided the opportunity to benchmark against the rest of the world.

Van Niekerk brought back a new approach with which to train students in the department, and a new way of working with actors. “The relevant training is to make theatre accessible to everyone,” he added. Without a word being said on stage, theatre will be able to accommodate hearing-impaired audiences and cut across all languages.

Physical theatre will do away with barriers

“Physical theatre can accommodate everyone. It will cross boundaries as it will become a common entertainment language,” Van Niekerk said. Putting emphasis on physical theatre was also a way to see what the rest of the world was doing in terms of theatre and training.

Van Niekerk and his team incorporated what they had learnt in Austria into a play called  Tok-Tok, which was performed at the Free State Arts Festival earlier this year.  The summer school took place from 29 June 2018 to 5 July 2018.

News Archive

Summer programme a first outside Austria
2012-12-06

 

Mr Derek Hanekom, Minister of Science and Technology
Foto: Johan Roux
05 Desember 2012

People often fight about their differences, like skin colour, religion and more. “These differences are minute. We must celebrate our common ancestry and commit ourselves to a common destiny. Your work can make a difference.” This is according to Mr Derek Hanekom, Minister of Science and Technology.

He opened the Southern African Young Scientists Summer Programme (SA-YSSP) at the Bloemfontein Campus on Sunday 2 December 2012. The UFS is the first institution outside Austria to host the Summer Programme. A total of 19 young researchers from 17 countries will be hosted by the UFS until 28 February 2013. Researchers in the programme are, among others, from South Africa, Egypt, China, Italy, Sweden, Iran, Hungary, India, the USA and Indonesia.

The programme will form part of an annual three-month education, academic training and research capacity-building programme jointly organised by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), based in Austria, the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). IIASA is an international research organisation that conducts policy-oriented scientific research in the three global problem areas of energy and climate change, food and water and poverty and equity. South Africa’s engagements with IIASA, specifically with regard to the SA-YSSP, relate primarily to the DST’s Ten-Year Innovation Plan.

Mr Hanekom spoke about the impact the growing global population, which is expected to grow from 7 billion in 2012 to 9 billion in 2050, has on natural resources. “We use purified water to flush our toilets while other people do not have clean drinking water. We cannot carry on like this. Somewhere it must stop, if we do not want to be responsible for the 6th great extinction. We must know how our systems impact on each other.

“We can do things differently and better and should endeavour that other people enjoy luxuries we take for granted,” he said.

He urged the researchers to believe that they can make a difference, share knowledge and translate the knowledge into plans.

Prof. Dr Pavel Kabat, Director/CEO of IIASA, said the summer programme was presented outside Austria for the first time, with plans to expand to Brazil and China in future. Twenty countries are represented on the IIASA board, with more than 3 000 researchers associated with the organisation.

IIASA was launched in 1972 in the days of the Cold War as a “science bridge” between the West and the Soviet Union. It served as a “think tank” for various issues that needed to be resolved. Its mission was reconfirmed after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

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