SEX ACTUALLY

Entries invited for 2010 Drama for Life Festival

Talking about sex isn’t easy. Our cultures and religions, schools, colleges, parents and friends don’t want us to talk about sex. Our hidden desires, secrets, fears, questions, confusions don’t help us to understand sex. We pretend sex is simple. The birds and the bees do it. So, how do humans do it? It’s time to talk about sex!

This is the word from the organisers of Drama for Life, a holistic arts programme hosted by the Division of Dramatic Art at Wits. Participants are invited for the 2010 Drama for Life arts festival, themed Sex Actually, which takes place across four cities in South Africa:

Drama for Life Festival is a unique cross-community HIV/Aids arts education, activist and therapeutic intervention. Through the performing and visual arts, the festival seeks to speak to the soul of the South African nation. The Drama for Life Festival believes in a world of love, compassion and mutual respect, a world free from fear, discrimination and prejudice. This year’s theme focuses on renewed efforts in finding creative and sustainable ways of learning and building capacity in HIV/Aids education and prevention. Applications are therefore invited for all art forms portraying the theme and tying in with the aims of the collective efforts of the festival.

Drama for Life Festivals are presented with financial support from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Goethe-Institut, GTZ, DeD, Business Art South Africa and the Wits’ Transformation Office.

Deadline for entries for the Pietermaritzburg and Durban events is June 18. Funding application and participant’s entry forms can be downloaded at www.dramaforlife.co.za

The Drama for Life Festivals will take place in Pietermaritzburg (September15 and 16) and Durban (September 17 and 18) after appearing in Johannesburg from August 21 to 28 and Cape Town September 9 to 11. Further details from Lonwabo Mavuso or Levinia Jones on +27 11 717 4651/ +27 11 717 1371 or email Lonwabo.mavuso@wits.ac.za or Levinia.jones@wits.ac.za