STORIES FOR THE FUTURE

Stories for the Future, a dynamic performance intervention that incorporates storytelling, dance, graffiti art and live music – kicked off last week at COP 17. The questions it asks are: How will we survive in a world that is changing rapidly? How will we cope with changing climate? Can we connect to Mother Nature again? Or are we already lost?

Inspired by installation art and image-narration Stories for the Future traces our earliest beginnings of creation and development. Three weeks before COP 17, an ensemble of 10 artists – actors, musicians, dancers and graffiti artists – began an imaginative and explorative process of devising this mixed media theatrical installation that is further developed and performed every day at the Conference. Shadowing the error of ego and materialism in a world that has lost its connection to Mother Nature, Stories for the Future is an engaging performance with immediate worldly relevance.

The performance intervention aims at raising a focused awareness on environmental sustainability: The severe effects of climate change on the individual, as well as our global survival into the future. Environmental protectionists and climate change experts articulate a bleak outlook on the future, unless we commit to changing our present actions. Stories for the Future foretells a bleak conclusion to mankind’s negligence towards our earth, whilst cognizant of essential knowledge systems.

Through intimate engagement with the public, in the public spaces of COP 17 and the in-door theatre space, the company uses improvised performance interventions to capture the imagination of the public. COP 17 offers a unique opportunity to use the arts to engage conference participants and the general South African public in the urgent, necessary dialogue about environmental sustainability.

According to Drama for Life COP 17 project officer Kyle Kirvin, the actors got very positive feedback and the response from the audience has been excellent so far. Cop 17 visitors engaged in the interactive play by writing messages for a better future on the DFL performance board and by participating in debates with the DFL crew.

The production is an initiative of the Drama for Life (DFL) Company Laboratory, headed by Director Warren Nebe. Drama for Life is a national leader in using the arts to activate learning in HIV/Aids, Human Rights and Social Justice, Peace building and Environmental Sustainability. The programme hosts Company Lab, an innovative practice-based research initiative that aims to provide an experimental space for multi-disciplinary investigations that challenge and transform popular notions of the theatre and performance spaces, supporting a multi-modal approach to devising and developing new and existing performances relevant to contemporary identities in South Africa.

Stories for the Future is sponsored and supported by the German International Corporation (GIZ). Performances take place at the CCR German Embassy exhibition stand on December 7 at 13h00 and December 9 at 12h00. There will also be two performances at The Green Hub: December 8 at 18h00 and December 9 at 15h00.

More information about Drama for Life from Miriam Behrendt on 011 717 4734 or e-mail Miriam.Behrendt@wits.ac.za