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Peace Education Projects

The Mothertongue Project - South Africa

Country: South Africa

Project Background:
The Mothertongue Project is a collective of women performing artists, writers, visual artists, musicians and arts educators who explore the keys to the empowerment of women and practical processes of healing and transformation through the power of theatre, storytelling, visual arts, music and creative writing.

Project goal and purpose:
The Mothertongue Project is commited to the practice of theatrical storytelling, cultural exchange and the celebration of a shared experience.

Project Strategies:
- to explore the keys to the empowerment of women and practical processes of healing and transformation through the power of theatre, storytelling, visual arts, music and creative writing
- to impart arts-based methodologies to communities, as a means of resolving conflict and healing of past traumas.
- to impart participatory theatre techniques and skills to non-performers as a method of problem-solving
- to impart storytelling techniques to non-performers as a means of accessing and articulating their personal stories
- to integrate the arts in the creation of community-based and professional performances
- to create theatre that focuses on personal storytelling as a medium for self-healing and transformation
- to create innovative theatre that empowers participants to discover and re-cover their own resources for self-healing
- to create a platform for performers to share their own and other’s stories in a theatrical context

Biographical Note Sara Matchett:
Sara has experience in the field of theatre for development in South Africa, Singapore and India as a facilitator, performer, director and educator. Alongside her work with the Mothertongue Project, she is currently involved with Project Phakama, a pioneering international arts education exchange programme involving arts practitioners and young people in South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia, Mauritius, India and Britain. She co-founded The Mothertongue Project in September 2000. Productions with the Project to date include directing “What the Water Gave Me”; co-creating and directing “Unkulunkulu the Sovereign One”; co-creating and directing “Beading My Soul” and co-creating and performing in "Indawo Yamaphupha - The Space of Dreams". Sara’s immediate experience after graduating from the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Drama School was that of performing various theatre in education programmes around South Africa. In 1995 she completed an Honours Degree in Drama in Education at UCT. After completing her Honours she worked for six-months in Singapore teaching drama to young people. On her return to South Africa she involved herself in various theatre for development projects with street children, homeless mothers and young black lesbians from informal settlements. In 1999 she joined an environmental NGO in Bombay, India, where she used performance as a medium to raise awareness. “Whose Mumbai is it Anyway” was created as Industrial Theatre for the corporate sector in Bombay; and “Jaago”, a physical theatre production, was commissioned by Greenpeace International as part of the Indian leg of their Toxics Free Asia Tour. She currently teaches the practical and theoretical components of a course on The Multiple Dimensions of Indian Theatre for the University of Cape Town’s Drama Department. She recently taught voice to second year students of Drama and directed three final year students in a production around healing rituals and HIV/Aids.

Contact:

Sara Matchett

info@mothertongue.co.za

The Mothertongue Project
P.O. Box 247
Woodstock 7915
Cape Town
South Africa