Erica Whyman in South Africa, part I

So a few words for the blog from freezing cold South Africa. That's right, really properly, Newcastle on a bright February morning cold. I've had to buy gloves and lots of long stripey socks because it rather took me by surprise! The sun is shining and this country looks as spectacular as ever, it's just the middle of winter, so it's cold. I arrived on Friday after a 26 hour journey which makes you feel like you've lost a day of your life. Within minutes I was having lunch with Mo (a colleague who is now living and working out here for the Swallows project) and Toto and Siya (Technical Manager and Head of Development at the Port Elizabeth Opera House who spent a month with Northern Stage last Christmas). I think that's going to be my favourite thing about this trip, meeting people on the other side of the world who have become good friends through this project.

The Swallows project is a cultural partnership between the North East and the Eastern Cape of SA, and my job this week is to get a clearer sense of what theatre is being made here and what projects or productions Northern Stage might get involved with in the next few years. So on Sat Penny Rae (from Dance City) and I met with a successful music project SageGateshead have been running called Amandla Esandla (the Power of Five) . These amazing young singers have been selected from all over the region to travel to the UK and perform and then to act as facilitators to encourage other young people to develop their talent. They have the most extraordinary voices, and sitting in a little delapidated office in the Opera House they sang for us for an hour, each song magically fusing traditional Xhosa rhythm with a funky and sometimes cheeky modern sound. These guys feel like the future, and their generosity and exuberance is very moving. They say one very striking thing about Bex and Sharon, the singers they worked with from the SageGateshead, that they not only treated them with respect but they behaved as equals. eating and sleeping in the same place. This still shocks me, that young people here could be surprised not to be segregated from the white practitioners ( not much older than them). Clearly Bex and Sharon did a brilliant job here and I've asked the group to come and sing in the foyer while they are over so watch out for that!

We set out for Grahamstown Festival on Sat afternoon, a huge arts festival with an international reputation and a significant fringe programme, so that I could see plenty of work and the difficulties in making it happen here. First up we saw Weave, a piece our colleagues Kylie Lloyd (Director of Participation at Northern Stage) and her husband Mark have been working on with a young group from Motherwell ( a township close to Port Elizabeth). The piece was very strong, and affecting and the young people had tremendous confidence and poise. The young chair of the Arts Centre told me they had come on an incredible journey since working with Kylie and Mark. The same story, of giving these talented young people full professional attention making a real difference to their self respect.

The real challenge for me is how to create a project or projects which can have a lasting legacy. There is such need and inequality here that it makes you want to fix things, which of course we can't, and I want to bring the whole team here, which I'm sure they'd love (!) because it makes you so appreciative of what we have. But we have to find a way to make a real impact without neglecting our responsibilities at home, and perhaps most importantly without imposing our own style and practice on the artists here. I would like us to find a way to work together so that in both countries as many people as possible are empowered to have courage to make our work in the future. We have a great conversation over dinner about the need to train young directors in both countries. Maybe that would be a very good start.

That's enough for now! I'll write more soon about some of the work I've seen at the festival and our run in with a fierce policeman!

Erica, Grahamstown July 1st
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