The Art of Business Performance

Northern Stage presents a new series of workshops for individuals wishing to develop their communication and presentation skills. Our last event in July received significant praise and endorsement from delegates, including representatives from RBS, Northumbrian Water, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle Building Society.

Our next workshop is on Tuesday 14 October. Erica Whyman, Chief Executive of Northern Stage and Director of recent productions including Our Friends in the North and A Christmas Carol will lead a Communication Skills workshop with a professional actor. This workshop is aimed at individuals who wish to boost their performance in presenting to a range of audiences, including meetings with colleagues and clients, pitching for new business and after dinner speaking.

This full day course with lunch offers extremely good value for money, with an inclusive price of £195 + VAT per person.

If you would like further information and booking details for this workshop please email Jane Hall at jhall@northernstage.co.uk

Erica Whyman in South Africa, Part III

I'm sitting at Johannesburg airport on my way back home, so this will be my final blog from SA. However I need to go back a day or two and write about some of the other memorable moments from Grahamstown.

One event that really changed my thinking was the opening of Wordfest, the literature festival. This is convened by the very impressive Chris Mann, a white South African, who has ensured the festival is a celebration of all the indigenous languages of SA. He addressed the conference in isiXhosa, with just four words of English, 'we need each other'. Before that though we watched as about sixty writers paraded through the streets, declaring the importance of words. They then gathered outside Rhodes university where they delivered their poems and writings into a box which was handed to the MEC (senior politician for Arts and Culture) who is expected to publish them. This being South Africa it transpired that she had failed to do this last year because of bureaucracy! The delivery ritual derives from a tradition of leaving a stone on a cairn to mark the fact that you have passed a certain village or place. As we listened to a chain of distinguished poets and praise singers address the room, it struck me that when we have been contemplating a major production here we have been assuming it will be largely in English. In any other country we would be assuming it should be in the most spoken language and then translated into English. Because of South Africa's peculiar history English is so dominant that we have not thought like this. Now I'm wondering, if we were to do a major classic with a company here, like a Shakespeare, would the groundbreaking thing to do be to perform it in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and English, with an explicitly mixed cast? If the Russians can do it, why not the South Africans?

We spent one afternoon at the festival talking with two playwrights, a professor of literature and a colleague of his. It was a fascinating discussion about the frustrations and hopes for the arts here. At one point the more experienced playwright, Monde Ngonyama said that 'the artists are tired', meaning that after the struggle against apartheid, the fight has gone out of their work. And that the system currently works against encouraging them to make and fund new pieces. If we could inspire people here to believe in the importance of their work again, and by doing so encourage artists in the North East to be braver about the work we make, that would be really something.

We returned to Port Elizabeth on Thursday afternoon, ready for our women's event on Friday. This event came from one we hosted at Northern Stage on the occasion of a visit by senior Eastern Cape politicians in 2007. It sprang from conversations I had on my first visit to SA with young and very senior women here who felt there was a need for women to get together to share experiences and speak about issues which are hard to address in most public arenas. Post-apartheid, women are the beneficiaries of strict positive action laws to ensure there are equal numbers of men and women employed in all places of work. This has meant a great deal of change very quickly, against a backdrop of a very patriarchal culture (in black and white communities) and increasing domestic violence. The event in Newcastle was a big success, with many NE women enjoying a space to talk, but nothing could have prepared me for Friday afternoon.

We arrived at Red Location museum, a huge building in the middle of the poorest township near in Nelson Mandela Bay. Some very senior women started to arrive, teachers, writers and the most famous actress in the Eastern Cape, who was part of Athol Fugard's Serpent Players and the first black actress to play to an integrated audience. As we gathered for lunch more and women arrived, many of whom had heard myself and Peggy Calata (who works for the Swallows Partnership and is a very well respected figure here) on the radio. They had come, not really knowing what the event was for, but wanting to get together with other women. A group of young dancers performed for us and then their director, Florence, was interviewed by her daughter about her life and the journey she has been on. Florence was born just a few months before me, and yet her life has been inutterably different, with very limited opportunities and a struggle to just survive, and yet she has formed this group and she encourages the young women to believe in themselves, and as she says, to 'be someone'. I was speaking next, but I was so very humbled by Florence and more than a little bewildered by the range of women in the audience, so I didn't say much of what I had planned. Instead I talked about my mother and grandmothers, which is certainly something that South Africa makes me think about; the fact that you are who you are because of other people, and most especially because of your family. I was unusually concise (!) but didn't give a good account of what on earth I was doing there..

Mo and Peggy were brilliant at creating an atmosphere of trust, and one by one the women introduced themselves and spoke about their lives and their struggles. It was extremely moving, with more than one woman speaking about bringing up large families, on their own, sacrificing so much to give their children an education, who then have no jobs or income at the end of it. Many young women spoke about fighting for their own education, including a government officer who walked for two days, wearing her shoes out, to ask for a grant to study, which she didn't expect to get. Another recurring theme was women who already have so little, making a point of helping others, caring for the elderly, working in schools, or simply expressing their admiration for each other. A number of young performers spoke about how the arts have given them a living, as well as self esteem and opportunity. Towards the end of the afternoon, a lady spoke who had come all the way from Cradock (a two hour drive), and her story was so upsetting that Peggy was unable to translate.By the end of the afternoon, quite a number of tears had been shed. Not just because of the stories of tragedy and struggle, but because all the women had had the courage to speak about themselves. There were promises to find a way to hold these events regularly and I know Mo and Peggy will find a way to do this.

I have to leave this extraordinary country now. I am still shocked at the terrible deprivations and continuing divisions and prejudices. And I am all the more inspired by the people who are fighting them. Against the backdrop of the nightmare that is Zimbabwe, and rising food and oil prices, this place feels more troubled and less optimistic than when I first visited, but so many colleagues I've met have an admirable determination to keep going, and to create opportunities for the next generation, the 'born free generation'. There is amazing talent in the Eastern Cape, and theatre is one small way that stories of the new South Arica, with all its struggles and hopes, can reach the rest of the world.

July 5th, Johannesburg, SA
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Erica Whyman in South Africa, Part II

So where to start. I've seen fifteen shows in five days, plus three talks, a couple of exhibitions and many memorable conversations. and I've eaten a massive amount of chicken! The Grahamstown festival is the strangest, most contradictory place I've ever visited. A frontier town with pretty clapboard houses, whitewashed security walls, elegant University buildings, and on the hill the huge grey concrete Settlers Monument, which makes the National Theatre in London look like warm and cuddly architecture. The Monument is a symbol of the 1820 settlers, from England, who took this land and claimed it as their own. Now it is the festival hub, covered in posters, filled with people selling their shows, and decorated outside by a line of young performers with white face paint, the 'statues', who will dance for you if you give them a coin. From the hill, you have a panoramic view of the townships, where most of the fringe companies are staying, reliant on lifts and hitchhiking to get to and from their venue.

The town is freezing cold, especially at night and we had to invest in hats and jumpers as the week went on. There is a buzz in the streets, but it seems quiet for an international festival, and I am shocked by how silent, and dangerous it can feel at night, even with hundreds of shows on. The roads are crazy, filled with cars, and very few helpful signs, so everyone seems permanently lost. And whenever you park you meet a car guard, sometimes quite elderly women , who will watch over your car in return for a few coins whenever you feel like coming back. One woman told us she would be on the street guarding cars until 4 am, because she had children to feed. The casual acceptance of poverty and desperation in this country still takes my breath away.

I won't list all the shows we saw, but just try to give a flavour of the huge range of work here. For instance we saw a British co-production of a new piece about memory, rather beautiful but very earnest. A touching play about the dreams of young women who want to move up in the world, an amazingly exuberant physical piece about daily life working in the mines, a play about prison, one about the justice system and a classic outdoor Midsummer Nights Dream performed in the sunny gardens of a magnificent country house by very well spoken drama students! The vast majority of the black led companies are presenting plays about rape, infidelity, inequality and HIV, which can become pretty tough viewing. Meanwhile much of the white led work feels very European and often has little connection to Africa or to life here. It is a very disconcerting mixture. Most of the young black performers cannot afford to see any of the other productions, although there is a fierce trade in comps and they make every effort to see the work of friends and neighbours.

Here are a few of my highlights, the shows I think I will remember for quite a time. A production called Halo, which looked at the role ancestors play in African society, and the effects of ignoring them on a white family. It was a very poetic piece of writing, very theatrical in style ad made me think about my own family and the legacy we each carry with us. A new play called Ten Bush, part of the main festival and produced by the Market Theatre, which was a very disturbing story of curses and witchcraft, asking some searching questions about violence and cruelty. A fantastic production called Awaiting Trial, made in a township in Gauteng (near Jo'burg) and performed by three tremendous young actors, who used simple physical staging to tell a dark and funny story about being selected for heaven and hell. A show called Curs In The Womb, a startling reworking of Oedipus set in a mythical Xhosa tribe, which was very funny, very troubling, and somehow had a happy ending once everyone had accepted their mistakes! I really enjoyed the bold playing style and the integration of Xhosa traditions and language, it felt much more alive than some of the dour versions of Greek plays you can see in the UK. And perhaps my favourite experience was seeing a small show called Life On The Streets of Grahamstown performed by sixteen very young people, some as young as seven and eight. They used mime and comedy to paint a picture of the tough life of crime, pickpocketing, gangs and the daily fight to survive. They were very self assured and engaging, and I was never lost although the whole show was in Xhosa. They really demonstrated what is possible with almost no resources except a massive dose of determination and a desire to give the audience a really good time.

On Sunday we saw Ours Was The Dawn, by our old friends Monde Wani and Nomsa Siyo. Monde is a writer, director and perfomer, who was in the show Elephant which toured to the North East, and Nomsa, his wife, is an actress and gospel singer. They both spent a few weeks with Northern Stage last summer so it was great to see them again. Their show was fabulous, so alive and funny and touching. They take a look at the new South Africa through the eyes of an ordinary couple who are dealing with a lot of change (she has a powerful dream to run her own business., and he is not so keen when she leaves him a flask of coffee rather than being home to make it herself!) . They perform with great affection, songs and a fantastic rapport with the audience. Monde also does an unforgettable impression of Mandela! We were thrilled when they got a great review from the Festival newspaper.

So, now I really should tell you about the fierce policeman.. Mo and I were stopped because she didn't stop at a stop sign. She was crawling over it a very few miles an hour as, as usual, we were not sure where we were going! The policeman was determined to make us pay a fine, and took great pleasure in explaining that if Mo didn't pay a warrant would be issued for her 'immediate arrest'! We made sure to stop at every stop sign from then on. This was not quite as scary as the night we accidentally turned left instead of right and found ourselves heading back on the motorway to Port Elizabeth. I was confident there would be a place to turn round, until Mo pointed out that SA roads don't work like that and you can go for sixty or more kilometres without any exits at all. Luckily there was a hotel not far out of town and we made it back in about twenty minutes.. it was a close thing though!

I'm back in PE now, for a very special women - only event tomorrow. I'll try to write more about that before I come home .

July 3rd, Port Elizabeth, SA

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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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