Arts writer
FOR 10 days in early September, 700 children will participate in a series of workshops in drama, dance, music and singing, storytelling, art, mask and lantern making and fireworks, as part of the Clanwilliam Arts Project and Lantern Festival.
The project is managed by The Magnet Theatre in collaboration with UCT’s Drama Department and Michaelis’ School of Art. The series attracts approximately 3 000 people each year.
The event will culminate on Sunday, September 6 in a lantern parade through the streets of the town and a performance at the Clanwilliam Showgrounds, at 5.30pm in Park Street, of a /Xam! narrative from the Bleek and Lloyd collection, thereby strengthening and returning the rich cultural history of the area to its people
The project is highly beneficial to the communit as it lights a creative spark in the participating children, who come from impoverished communities who only generally receive minimal arts and culture input.
The Clanwilliam Arts Project and Lantern Festival aims to showcase San heritage, engage with young people in a meaningful way, reduce antisocial behaviour, and hopefully create employment for facilitators from Clanwilliam while training students from Cape Town.
The Magnet Theatre team believes that everyone has the responsibility to develop a more just, free and peaceful society. Fundamentally, their projects involve the possibility of developing the ability to imagine alternative realities and to dream different futures.
For 17 years The Magnet Theatre Educational Trust has invested in young people in the Western Cape through long-term interventions that develop imagination, skills and a commitment to ongoing education.
l 021 448 3436, admin@magnet theatre.co.za