CURRENT PROJECTS:

• ‘Galela’ – Touring from June to October 2018.

FUTURE PROJECTS: 

• ‘Plastocracy’ and ‘Rat Race’ – Touring from November 2018 into 2019.
• Third Production the our Three Year Touring Programme, generously funded by the Lotteries Commission of South Africa.

PAST PROJECTS – More info on each project below!

• ‘Planet B’
• ‘Gutnam & Tiger’
• Carbon Confessional (National Climate Change Summit)
• Global Day of Action
• Fossil Fools Day

Splash! Splutter! Then shhhhhh… Only ripples left. Would you dive in next?

Three best friends bravely embark on a project to make their town´s drinking water safe again. They soon discover, however, that they have waded into hot water and that the problems affecting the town dam are deeper and murkier than at first glance. Still determined to make a difference and to secure the future of their friends and family, the trio dive in to fix the mess, proving in spectacular fashion that children with the biggest imaginations will save the world.

Nationally acclaimed eco-education company, Well Worn Theatre, proudly present the latest production in their three-year touring play programme generously funded by the National Lotteries Commission. ´Galela´ is the thirst-quenching story of a small community deeply affected by our country’s water issues. Directed by multi-award winning Thembela Madliki (‘Nyanga’ NAF 2016 and ‘Bayephi’ NAF 2017), ‘Galela’ features the energetic physical theatre talents of Lerato Sefoloshe, Mlindeli Emmanual and Linda J. Tshabalala and is geared for children aged 7 to 12, though parents, teachers and older sibling will also enjoy this epic adventure play!

‘Galela’ premieres at the 2018 National Arts Festival followed by a tour to primary schools and festivals across South Africa. The play aims to entertain, educate, and imaginatively engage learners and audiences about issues of drought, water consumption and water pollution.

Established in 2008 by Artistic Director Kyla Davis, Well Worn Theatre Co. is an NPO committed to creating new and original theatre that entices audiences, empowers artists, and educates young minds with regards to social and environmental justice concerns.

For more information about Well Worn Theatre or to book ‘Galela’ to perform for your school/organisation/event, please e-mail: wellworntheatre@gmail.com or call Binnie Christie 081 893 3633.

Plastocracy (2017)

Directed by Kyla Davis, ‘Plastocracy’ followed the epic journey of Geoffrey – a forlorn plastic puppet creature- risen out of the discarded detritus of humanity. Gaining consciousness and determined to live, he tumbled over the landscape, hurtling downriver and out into the ocean to meet a vast, swirling petrochemical ooze. Artist Francois Knoetze and the cast together created extraordinary puppets and a set made entirely from reclaimed plastic. The play demonstrated how ‘waste materials’ too often go wasted, and investigated the damage to our oceans and earth caused by the over-consumption of single-use plastics. Performers switched between characters ranging from a plastic-junkie who just can´t give up plastic straws to extra-terrestrial future scientists discovering the ´Age of Plastocracy´, the show provided much knowledge and laughter for a teenage audience illustrating that, when it comes to plastic consumption, #ThereIsNoAway.

‘Plastocracy’ completed a successful national tour to over 30 high schools and festivals in 2017. Here’s what audiences had to say about the production:

“Plastocracy should run in every SA school” – The Critter, NAF 2017

“I have started saying ´no´ to plastic too” – Lerato Sefoloshe, Cast

“We want to do something that is funny, but really meaningful, like Plastocracy” – American International School of Jhb, Drama Learners

“It really was brilliant!” – Bea Toniolo, Teacher at Roedean School

RAT RACE

Touring in 2016 and 2017 to various theatre festivals, including ASSITEJ’s Cradle of Creativity in Cape Town, was children’s show ‘Rat Race’.

Rat Race’ is a pop-up storybook play for the very young about an unlikely friendship between stressed-out city rat Miles and kind, easy-going farm mouse Melissa. It’s a comic play with a gentle eco theme that uses live music, clowning, puppetry, illustrations and physical theatre to tell a colourful ‘tail’ about Big Changes in Little Lives. The story follows Miles the rat who is a Big Cheese in the Big City, but when his hectic lifestyle starts to make him ill, he is ordered (by his mother!) to go on holiday to the countryside and relax. There he meets Melissa, a simple-living Earth mouse who loves the peace and tranquility of her farm life.

 ‘Rat Race’ received a Standard Bank Merit Award at the 2016 National Arts Festival. It is performed by Ameera Patel and Roberto Pombo, and directed by Kyla Davis.  

 

 

GUTNAM & TIGER

In this animated, educational play for primary school kids, we followed:

Eco, a passionate young Rainbow Warrior, and Vusi, a lazy but well meaning 10 year old boy, as they go on a high-octane-planet-saving-action-adventure. After plenty of persuading, Eco manages to convince Vusi to accompany her on her big mission to rescue the endangered Bengal Tigers in Bangladesh from rising sea levels. They get there in Eco’s amazing flying Greenhouse (powered by Imagination: a zero-carbon fuel of course…). In the jungle, Vusi meets a tiger who is furious about having her home flooded. He learns, to his dismay, that the real threat to the tigers and possibly everything else on our planet is GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE and that we humans, with our wasteful lifestyles, are causing the problem!! If that weren’t enough, and still reeling from this new information, he then has to escape the clutches of Greedy Gutman, a selfish, polluting villain bent on crazy consumerism. With Eco’s help, they manage to escape and return home where Vusi finds himself a changed boy. Although at first he’s shocked by the knowledge that his lifestyle is adding to the dangerous heating of the earth, Eco makes him see that he is also part of the solution. He ends the play feeling empowered and triumphant that there are small things he can do every day to help save the tigers and, more importantly, Save the World! Together, Vusi and Eco enlist the help of the audience in finding ways to STOP, THINK and SAVE ENERGY.

This short, hour long play and interactive workshop, formed part of our Climate Change Action Programme for primary schools, and was originally created in the UK in 2002 as a roadshow. ‘Gutnam & Tiger’ was so successful that Save Our World (www.save-our-world.org.uk), the commissioning NGO, secured funding to develop it further as part of a schools initiative called The Climate Change Action Programme. Kyla was part of the original UK team and, in 2008, she and Well Worn reworked the play and Action Programme to suit a South African context. The Programme consisted of 3 visits to each school, comprising of:

√A pre-meeting with teachers, staff and parents in which the issues and importance of Climate Change, Global Warming and ‘what you can do to help’ were discussed.

√The Play (aimed at grades 3-7), in which learners comprehensively gained knowledge of a number of concepts including Climate Change, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gasses and Energy Efficiency.

√A Follow-On session a month or so later in which the characters from the show returned for a visit to see how the school and pupils were getting on with their energy-saving promises.

We decided to sandwich the play between these two meetings because we do not want our message to go in one ear and out the other. The most important point regarding the programme (and the message of the play) is sustainability: in thought and deed – encouraging the kids, teachers and schools to change their behaviour and rethink their whole approach towards energy and waste and our collective impact on the earth. We therefore chose several visits to the school in order to support that behaviour change.

The play was very effective in communicating a complicated subject to children. The learners left with an increased awareness of Climate Change; all the difficulties surrounding the issue and, most importantly, feeling empowered to do something about it. our intention is to never leave a school feeling gloomy and helpless but rather inspired and positive and motivated that they can turn this challenge into an opportunity for growth and positive personal, social, environmental and economic development. We found this work particularly inspiring in South Africa, where we inherently understand the spirit of pulling together to make something better….

 

CARBON CONFESSIONAL – National Climate Change Summit

We collaborated with Earthlife Africa Jhb (www.earthlife.org.za) to build their stall at the National Climate Change Summit in March 2009, turning it into a tongue-in-cheek Carbon Confessional where guilty souls could come and purge their Energy Sins. We even had then-president Kgalema Motlanthe come and confess!

As well as this, we strategically placed a few ‘Climate Refugee’ walkabout characters around the conference, highlighting some of the devastating effects that Climate Change will have on South Africa. Delegates met the ‘Windy Lady’ who was being blown away by tremendous winds, ‘Frogman’ who’s home had been flooded by rising seas and ‘Scorched Farmer’ who’s mielie crop was affected by terrible droughts.

Delegates were also confronted by a pack of beggars, begging the conference to deliver on sustainable energy promises. The characters really brought some life and humour to the summit and got people talking.

Global Day of Action

In 2008, we helped The Greenhouse Project (www.greenhouse.org.za) organize the South African arm of the Global Day of Action.

Although it was not the huge rally that took place on the streets of London or Sydney, it was a wonderful community event at Alexandra Children’s library where kids painted a stunning Global Warming mural, ate vegetarian hotdogs cooked on Solar Cookers and learned about the Greenhouse Effect by going inside our giant greenhouse

Fossil Fools Day

On 1st April 2009, we celebrated Fossil Fools Day, again in collaboration with Earthlife Africa Jhb, by presenting Sasol with the Fossil Fool of the year award, for being one of South Africa’s biggest polluters and emitters of Carbon Dioxide, a Greenhouse Gas that causes Global Warming.

Our award was accompanied by a very noisy, very ridiculous protest outside their headquarters in Rosebank, Johannesburg.