Unheard Narratives: theatre-making that celebrates Coloured stories

dc.contributor.authorClaasen, Estee Lauren
dc.date.accessioned2025-04-10T08:18:06Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.descriptionA research report Submitted Master of the Art by Coursework and Research Report in the field of Applied Drama, In the Faculty of Humanities , School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024
dc.description.abstractIn South Africa, the Coloured ethnic group is considered as either as a creation of apartheid or as an indistinguishable group (Mills, 2018). This research challenges these concepts and intends to adopt the principles that guide Playback Theatre, such as fluid sculpture and sharing stories with an audience present. Playback Theatre aims to honour each teller by providing a space for multiple viewpoints and voices to be heard (Rivers and Chung, 2017). This research report presents a creative research process with a group of elderly Coloured women from Belhar, Cape Town. During the creative process, principles of Playback Theatre were used to enable the women to share their personal stories, transforming these into a public performance with the larger community. The performance became a celebratory moment for the participants as well as the audience members. It was a moment to witness the stories of the older generation in the community and for the women, it was a moment to be witnessed and heard by the younger members and males of the community. By researching and undergoing this creative process, it became evident that storytelling and story sharing not only allows people to be heard and seen, but challenges preconceived assumptions of a homogenous group. This research report presents concepts of Coloured Identity, The Culture of Silence and Storytelling in an attempt to celebrate unheard narratives. According to narrative identity theory, stories often convey a sense of purpose and furthermore internalized family narratives can influence one’s sense of individuality (Clemons, 2018).
dc.description.submitterMM2025
dc.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.identifier.citationClaasen, Estee Lauren. (2024). Unheard Narratives: theatre-making that celebrates Coloured stories [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/44676
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.rights© 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
dc.rights.holderUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.schoolWits School of Arts
dc.subjectUCTD
dc.subjectUnheard Narratives
dc.subjectColoured stories
dc.subjectTheatre making
dc.subject.primarysdgSDG-17: Partnerships for the goals
dc.titleUnheard Narratives: theatre-making that celebrates Coloured stories
dc.typeDissertation

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