Download PDFLawrence Simelane (31) was born on 29 June 1990. He lives in Pimville, Soweto. He has 3 mentors: Teboho Chauke (Spantsula mentor), Bongani Linda a theatre director and Themba Mkhomo who also does theatre. They have inspired him to do theatre and pantsula dance.
The reason he wanted to become an activist is that he fell in love with a character that he was playing in the theatre performance for fees must fall, he could relate to the character because of the issues that come across his life. The issue he deals with as a post-school youth is getting funds to further his education. Lawrence is the founder of Page 2 Stage organisation and his role is to develop the youth through theatre.
The challenge they face in the community is that the community is not informed about theatre and they belittle them. They sacrifice their time to teach youth theatre but it is not recognised by the community. The message he would like to give other activists is the struggle will never end and we just need to keep on fighting to remake the world.
This article was submitted as part of the Imbila Yesu publication produced daily for the duration of the Winter School in 2022 (17-22 July 2022). It appeared in Edition 1, released on 20 July 2022.
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