Download PDFSeven years of paging youth to stage. Page to Stage is an organisation formed by Lawrence Simelane, in 2015 to develop the youth of Protea South in Soweto. The organisations primarily focused on theatre to make it easy for township youth to express themselves artistically and understand theatrical production. Youth are trained to advance their careers in art and creativity. The organisation has grown to include additional areas of Gauteng, such as Cosmo and Pretoria.
The organisation is registered and has a board of directors, a team of partners, a creative director, authors, an acting coach and performers. The organisation holds countless achievements in the art space. It generates income through gigs, holding events, selling tickets, and operating a store.
So far, the organisation has collaborated with Black Brain Production and offered services to other companies like Road Safety, where they did campaigns like “asifikeni” to raise awareness around road accidents, Pansula, and The Black Spiders, which deals with mental health. They also work with Khanya College and produce plays for the Jozi Book Fair and attend study groups.
The organisation runs rehearsal sessions from Monday to Thursday from 10 am to 3 pm. The youth write scripts, have discussions about current burning issues, and try to relate the issues in theatre. During the week, they go to school and have a theoretical session. The page to stage is welcoming new members to sign up. They can be contacted at pagetostagebusiness@gmail.com.
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 18 July 2022.
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