Educational Theatre at the Edge of the Crush: The Use of Theatre as Entertainment-Education in HIV and AIDS Awareness and Prevention in the South African Mining Sector

Introduction

This [17-page] paper will examine the first phase of research into the use of theatre-in-education on HIV and AIDS in the South African Mining Sector. The primary aim is to highlight the challenges that are facing HIV and AIDS theatre-in-education programmes and to explore the benefits of integrating cultural studies and theory into the design and implementation of the programme.

It looks at the audience as the primary recipient of information and as the force for change. The importance of the audience as primary informant to the programme is also discussed. The strength of political theatre and theatre-for-development used in South Africa during apartheid is juxtaposed against the new ‘oppression’ that HIV and AIDS is imposing on its society.

Contents of the paper are as follows:

• Introduction
• South Africa, Democracy, AIDS and Theatre
  "What is the significance of theatre as a form of entertainment-education in a country with one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world? How successful have HIV and AIDS entertainment-education - and in this case, theatre-in-education programmes - been in a country where mortality due to AIDS is now coupled with rising new infection rates?"
• Challenging AIDS, Challenging Theatre
  "Relying too heavily on its artistic and creative abilities to educate, theatre-in-education in South Africa seems to be content with its position as a vehicle for information dissemination and does not consider its ability to utterly involve itself as a powerful medium for change that political theatre and theatre-for-development achieved in pre-democratic South Africa."
• Steps towards a New Theatre: Theatre-in-education in the South African Mining Sector
  "The use of theatre-in-education in the South African mining sector offers prime examples of how the classic understanding and perception of theatre can be changed to suit the environment it will be utilised in. It also illustrates the potential educational theatre has in incorporating cultural beliefs and traditions into the programme to challenge the patterns and structures that increase vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. It has the opportunity to become the new theatre-for-development that was used so successfully in a pre-democratic South Africa."
• New Stages and New Opportunities
  "Theatre-in-education in the South African mining sector may be considered a 'poor' theatre. It is not implemented with all the traditional spectacular costumes, sets and stage decorations as is customary with western theatre. It is a poor theatre, rich in creativity and commitment from the educators that implement it. New stages are created for performance, the most novel being the ‘crush’, which is the area where the miners assemble before descending the mineshaft to work in the underground tunnels."