A Texas Dad in South Africa
When Clayton Stromberger packed his “Texas Dad” hat for his trip to South Africa (a gift from his daughter, who is a student at the University of Texas at Austin) he didn’t know what a hit it would be with the ironic-fashion-inclined staff and students of the English Department at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. It seems that not all heroes wear capes . . . sometimes they just wear caps.
Clayton is Outreach Coordinator for Shakespeare at Winedale, the UT programme that gives university students and school learners from Austin and surrounds the opportunity to get to grips with Shakespeare through performance. In 2021 and 2022, supported by Texas Global, he joined James Loehlin (Director of Shakespeare at Winedale and UT English Professor) and Chris Thurman (Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre and Wits English Professor) to link up courses taken by students at UT and Wits, creating a shared online classroom and facilitating a virtual trans-Atlantic exchange.
In 2021, the Wits and UT students’ collaboration centred on The Tempest, resulting in some fascinating conversations between “north” and “south”, as well as innovative video responses to the play. In 2022, the focus was on Julius Caesar; UT students performed the play in Winedale’s barn theatre, and joined their Wits partners in filming adapted speeches and scenes (“Then fall, Caesar!”).
Thus, Clayton was no stranger to Wits when he was finally able to travel to South Africa in May this year.
Day 1 of his trip saw a meeting with some of the Wits “Global Shakespeares” class on campus to begin workshopping a rehearsed reading of scenes from Coriolanus. They were joined by Anelisa Phewa, TCC Resident Artist for 2022, who had previously taken the class on a journey into the translation and performance of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Roles were divided and lines were allocated; there would later be much contestation over the Great Toe (that’s a Coriolanus cast in-joke).
Clayton got a break on Day 2, as his fellow-teacher on the “Global Shakespeares” course, Wits doctoral researcher Linda Ritchie, took him on safari in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve.
Some rehearsal/performance locations were chosen for their theatrical qualities . . .
Some for their symbolic qualities . . .
Anelisa Phewa discusses the finer points of Coriolanus’ speech in the opening scene
Day trip to the Pilanesberg
Did we mention that Clayton is an eager “twitcher”?
Photos courtesy of bushveld guide and Shakespeare teacher extraordinaire, Linda Ritchie!
Then it was time to fly to Cape Town, where a busy schedule awaited Clayton.
First up was a visit to Oakley House School in Diep River, where Drama teacher Lauren Bates introduced him to learners from grades 8 and 9. They spent the morning workshopping scenes and speeches from Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew. A short drive up the N2 highway ended at the Drama Factory in Somerset West - home of the TCC’s Western Cape “satellite office” - where Clayton ran an afternoon session with the cast and crew of Bates’ Educasions production of Macbeth, which was performed that evening for learners from various local schools.
“I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth . . .” (Oakley House)
The Christopher Sly scene from Shrew (Oakley House)
With the Educasions ensemble at the Drama Factory
Ready?
. . . and . . .
GO!
The next day, Clayton was at Stellenbosch Waldorf School, where Drama teacher Janis Merand was about to start working on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Grade 9s (putting on a Shakespeare play is a key component of the Waldorf Grade 9 curriculum). Clayton got the learners to experiment with a polyvocal version of Puck’s speech from Act 3 Scene 1: “I’ll follow you, I’ll lead you a round . . .”
“Sometimes a horse I’ll be, sometimes a hound . . .”
“a hog . . .”
“a headless bear, sometime a fire . . .”
“And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn . . .”
“. . . horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn!”
A wood near Athens (or a school near Stellenbosch?)
Driving through the winelands en route to Stellenbosch
Before returning to Johannesburg, Clayton had time for one more Cape Town school visit - and it proved to be a real highlight! Samantha Pearce and a group of learners at Leiden Secondary School in Delft have been pioneers of Shakespeare in Kaaps with their performances at the Shakespeare Schools Festival in recent years. In 2022 they did Hamlet, and in their workshop with Clayton they worked further on Hamlet’s advice to the players (“Speak the speech, I pray you, trippingly on the tongue”) and, of course, “To be or not to be”.
Discussing the nuances of English-Kaaps translation
Watch the productions from the Cape Town leg of the Shakespeare Schools Festival (May 2022) here
“Do not saw the air too much with your hand . . .”
(Or if you do, saw it thus . . .)
Back on Wits campus, things were hotting up. The Roman citizens were angry - the Great Toe especially - and the students playing Coriolanus and Menenius were worried about how long their speeches were. Holding rehearsals outdoors brought the usual complications: lawnmowers, loud music, curious passers-by. But everything was alright on the night (or, at least, on a sunny-but-chilly highveld afternoon) and a rousing performance was enjoyed by a small but enthusiastic audience of family and friends.
The time for Clayton’s departure had come too soon. Thanks to Colette Gordon of the Wits English Department and some of the Coriolanus cast, Clayton was able to see a little more of Johannesburg before he left: Fordsburg, The Wilds, Soweto and even some nightlife in Norwood!
Special thanks are due to everyone who made Clayton’s visit to South Africa such a success: “Global Shakespeares” co-teachers Linda Ritchie and Anelisa Phewa; Colette Gordon and Sofia Kostelac of the Wits English Department; Lauren Bates, the learners at Oakley House and the Educasions ensemble; Janis Merand and the learners at Stellenbosch Waldorf School; Samantha Pearce and the learners at Leiden Secondary School; and, above all, the Wits students who brought Coriolanus to campus!
This trip was made possible through the generous support of Texas Global, Shakespeare at Winedale, the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa.
Looking up, and looking back . . .
from the beating heart of Joburg to the beaches of the Cape . . .
come back soon, Clayton!