Our firm belief in developing a child’s imagination led to the start of our pantomime journey.
From a very young age, children role play, make cardboard houses, hold tea parties and pretend to be superman. This develops creativity, problem solving, innovative thinking and life skills. It also links to reading, where the child’s imagination draws the characters in the book instead of being fed images on a screen, which requires no effort.
We held pantomimes in successive years stretching these imaginations with art, dance, music, improvisation, team work, acting, diction, and self confidence
Cinderella- our first pantomime was a learning curve. Adults took the lead roles, and about 40
children took the parts of mice, flowers, dragonflies and minor roles.
We purposely mixed the music genres in this to expose children to hip hop and rap, to
classical music. Tchaikovsky was the choice, and the result of Cinderella sitting in a
garden where the creatures console her was a huge hit with all the children
Peter Pan- We decided to go big on this one and built a ship on wheels that took up the onstage
space. A Peter Pan doll hung from the mast, and Hook swiped at it with relish. The children were
now also hooked and could not wait to perform. They made pirate flags to decorate the hall, and
shell jewellery for the mermaids to wear at the holiday club which was now consuming much of the
school holidays and keeping them and us very busy.
We then decided to produce Alice in Wonderland in 2019, and became more creative as we allowed
her to slide down the rabbit hole into different stories, so we could include the Lion King, Aladdin,
Mary Poppins and Toy Story. This provided many roles for children. We built a life-size papier mache
elephant on a wire frame, which moved down the centre aisle. Again, we mixed the music genres,
catering for all tastes and ages
We were approached by a local primary school to produce a pantomime, so we chose the Wizard of
Oz. The school required that we include 350 children, which presented a challenge. We managed this
by having lots of rainbow fairies, baby lions, and scarecrows amongst other characters. It was a huge
success with the community. Our lead role of Dorothy was played by Heurada Small who is now
attending the Waterfront Theatre School
We were invited to participate in a community initiative in December of 2023 and 2024. A Carol service was held in a garden and everyone brought a picnic. We are known in our community as dancers, and we combined our efforts with our music teacher and mentor, Alida Wood, who plays percussion. We were voted the highlight of the evening!
In 2023, we performed an uplifting African dance, while 2024 was a more reverent item, but both celebrated community, Christmas and the birth of Christ.
Pantomimes take months to put together, so we extended the preparation into holiday clubs.
These holiday clubs present the opportunity to practice on a stage, to learn to direct, project their voices, and establish a sound understanding of what is required. These invaluable skills are transferred from the older children to the younger ones each year.
At the same time, the adjacent activities of arts and crafts, sport, and games occupy the children while parents are at work. The children are fed, and don’t end up loitering and getting into trouble
This initiative arose as a direct result of all the growing media reports about the very poor level of maths and literacy in schools, particularly in rural areas. Lego is the building blocks of problem solving, spatial awareness and a simple introduction to coding.The child learns maths without realising it, along with sorting, shapes, colours and much more.
We have a large Lego collection and – at this time – about 30 children attend twice a week
We are registered with the Department of Social Development as an NPO.
NPO No: 265-026
We are registered with SARS as a non-profit organisation
We also have Section18 A approval and can issue donation tax certificates
SARS exemption no: 930070346
Documents can be provided on request
