I started Nursery in 2003 and my teacher was Delia Sesui. What I remember most about my years at Michael Oak is playing in the sandpits in Nursery and climbing trees with Connor Sampson, my best friend. Connor and I used to ‘escape’ from afternoon care to knock on the primary school doors and run away. One day in mid-knock the classroom door was opened by a Giant! We ran away shrieking in fear from an annoyed teacher, whom we later learned was Paul King.
In Class 1 Mr Simric Yarrow spent the entire first term hunting me down in Nursery. I missed Delia desperately. By the start of the second term, something clicked in my head and I decided that if I wasn’t allowed to go back to Delia, I might as well enjoy primary school.
My favourite game during high school gym was the “game without rules”. We had to get the ball from the opposition and bounce it on the wall for a few seconds. We could do anything to get the ball from the other team. I remember ripping Jack Ludik’s pants and scratching a few others in my desperate desire to win. Sorry people!
Teachers like Diane Scannell, Annette Bestwick and Gillian Matthews made deep impressions on my high school career. Mrs Bestwick cast me as a lead in the Class 7 play and I really enjoyed all the attention. Ms Scannell furthered my interest in the theatre and helped to hone my acting skills especially during the arduous but magical Shakespeare and Greek plays. Ms Matthews made me love art and her classes were always super fun.
I left Michael Oak in Class 11 and matriculated in 2016 at Abbotts College in Claremont. Whilst an undergraduate at UCT, I worked as an “extra” in the television and movie industry and graduated in 2019, with a BA in Drama and English Language and Literature Studies. I was fortunate to receive a Merit Award scholarship for Honours studies. My honours thesis is in Applied Theatre and Dramatherapy, and deals with ways of addressing mental stigmas in Muslim communities in South Africa.
I graduated Cum Laude, was nominated for the NESP award (Nurturing emerging scholars programme) and received a merit award scholarship for Masters studies. I am currently completing my MA in Applied Theatre and Dance Studies. My present studies afford me the opportunity to visit many schools and organisations where I put on socially relevant workshops and performances. In 2020, I ran performance workshops on Adolescent Body Image which focused on using theatre as a way to work through body image issues in adolescents and to create options for adolescents to address negative socio-environmental influences. This year I joined the Second Chance Theatre Project where I perform and work with parolees. My MA dissertation will be on Transformative Arts Practices in the Criminal Justice System. I hope to examine human rights violations and violence in prisons and its effects on the mental health of parolees.
