The Helen O’Grady Drama Academy has been running for over 30 years internationally and operates from St Paul’s Church Hall in Stellenbosch. This university town has long tradition of performance arts. Currently students from the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy are performing in Antony and Cleopatra under the direction of Marthinus Basson, one of Stellenbosch University’s renowned lecturers. Many of the Academy’s students have over the last few years been presenters on television, acted in films and have been seen in adverts broadcast in South Africa and around the world.
The Academy’s franchised drama programme in Stellenbosch, follows an award-winning curriculum not only designed to develop performance arts skills but also confidence, creativity and most importantly communication skills. Whilst many of the students of the Academy’s first language is Africans and Xhosa, the drama school is keen to develop good articulate communication in English. Teaching improvisation helps students to become fluent by reacting in a creative way to real-life and imaginary situations. South Africa has many official languages but the main language of communication is English in South Africa and throughout the world. It is important to train our children and adults to communicate well in English in order for all South Africans to compete on the world stage effectively. One of the biggest problems in our world is that people cannot get their point across or communicate with understanding and respect for fellow man.
Jennifer, the teacher of the class, was a past student at Stellenbosch University and had much experience in teaching with the Academy. She is also a film-maker of note!
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