ASSITEJ President
YVETTE HARDIE is a South African theatre producer,
director, educator, and writer active in the world of theatre and
performance, with a particular focus on theatre for children and
young people.
She is Festival Director of the Out The Box Festival of Visual
Performance and Puppetry (2011), after having served as Family
Festival Curator (2010), and she initiated and ran the Festival of
Fame, Johannesburg, for the first three years of its existence.
She was the General Manager of Colonnades Theatre Lab, South
Africa (2003-2010), and produced their award-winning theatre
piece, Truth in Translation, which tells the story of the
interpreters at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She has
been responsible for touring the production to South Africa,
Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Edinburgh festival, USA, Sweden, Northern
Ireland, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo, and running workshops
with communities in conflict resolution and
reconciliation. The production has now been seen by over 55
000 people worldwide.
As a director, recent projects include Suzanne Lebeau's The
Ogreling and Mike van Graan's Is it because I'm
Jack?. Other productions include Rajesh Gopie's Out
Of Bounds, Between Cup And Lip, A Rainbow's Child, and
numerous scripted and workshopped plays during her tenure as drama
teacher and Head of Drama at the National School of the Arts
(1993-2004). She also directed several youth theatre programmes for
PACT.
She initiated the launch of ASSITEJ SOUTH AFRICA in 2007,
bringing together theatre practitioners with a common passion for
theatre for children and young people. She serves as Chairperson of
ASSITEJ SA, Deputy Chairperson of ACYTA (African Children and Youth
Theatre Arena) and now President of ASSITEJ, which has chapters in
over 80 countries worldwide. In these capacities, she creates
opportunities for artistic exchange, mentorship, skills development
and cross-cultural collaboration. She also serves as Deputy
Chairperson of Arterial Network SA, which brings together South
African artists as part of a continent-wide, civil society
network.
She has developed curricula, designed unit standards and written
textbooks and educational handbooks for the Performing Arts in
schools and in further education. Her work as a course leader for
Creative Voices serves to empower arts and culture teachers to
deliver quality education. She has written and spoken extensively
on issues relating to arts for young audiences, arts education and
arts for reconciliation and conflict resolution.
As one of the leading voice practitioners in South Africa, she
has taught in a variety of contexts, including the University of
Cape Town, AFDA, the Market Theatre Laboratory and Sibikwa
Community theatre. She has a Performer's Diploma in Speech and
Drama and a BA (cum laude) from University of Cape Town. She has a
Masters in Voice and Speech from Tshwane University of Technology
and is a qualified Lessac voice and movement practitioner.
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Executive Committee