[Applause]
last night the world witnessed something
wonderful from across the globe came
reports of the sightings some say it was
a woman some say it was a man it had a
most unusual face said one woman but I
keep seeing it it was beautiful
It was as if I’d known it all my life
said an oddly man I know it will come
again many groups believed it to be a
long-awaited sign of peace they
described it as an angel of many colors
I knew he was real said one boy Superman
this is the epilogue to a short story
written by the South African performer
Nathaniel I am philip worst eizan a
drama teacher to national drama director
of a private education company in
Shanghai China
whenever I start a new drama course I
start with this excerpt not because of
my nationality nor because of Matt
Morrison of the writer but simply for
the sole reason that it challenges my
students the challenge lies not in the
language that we get sorted out even
before we start the piece the challenge
lies in the single question that I posed
what is the story about it usually takes
some back-and-forth for my students but
eventually someone will say something
more less than like Soph well we don’t
know story doesn’t say to which I go why
do you say that to which though responds
well people see difference
but that’s it I say that’s it people see
different things and therefore they see
things differently growing up seeing
things differently than those around me
is something that wasn’t really
encouraged and as a result I was racist
sexist and religiously intolerant I’m
happy to say today that I’m none of
those things anymore I think my biggest
struggle is maybe trying not to tell
people on the internet but I think
they’re being assholes for it in the
strong language of their beret I’m a
work in progress and I think so are all
of us in this room today but what would
you say if I told you today that I had a
way for you to keep on constantly
bettering yourself and that I had a way
to truly make the world a better place
don’t worry I’m not selling you a
self-help book today no the answer is
much simpler than that
if we truly want to impact the world for
the better I say give it more drama
and this is the theatrical kind we need
more of it in our schools and we need
more of it in society I think we can all
agree today that the world is kind of
between a rock and a hard place when it
comes to the social and political
spheres for that heck turn on the TV
flip through your phone thing is within
these corners within these spheres there
are a lot of people who are frustrated
probably because of the way that we
engage in dialogue if at all you see
modern culture has reduced us to
unfollow and delete buttons it’s made it
okay for us to entertain only that which
we can relate to and to shy away from
that which is different but if we want
to change this if we want to get in
there and have those tough conversations
if we want to rediscover what it means
to be dialogic ly human turn to draw my
education allow me to explain why first
from our own experience and then from
that of my students ‘as I grew up in a
really small town all the way up in the
North or South Africa close to the
Kruger National Park called Paula Bora I
love that sound to bits
it is a picturesque the people are
friendly the people are conservative the
kids walk around barefoot and play in
the yard I think you get the idea like
most artists I’ll tell you that growing
up I love to perform man this was mainly
due to the fact that I had a very
theatrical mother getting ready for
church I would watch her she would
execute the ritual of combing her hair
or spraying on that perfume like an
opera diva taking that final bow though
I soon adopted my mother’s theatricality
I did not encounter the transformative
power
of drama until I hit high school and my
drama teachers started asking me one
simple question why why did you decide
on that character trait why do you think
the character did that why did the
playwright choose the setting what’s he
trying to say
but you see my teachers were never just
satisfied with an answer
oh no they wanted me to embody my
insights they wanted me to engage and as
a result I formed a habit of inquiry and
engagement and it is this habit of
inquiry and engagement which I am
upholding today as the remedy to our
social and political climate it is also
this habit of inquiry and engagement
which has rid me of my own fear of what
I have perceived as different and as a
result it has helped me to open up to
the world by engaging with the woman at
the bar who halfway through our
conversation I realized was transgender
and that he did not matter because she’s
just human engaging with the black man
walking down the street by asking him
for directions because he happened to be
the only person on that street that I
was afraid of and I knew that that fear
was irrational and wrong engaging with
the married couple who I met in our
hostel while traveling and who probably
would have been pushed out of the social
circles in the small town that I grew up
in only to discover that they’ve made a
living by traveling the world for 42
years
and that I no wish I can have half the
life that they’ve had
then engaging with the belief that the
men who raped and assaulted members of
my family and that the man who murdered
my cousin deserved to be sentenced to
death because it’s likely but they’re
just a product of their circumstances
certainly to help engaging with the
self-hate that I harbored in my teens
and nurture again to self love by
accepting the flamboyant artistic
cosmopolitan liberal Christian
small-town or that I am what I want you
to realize today is that none of these
realizations would have happened had it
not been for the fact that I studied
drama it is because I once played the
transvestite because I studied the work
of Athol Fugard wali sure inca Barney
Simon Gong gam Ian gamma and Percy moi
it’s because I played the social outcast
it’s because I shared and observed in
the stories of other victims of violent
crimes and because I was challenged in
every single drama class with one
question who are you that I was able to
change these socially conditioned
mindsets and you know all that I had to
do was to question and engage but this
habit of inquiry and engagement is not
just true for me no it’s evident in my
students and it’s something that can be
true for you because it’s something that
can
be learned the average student that
steps through my door at the side of the
drama here is shy passive and meek but
as the semester progresses and students
realize the drama creates a safe space
for them to inquire strong prejudices
emerge over the course of teaching in
China I’ve encountered students who
bluntly stated that they thought being
Chinese was despicable did not want to
work with a certain student because
their skin was too dark and laughed at
another because they believed in God now
once knee-jerk reaction might be to
reprimand the students and shut down
those conversations but in drama we
follow a different route moments like
these are seen as most teachable as they
are the ground for inquiry and
engagement which usually has positive
social reconstruction as a result and
this is not some far removed concept I
mean it’s not abstract no no we drama
teachers achieve it by playing the
simplest of games in our classrooms take
for example the work of Augusto
Burrell’s forum theatre one of his
exercises asked that a group of actors
go up to the stage and staged a social
problem while the rest of the class
watches at any moment during the
performance someone can help freeze and
one actor from the audience watching has
to run up and replace an actor and then
change that problem into a possible
solution but it’s not as easy as it
sounds if at any moment those watching
do not believe the proposed solution
they can help magic and someone else has
to run up replace another performer and
together the class has to arrive at a
solution that they all agree on an
exercise like this alters perspectives
because it asks of the students who
inquire into engage with and embody
their beliefs while remaining empathetic
to others and mediating with one another
very often with
about the teachers interference when it
comes to issues like racism sexism and
religious intolerance perspectives are
altered because students realize that
they acted out of a place of societal
thought fear and once that fear is
identified the road to eliminating it
starts almost organically and once it is
eliminated liberation follows I say
again once it’s eliminated liberation
follows and you know what that leads to
more inquiry and more engagement this is
best illustrated in something that
happened to me at the start of my
teaching career in China in this self
reflective essay one of my students
wrote the following at the start of the
drama year I could not get my head
around the teachers way of teaching it
was too strange too hard but then I
thought what if I tried only a little
and I did and in the end I got it as
long as I live I believe these words
will stay with me because it
demonstrates why I fell in love with
drama in the first place it shows a
student who is confronted with something
different and instead of remaining
fearfully passive chooses to engage of
that only to discover that they are
capable competent and now fearless the
positive impact of drama is nothing new
to us you can take your phone right now
and Google drama and 21st century skills
or type in the names of Jay Michael
journal from the Simon Youth Foundation
or Sharon E bone from the Society of
history technology or Howard shoots from
Starbucks or CNN founder Ted Turner or
Jack Ma from Alibaba and discover all of
these current and past CEOs and
presidents either have a degree in the
liberal arts or a background in theater
but then why is it that drama is not
more heavily advocated for in schools
and our societies the answer is simple
stigma somewhere along the line
people got the impression that drama was
only for the artistic though weird the
poor the less masculine and that it
should be placed secondary to subjects
like maths and science this could not be
further from the truth
ladies and gentlemen while maths and
science help us to sustain economies it
is drama and the arts that teach us what
it means to be human it teaches us to
relate it teaches us sympathy it teaches
us empathy it teaches us to seek out an
interconnectedness with our enemies and
heaven knows the world now more than
ever should be seeking out commonality
so if you’re sitting there and you’re
thinking what can I do today or how can
i nurture this habit of inquiry and
engagement it’s easy step out from this
venue today and go support that
Community Theatre by attending their
shows or making a donation or better yet
enrolling in their courses go to your
schools and the mud they include drama
in the curriculum go to your government
and ask them to make drama a mandatory
subjects subject in all schools and to
also while at it increase their funding
of arts and drama education and you know
what then maybe just maybe we’ll wake up
one morning and say that last night the
world witnessed something wonderful
[Applause]
last night the world witnessed something
wonderful from across the globe came
reports of the sightings some say it was
a woman some say it was a man it had a
most unusual face said one woman but I
keep seeing it it was beautiful
It was as if I’d known it all my life
said an oddly man I know it will come
again many groups believed it to be a
long-awaited sign of peace they
described it as an angel of many colors
I knew he was real said one boy Superman
this is the epilogue to a short story
written by the South African performer
Nathaniel I am philip worst eizan a
drama teacher to national drama director
of a private education company in
Shanghai China
whenever I start a new drama course I
start with this excerpt not because of
my nationality nor because of Matt
Morrison of the writer but simply for
the sole reason that it challenges my
students the challenge lies not in the
language that we get sorted out even
before we start the piece the challenge
lies in the single question that I posed
what is the story about it usually takes
some back-and-forth for my students but
eventually someone will say something
more less than like Soph well we don’t
know story doesn’t say to which I go why
do you say that to which though responds
well people see difference
but that’s it I say that’s it people see
different things and therefore they see
things differently growing up seeing
things differently than those around me
is something that wasn’t really
encouraged and as a result I was racist
sexist and religiously intolerant I’m
happy to say today that I’m none of
those things anymore I think my biggest
struggle is maybe trying not to tell
people on the internet but I think
they’re being assholes for it in the
strong language of their beret I’m a
work in progress and I think so are all
of us in this room today but what would
you say if I told you today that I had a
way for you to keep on constantly
bettering yourself and that I had a way
to truly make the world a better place
don’t worry I’m not selling you a
self-help book today no the answer is
much simpler than that
if we truly want to impact the world for
the better I say give it more drama
and this is the theatrical kind we need
more of it in our schools and we need
more of it in society I think we can all
agree today that the world is kind of
between a rock and a hard place when it
comes to the social and political
spheres for that heck turn on the TV
flip through your phone thing is within
these corners within these spheres there
are a lot of people who are frustrated
probably because of the way that we
engage in dialogue if at all you see
modern culture has reduced us to
unfollow and delete buttons it’s made it
okay for us to entertain only that which
we can relate to and to shy away from
that which is different but if we want
to change this if we want to get in
there and have those tough conversations
if we want to rediscover what it means
to be dialogic ly human turn to draw my
education allow me to explain why first
from our own experience and then from
that of my students ‘as I grew up in a
really small town all the way up in the
North or South Africa close to the
Kruger National Park called Paula Bora I
love that sound to bits
it is a picturesque the people are
friendly the people are conservative the
kids walk around barefoot and play in
the yard I think you get the idea like
most artists I’ll tell you that growing
up I love to perform man this was mainly
due to the fact that I had a very
theatrical mother getting ready for
church I would watch her she would
execute the ritual of combing her hair
or spraying on that perfume like an
opera diva taking that final bow though
I soon adopted my mother’s theatricality
I did not encounter the transformative
power
of drama until I hit high school and my
drama teachers started asking me one
simple question why why did you decide
on that character trait why do you think
the character did that why did the
playwright choose the setting what’s he
trying to say
but you see my teachers were never just
satisfied with an answer
oh no they wanted me to embody my
insights they wanted me to engage and as
a result I formed a habit of inquiry and
engagement and it is this habit of
inquiry and engagement which I am
upholding today as the remedy to our
social and political climate it is also
this habit of inquiry and engagement
which has rid me of my own fear of what
I have perceived as different and as a
result it has helped me to open up to
the world by engaging with the woman at
the bar who halfway through our
conversation I realized was transgender
and that he did not matter because she’s
just human engaging with the black man
walking down the street by asking him
for directions because he happened to be
the only person on that street that I
was afraid of and I knew that that fear
was irrational and wrong engaging with
the married couple who I met in our
hostel while traveling and who probably
would have been pushed out of the social
circles in the small town that I grew up
in only to discover that they’ve made a
living by traveling the world for 42
years
and that I no wish I can have half the
life that they’ve had
then engaging with the belief that the
men who raped and assaulted members of
my family and that the man who murdered
my cousin deserved to be sentenced to
death because it’s likely but they’re
just a product of their circumstances
certainly to help engaging with the
self-hate that I harbored in my teens
and nurture again to self love by
accepting the flamboyant artistic
cosmopolitan liberal Christian
small-town or that I am what I want you
to realize today is that none of these
realizations would have happened had it
not been for the fact that I studied
drama it is because I once played the
transvestite because I studied the work
of Athol Fugard wali sure inca Barney
Simon Gong gam Ian gamma and Percy moi
it’s because I played the social outcast
it’s because I shared and observed in
the stories of other victims of violent
crimes and because I was challenged in
every single drama class with one
question who are you that I was able to
change these socially conditioned
mindsets and you know all that I had to
do was to question and engage but this
habit of inquiry and engagement is not
just true for me no it’s evident in my
students and it’s something that can be
true for you because it’s something that
can
be learned the average student that
steps through my door at the side of the
drama here is shy passive and meek but
as the semester progresses and students
realize the drama creates a safe space
for them to inquire strong prejudices
emerge over the course of teaching in
China I’ve encountered students who
bluntly stated that they thought being
Chinese was despicable did not want to
work with a certain student because
their skin was too dark and laughed at
another because they believed in God now
once knee-jerk reaction might be to
reprimand the students and shut down
those conversations but in drama we
follow a different route moments like
these are seen as most teachable as they
are the ground for inquiry and
engagement which usually has positive
social reconstruction as a result and
this is not some far removed concept I
mean it’s not abstract no no we drama
teachers achieve it by playing the
simplest of games in our classrooms take
for example the work of Augusto
Burrell’s forum theatre one of his
exercises asked that a group of actors
go up to the stage and staged a social
problem while the rest of the class
watches at any moment during the
performance someone can help freeze and
one actor from the audience watching has
to run up and replace an actor and then
change that problem into a possible
solution but it’s not as easy as it
sounds if at any moment those watching
do not believe the proposed solution
they can help magic and someone else has
to run up replace another performer and
together the class has to arrive at a
solution that they all agree on an
exercise like this alters perspectives
because it asks of the students who
inquire into engage with and embody
their beliefs while remaining empathetic
to others and mediating with one another
very often with
about the teachers interference when it
comes to issues like racism sexism and
religious intolerance perspectives are
altered because students realize that
they acted out of a place of societal
thought fear and once that fear is
identified the road to eliminating it
starts almost organically and once it is
eliminated liberation follows I say
again once it’s eliminated liberation
follows and you know what that leads to
more inquiry and more engagement this is
best illustrated in something that
happened to me at the start of my
teaching career in China in this self
reflective essay one of my students
wrote the following at the start of the
drama year I could not get my head
around the teachers way of teaching it
was too strange too hard but then I
thought what if I tried only a little
and I did and in the end I got it as
long as I live I believe these words
will stay with me because it
demonstrates why I fell in love with
drama in the first place it shows a
student who is confronted with something
different and instead of remaining
fearfully passive chooses to engage of
that only to discover that they are
capable competent and now fearless the
positive impact of drama is nothing new
to us you can take your phone right now
and Google drama and 21st century skills
or type in the names of Jay Michael
journal from the Simon Youth Foundation
or Sharon E bone from the Society of
history technology or Howard shoots from
Starbucks or CNN founder Ted Turner or
Jack Ma from Alibaba and discover all of
these current and past CEOs and
presidents either have a degree in the
liberal arts or a background in theater
but then why is it that drama is not
more heavily advocated for in schools
and our societies the answer is simple
stigma somewhere along the line
people got the impression that drama was
only for the artistic though weird the
poor the less masculine and that it
should be placed secondary to subjects
like maths and science this could not be
further from the truth
ladies and gentlemen while maths and
science help us to sustain economies it
is drama and the arts that teach us what
it means to be human it teaches us to
relate it teaches us sympathy it teaches
us empathy it teaches us to seek out an
interconnectedness with our enemies and
heaven knows the world now more than
ever should be seeking out commonality
so if you’re sitting there and you’re
thinking what can I do today or how can
i nurture this habit of inquiry and
engagement it’s easy step out from this
venue today and go support that
Community Theatre by attending their
shows or making a donation or better yet
enrolling in their courses go to your
schools and the mud they include drama
in the curriculum go to your government
and ask them to make drama a mandatory
subjects subject in all schools and to
also while at it increase their funding
of arts and drama education and you know
what then maybe just maybe we’ll wake up
one morning and say that last night the
world witnessed something wonderful
[Applause]
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