Theatre Season: Planting Possibilities is an annual theatre lab and festival combining continuing education for South Sudanese arts practitioners with entertainment, dialogue and civic engagement. Drawing inspiration from the agricultural cycle guiding communities in South Sudan, Theatre Season is structured around three stages: 1.) Tilling the Soil; 2.) Planting the Seed; and 3.) Harvesting. First, artists and community members come together for an intensive workshop on a specific theatrical technique or genre. Participants then get a chance to perform their works-in-progress in front of practitioners and other experts or community leaders to receive feedback. Finally, the participants perform their work in a community setting.

Season One (2016 – 2017)
Folk Theatre

Season One (2016 – 2017): Folk Theatre

In the year 2016 – 2017, the theme for Theatre Season was Folk Theatre. Working with 10 theatre companies in Juba, Likikiri conducted a workshop on the role of folktales in South Sudanese life and culture and their potential for theatre-making. The participating theatre groups documented folktales, re-interpreted the stories, and adapted them for the stage.

poster credit: Tom Dai

poster credit: Tom Dai

poster credit: Tom Dai

Tilling the Soil: Working with 10 theatre companies in Juba, Likikiri conducted a week-long workshop exploring the the role of folktales in South Sudanese life and culture and training participants on how to adapt folktales into theatre. Workshop leaders included Likikiri founders Elfatih Atem and Rebecca Lorins, University of Juba professor and author Y. Wawa and theatre pioneer Joseph Abuk. Participants were encouraged to creatively adapt the folktales to contemporary circumstances in Juba, and the themes explored included gender relations, inter-ethnic relations and corruption.

Planting the Seed: Over the course of a week, the ten troupes performed their works-in-progress in front of other South Sudanese theatre practitioners and critics to get feedback on how to revise their plays and strengthen their performances.

Harvesting: After rehearsing for one month, troupes performed street theatre in the area where they typically rehearse. In January 2017, Likikiri took folk theatre into the streets of Juba.

In the next Theatre Season (2018 – 2019), Likikiri will focus on “Oral History Theatre,” building on the work we’ve done in collaboration with Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the Institute for Justice and Peace Studies (IJPS) at the Catholic University of South Sudan over the last year. This Season we will work on themes of justice. We look forward to introducing the South Sudanese public to oral history theatre and telling our stories together.