Please note: This article simply draws from my experience as a third-culture kid. It in no way should be regarded as the sole truth of theatre in South African schools. I also can't speak to the experiences of anyone else other than me. Plus I'm thankful for what I learned since it allowed me to breeze through college once I actually picked a major and realized I love writing.

As you maybe read in my bio, I have a Bachelor's degree in theatre along with several original plays to my name. Having worked in the field now for almost a decade, I've met a quirky cast of characters that include actors, technicians, writers who write whatever the heck they want, people who identify on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, liberals, and general nonconformists. All these people reflect the stereotypical Drama Club in American high schools that prized themselves on being a haven for misfits.

Dude, such a thing is totally foreign to me who grew up in South Africa and discovered my love of drama in a girls' high school through an annual student-directed play competition known as House Plays which led to me taking the subject as an elective. Not the major stuff. I would assume that taking drama in American high school was similar to my time in college which attracted even non-majors to being in shows, but in South Africa, you're essentially trained for the real acting world which is like attending Juilliard while still being in high school. Like, we only want the best of the best and so who's the absolute best that you can model after so you can be the best? Who's the Sharpay Evans of your high school?

This wasn't outright stated as the expectations, but it still felt like a mosquito constantly buzzing your ear canal and you can't get to it to squish it.

Seeing as things are changing in the greater theatre world these days, such as more work by writers of color and other marginalized communities being recognized, I thought it would be a great time to commentate on the lessons I wish were implemented when it came to high school theatre. Because I've had a taste of both worlds and the arts are being further defunded in both countries. These are some of my ideals.

1. Being involved with drama is supposed to be inclusive:

No one is fundamentally excluded from taking the subject in schools usually. In America the vibe is that we're all weirdos and we can be weirdos together, a vibe I get from most of my jobs. Not so much with my classmates in school. We were all chasing the path that would lead us to a lot of money. And art apparently doesn't do that. So if you're gonna do that, you have to be the absolute best, so that you can make a lot of money.

2. Politics need to stay out of the casting process:

Similar to interviewing for regular jobs these days, it's likely that whoever you present yourself to already has the people in mind that they want to cast, and they're just holding the auditions as a formality. I went to go a girls' school so it's not like anyone slept with the director in order to get the lead, but for the love of God, it's high school. We deal with enough petty crap all day. For a place that is touted as a haven for misfits, everyone should be given a fair chance. I wasn't cast in a single major production meanwhile the same people were getting cast every year.

3. We need to assign more diverse assigned play reading. Especially today. Not just in America, but also in South Africa, known as the "Rainbow Nation." Because then you have many different perspectives to see the world from.

For my senior final practicum, I had to present three pieces, one of which had to be by a South African writer. And we studied a plethora of South African political plays. This is back when you had to go to libraries to find scripts because everyone and their dog was likely going to find and use the same stuff found on the internet. And your local library has one lonely shelf of stuff by South African writers, none of which are plays. So my frustrated self found a loophole and did a dramatized reading of a passage from The Hobbit. Tolkien's South African. Who knew?

I don't know who is writing plays these days in South Africa other than the ones from Athol Fugard's time since I haven't lived there in a while. But playwrights from all cultures are constantly writing over here in America. And other countries too, I'm sure. You can easily find a copy of Hansol Jung's Wolf Play somewhere. And plays written by black writers for black women. Jocelyn Bioh would be a great addition to my high school.

4. Like I wrote in a separate article, the stage is just as important to theatre education as a bunch of books.

I'm reminded of Eleanor Wong from Never Have I Ever as I write this, save for being able to wear something other than a school uniform. Sure, she did get the lead in a play that mirrored her relationship with her mother. But she got dissed out of her audition for Juilliard and decided she was gonna go be an actor on her own. I don't recommend dropping out of high school to become an actor or something in the creative field like so many famous people have done, but being onstage where many people can watch you apart from your classmates and teachers (without a grade) enables you to put what you learned in class in action. In the aforementioned article a student sued their college because they felt they weren't given an equal education. You can't really sue your high school for such things since you could easily drop the subject. But you could sue if you're not getting cast based on discrimination. See the next point below.

5. In schools, roles should not be limited by a person's race.

As somebody who was black but not South African and therefore didn't speak the languages, you can imagine it was a pain having to find pieces that I could do without having to put on a very bad accent since most of the South African plays I could find were from the apartheid era (my teacher was strict on us being the same race as the characters when it came to South African plays, and I could pass as either coloured or black by their definition. Probably because we also got graded by people outside of the school).

Since my playwriting debut "This is Not a Bill" was set in the 19th century, we had to have mostly black actors (a sadly small percentage on my campus). Maybe Happy Ending, which is currently getting heat because the guy replacing Darren Criss is white, is set in Seoul, which is pretty much ethnically homogenous. This is a case in Broadway though where representation would matter because there is already so little of it (I like how the colorblind casting was intentional in Bridgerton, set in a time period not usually thought of as diverse). In a high school though, the focus should be on finding pieces that suit your skills well.

6. We should be learning other skills besides acting and directing.

Didn't learn technical theatre like lights and sound and sets were a thing until college when I took my first tech class and later designed my first set of costumes. It was a thing in my high school but of course people pay attention only to the actors and directors, you know, the bigwigs. They teach this in American high schools. Bring it to South Africa.

7. I will shout it from the rooftops; like all artistic subjects, theatre is important.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Art in general reflects the truth of life. Theatre reflects it. And before you cut your drama program or discourage someone from taking artistic subjects, read this article.

8. You don't have to be making money (or even great at something) in order to enjoy doing it.

I enjoy what I do, and I just happen to make money doing it. I also know many people who make art alongside a day job. But the sad thing is the people who gave up making art altogether, whether that's acting, singing, painting, dancing, playing the trombone, whatever, because they were made to feel that they weren't good enough to continue doing it. Surgeons aren't born knowing how to remove tumors without nicking a major artery. Just like a mathematician isn't born knowing every single prime number. The idea that you either have talent or you don't is a myth anyway. We should stop telling kids that they need to be the absolute best at something in order for it to be worth doing. As long as it gives you joy, you shouldn't stop doing it. I'm not the absolute best writer. Or the absolute best singer-songwriter. Or the absolute best martial artist for that matter. But I still do it. Why? Because it gives me joy, and gives other people joy when they see me doing what I love to do. And when your kid is artistically inclined, they should be able to do what they love without expectations, whether societal or familial.

That is all that I wish I knew so far. There may be more, and then I'll create a whole other list. I don't act much anymore (unless you give me a good musical theatre song or ask me to read something) and I also don't really paint much anymore. But having studied both of these things in high school has given me skills that have been more useful to me than half of the stuff I learned outside of that: different ways to see the world and the ability to put myself in someone else's shoes. And that's the power of art.

Join the revolution by taking advantage of all of my goodies, like signing up for my Patreon for as little as $7. Especially now because the powers that be are trying to squash the impact that artists make. Not that they are succeeding.

Stay educated,

Alexia