Students from various high schools in Cape Town took part in the City of Cape Town’s Youth Environmental School (YES) programme’s Drama Festival to showcase practical ways to effectively save electricity and reduce consumption.
The festival, one of the YES programme’s youth development initiatives, took place in association with the Baxter Theatre Centre on 26 and 27 July 2013.
This year’s theme, ‘Smart Living. Smart Saving – Electricity Savings and Safety: for all the right reasons’, tasked the participating schools and the audience with examining electricity consumption and safety.
The participating schools included Zisukhanyo Senior Secondary, Aloe High, Queens Park, Rocklands High, Settler’s High, Edgemead High, Chris Hani Arts and Culture High School, Malibu High and St. Joseph’s Marist College. A community youth development initiative, Beautiful Gate SA, and the Durbanville Children’s Home also participated.
The Chairperson of the City’s Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning Portfolio Committee, Councillor Xanthea Limberg, represented the adjudication panel and gave the participating schools valuable feedback regarding their plays. At the awards ceremony, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Environmental and Spatial Planning, Councillor Garreth Bloor presented awards.
Zisukhanyo Senior Secondary was presented the award for Most Promising Production, with their play ‘We are Desperate’, which focused on cable theft as an electricity safety issue. Sive Lonzi, who played the character who was ‘electrocuted’ in the play, won the award for the Best Supporting Performer.
The Best Performer award was presented to Matthew Stuurman who played the character of ‘Eskom-man’ in the Settler’s High School production ‘The Reason Why…’. The play focused on electricity saving tips and showcased ways in which people can reduce consumption of electricity and avoid further power outages. ‘The Reason Why’ went on to win the award for the Best Play of the festival.
Chris Hani Arts and Culture High School was presented with the award for Best Script for their play ‘In the Depths of Uncertainty’, which showcased electricity safety messages.
The Judges’ Award presented to the Durbanville Children’s Home, gave credit to a good script, which the judges praised for its well-written script which provided good solutions to ensure the safe use of electricity.
