Lessons from Shakespeare resonate true during pandemic
HILLBROW – Shakespeare's life was affected by quarantine, and he wrote many of his plays during this time. Dorothy Gould, founder of Johannesburg Awakening Minds (Jam) shares what we can learn from Shakespeare.
If you come across someone at the robots in Rosebank and its surrounds reciting Shakespeare, this is no doubt the work of Dorothy Gould and her talented team of Johannesburg Awakening Minds (Jam).
Accomplished actress and director Gould, realised that acting and the creative and performing arts provided a means to heal people, deep inside to their hearts, and so she courageously approached a group of destitute homeless people in Hillbrow one day and asked them, ‘How would you like to learn to act?’
“Some were keen, others not,” she said. “When I explained a soliloquy from Hamlet might change people’s perceptions of them and get them to listen – I had their attention.”
She said these were people who had mimed their needs at intersections, saying they were hungry, but without a voice. Her vision was to give them a voice.
Four months later, Gould said the group of formerly hopeless destitute residents put on their first performance of Shakespeare.
She added that 45 people have passed through Jam. “We still have our core group of actors, and many have become quite accomplished in their profession. I never had my own children and I love the group as my own.”
She said together with her equally committed teammates, Dale Howell and Lillian Isaacs, she watched the group perform and was filled with pride because she could see hope and dignity in them. “They cover each others backs on the stage and on the street.”
But it all started through learning Shakespeare. Why Shakespeare?
“His are the hardest plays to perform. If they can do the most difficult works, all other acting will seem easy to them. Also, Shakespeare explores all emotions and provides a deep reservoir of emotions for them to tap into. Shakespeare’s life was coloured by the plague and this is relevant during Covid-19. He wrote 37 plays, and sonnets and poems during his plague ‘lockdown’. We can take a leaf from his book.”
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