If, like Audrey Mbuyazi, you can do great things with great love, do them. But most of us can only do small things with great love. And that’s enough.
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (09 May 2022) – How does one begin a piece about Audrey Mbuyazi? Perhaps with her as a person of faith and passion? Or as a wife and mother to an almost unfairly talented brood? Or as her as an artist, singer and songwriter? Or as an author, playwright and passionate advocate for African languages and cultures. How about Audrey as a farmer or creator of uniquely South African board games? Or as the producer and director of one of the most inspiring pieces of theatre I have ever experienced?
There it is! I will begin at the end. At the “The Signs”; a uniquely South African musical.
Michaelhouse School in Balgowan needs no introduction. Shea O’Connor Combined School in Rosetta? Well, you probably won’t have heard of that unless you live in the area. It is a very good rural, non-fee paying government school that serves the community of nearby Bruntville Township in Mooi River.
As a theatre director, Audrey knows how to bring the best out of people both on and off the stage. Using this gift, she mobilised the support of the local Midlands community and staged her Broadway-style musical “The Signs”, as a co-production between these vastly different schools. The community rallied, providing kids with lifts to and from rehearsals, making rehearsal food, sewing costumes and doing make-up.
And as for the stars of the show, two groups of young people who, despite being just 14 km apart, would never ordinarily interact, came together. They journeyed with a common purpose that paid no heed to privilege or lack thereof, to create something beautiful together. And for this magical season of their young lives, music and dance and drama caused all that usually divides them… to fall away.
The world-class Michaelhouse Schlesinger Theatre was packed. Parents and kids from Bruntville sat next to folk from the nearby Midlands country estates. They clapped and cheered together. They laughed and cried together. They had interval drinks and snacks, together.
And those kids exploded onto the stage with an intensity that I haven’t experienced in any theatre anywhere in the world. Their raw, pulsating energy literally yelled out: “We are young, we are talented. Listen to us!”
Using what she has in her hands, Audrey brought worlds together that could not be more different and forged unity and community. She gave children the chance to have their gifts and talents brought in from the margins and put on a show for all to marvel at. With gracious yet searing power, she shone those theatre lights on the inequality present in our education system and in our society at large.
I want to end this piece by honouring all those Midlands community members who enabled this miracle to happen.
You see, Audrey’s size of vision can only come to pass when those that can cook a meal, drive a car, sew a costume – bring whatever we have in our hands.
If, like Audrey, you can do great things with great love, do them. But most of us can only do small things with great love.
And that’s enough.
by 