Carols by Candlelight – 15th December 2006

It’s coming up to that time of year again, and it’s time to celebrate! Education Milne Bay did just that last week by holding its first Carols by Candlelight event, presented by, and featuring the Wanigili Theatre Group.

The Wanigili Theatre Group benefited from the experience of not only performing in this event, but also helped to organise and present the whole night. Group members made their own costumes and props, set the stage, helped to source other acts, announced those acts, and ran the bbq and raffle. It is an essential aspect of their learning experience (and of drama and theatre as a whole), to have an idea of the whole event – from beginning to end.



Thankfully the weather held out and we were able to hold the event outdoors as planned. The Wanigili Theatre group performed the nativity scene, but with a PNG flavour. Mary was wearing a meri blouse and the three wise men were from Gili Gili, Weimar and Kiriwina and in traditional dress. The gifts presented to the baby Jesus were traditional also – a lime pot, shell necklace and yams. They used the outdoor space effectively, and had a manger set up in a canoe hut. The nativity scene was not only a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but also celebrated and gave credit to traditional PNG culture.



The scene was beautifully done and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it. We had some help from the local group Kwato Isimulata Choir Ministry in adding atmosphere, and also singing as the chorus of angels at the appearance of the Angel Gabriel. At the conclusion of the piece the group led the crowd in singing the hymn ‘Joy to the World’.



A big thank you to the other performers on the night – the audience was treated to carols, traditional PNG music, contemporary and pacific dance, and also a surprise visit from Santa Claus!

World AIDS Day – 1st December 2006



HIV/AIDS is an important and urgent issue in Papua New Guinea, with many individuals and groups working towards educating the public. World AIDS Day, celebrated the world over, presented a great opportunity to raise awareness about the illness and associated side effects (physical, emotional and social).



The Wanigili Theatre group was invited to participate in the day. In Alotau, there was a march through town in the morning, followed by events held at Sanderson Bay for the rest of the day and night. The march involved groups of all ages, and it was wonderful to see school children becoming educated and involved in the HIV/AIDS cause.





Once at the stage we heard songs from the school groups, speeches from doctors and ministers, as well as an emotional testimony from a young woman who has been diagnosed HIV positive. She touched many with her story, and her strength and courage were inspirational. The Wanigili Theatre group prepared an educational piece on the HIV/AIDS virus, trying to break down the stigma associated with the virus, as well as warn people about risky behaviors. It seems that many people have heard of the virus, but know very little factual information.







Overall the performance was well received, as was a performance from theatre veterans Mr and Mrs Toru. It’s great to see that drama is being utilized as a simple and effective (and non-intimidating) educational tool about important issues. The Wanigili Theatre group would like to continue with these types of performances in the future (both about HIV/AIDS and other important issues), and take them to all parts of the community, including schools, and villages.

School Camps and Performances Galore

Education Milne Bay has been in camp season. This means that schools from all over PNG come and spend some time in Milne Bay, learning about the environment, being taught new skills, and generally having a good time. One important activity is the School Camp Night, where the school camp ‘teams’ each have to prepare a piece to perform in front of their peers. What better time than this to have the Wanigili Theatre Group perform as well?



Over the 4 solid weeks of school camps there were five different school camps, and the group performed at all of them. For the first performance they decided to give some improvisation and theatre sports games a try (a brave decision for the groups’ second public performance). Anyone familiar with impro may know Emotional Replay (a game where an improvised scene is replayed in different emotions), Death in a Minute (where the scene goes for exactly a minute and someone needs to ‘die’ within that time) and the Small Voice Game (where the actors interact with a small, unseen character voiced by someone off stage). The group performed these games and others in front of an audience made up of Grade 6 and 7’s. And they performed again with some Grade 8 students, actually getting volunteers from the audience to help them in some of the scenes.



They also tried their hand at creating small, educational pieces to present at the camps. Inspired by International Children’s Day the group collectively created pieces on school fees and girls’ education, bullying, peer pressure and violence towards children. All of these pieces were received well and with enthusiasm. At each performance there was a clear point delivered, the students learnt something and were inspired to perform their own pieces, and everyone had fun! These pieces will be documented and kept for future use, perhaps in schools or village education programs.

Monday, November 06, 2006
Cora's feedback from Canoe Festival and Invisible Theatre



The Canoe Festival over the weekend was a very busy and exciting event. There were the paddlers, the traditional dancers and all sorts of people within and outside Milne Bay Province. As for the Invisible Theater group, they were out on a mission to do a play without an audience knowing about it.

The group had a brief meeting to finalise what to do and then everyone was dropped off at the market area to begin the Invisible piece. The actors were left to walk around like everyone else but it was not as easy as we thought it would turn out. The actors were to walk around the stall areas, keeping an eye out for each other when the actual play was to start.

I also took part in the Invisible Theatre group with the other actors. I thought it was all going to be easy to act out this piece but it was quite hard to find group members to get it all started in the big crowd we had on Saturday. Well, we at least got ourselves together and then there was this difficulty of getting friends out of our way and not making it obvious that we were doing something. I for one bumped into many of my friends like the other actors and we had to just tell them we were hurrying and needed to leave them. We did manage to get together at last for the piece to begin. The first phase of the play was near a market stall with mothers selling food stuff and handcrafts. As a student, I was asked by one of the actors about how I traveled from school and came home. This brought up the issue of discussing on the cheapest transport available. It left the mothers and other nearby onlookers giving their opinions about how M.V Milne Bay has been providing good service for the people. So, we had a really good response from the public without them knowing that we were actually acting out a piece and them contributing by giving their views. The next scene took place when one of the actor’s purse went missing and we started looking around for it. This caught the crowd’s attention as they were curious to know what was going on with people crowding around that particular area. This was a good feedback we got from the people as they really gave their negative thoughts about the ship. They went on saying things like the ship brought in too many people with new ideas and attitudes which is making the place unsafe. Some people also helped to search for the purse showing concern for the lost item. So, the crowd gave both good and bad views about the ship. Some of the good points were about the ship’s cheap traveling rate compared to airlines and handcrafts and artifacts from other parts of the country. The bad views were mainly on the change of the peaceful community. A lot was said about the increasing number of people the ship is admitting into the province.



From my own point of view, I think this new passenger ship is really helping people who cannot afford to pay airfares to travel. Hearing from friends who have traveled on the ship, they’ve said that the service provided on board was really good and convenient and also the fare was reasonable for both children and adults. After participating in the Invisible Theater, I learnt that it was a very effective way of getting people’s views and making awareness to them about issues they need to know about.

I hope to learn a lot and get myself geared up with the computer skills before returning for school next year. I am glad that the staff at EMB have offered to teach me some stuff on the computer, especially their blog website. I know I’m going to learn a lot and get myself more familiar with these before I leave as not many homes in PNG have access to the latest technology. It is a good opportunity for me to gain more knowledge and experience from EMB. I believe that after these 2 months of work experience, I will have learnt a lot of things and it will be of good benefit to me. Apart from taking part with the drama group, I am writing up entries for their blog website as well. With the assistance and guidance of Maxine Nadile, the operations manager, I’ve written the first entry of the blog. With a lot of it still at work, the drama group practices are also on with the actors coming in the afternoons to go through their pieces.