Yvette Hardie
Associate Editor, South Africa
Producer, Colonnades Theatre Lab, South Africa
Chairperson: Assitej South Africa
Communications Officer: ACYTA (African Children and Youth Theatre Arena)
Contributions to
IDEA:
Text Files
South Africa 1 | South Africa 2 | South Africa 3 | South Africa 4 | South Africa 5 | South Africa 6 | South Africa 7 | South Africa 8 | So What's New? |
Audio Files
South Africa 1 | South Africa 2 | South Africa 3 | South Africa 4 | South Africa 5 | South Africa 6 | South Africa 7 | South Africa 8 | So What's New? (part 1 | So What's New? (part 2) |
Bio: Yvette Hardie is a theatre producer, director, educator, writer and actor, who has been active in the world of theatre training and performance, across a variety of arenas. She is currently the South African producer of the Colonnades Theatre Lab’s international theatre piece, ‘Truth in Translation’, which tells the story of the interpreters at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. With music by Hugh Masekela, and direction by Michael Lessac, the production travels the world in order to serve as a catalyst for dialogue and change. She has toured with the piece to Rwanda, the Edinburgh festival, the USA, Sweden, Belfast and within South Africa itself.
Yvette has been active as a theatre examiner, moderator and writer of the new Dramatic Arts curriculum, and writes textbooks for the subject (OBE for FET: DRAMATIC ARTS, Grades 10-12, published by NASOU). She is a member of the Standards Generating Body for the Performing Arts and has served as a judge for the Naledi Theatre Awards in Gauteng.
She works as a Course Leader for CREATIVE VOICES, an outreach programme to empower previously disadvantaged teachers to teach integrated arts and culture curricula in their schools. She also serves on several boards of community projects, such as Soweto Rhythms Productions. She has served as a Board member of the Actors Centre, where she teaches voice, and has voice coached their many productions. She initiated the launch of Assitej South Africa, which has brought together theatre practitioners from a number of different backgrounds and experiences, through their common interest in and dedication to theatre for children and young people. She is also the Communications Officer for ACYTA (African Children and Youth Theatre Arena) which brings together organisations from across the African continent.
She was Head of the Drama Department of the National School of the Arts, where she taught between 1991 and 2004. She was responsible for transforming the department and spearheading several new initiatives. These included The Festival of Fame, a six day festival (for schools and the general public) at the National School of the Arts, the Civic Theatre, Market theatre and Wits Theatre, using professional and student performers in a host of arts-related performances, workshops, exhibitions and activities. She also initiated and ran The Original Works Festival (a festival of new writing to encourage emerging playwrights) and The FET Certificate in the Performing Arts (a vocationally-oriented training programme for which she wrote the unit standards).
Other teaching experience includes (AFDA) the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance, the Market Theatre Laboratory, the Intimate Theatre, Sibikwa Community Theatre and Vocal Impact. She is a certified Lessac teacher in Voice and Body work, and has worked extensively with Arthur Lessac in the USA and in South Africa. Her qualifications include an M. Tech (Cum Laude) from Pretoria Technikon, for which she wrote a thesis which looked at the development of the adolescent voice within a multicultural environment. She also has an English Honours from UNISA, a Performer’s Diploma in Speech and Drama and a B.A. (Cum Laude) in Drama and English from the University of Cape Town.
Yvette Hardie currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa.