Jerry Mpho Pooe

(14 August 1970 - ) Playwright, director, actor drama lecturer and facilitator. Born in Soweto, he went to in Durban 1987, where he went to Ohlange High School ( matriculated in 1990). Theatre schooling includes a Drama Certificate from the Upstairs Theatre (1988), a BA with Speech and Drama and Anthropology at the University of Natal, Durban (1995) and a Certificate of Achievement in Theatre Arts from Indiana University (1999). Between 1991-1999 he was co-ordinator of the University of Natal Drama Department’s Community Project, served on numerous committees and community projects, and became directly involved as writer/director in such community arts projects as DramAidE, Amajika and Kusa. Besides writing numerous aids awareness programmes and more that 20 industrial theatre and street theatre shows between 1998-2000, he also wrote and directed creative theatre works. His first play, Not Again, was created with the help of a teacher, Monde Ndandala in 1989, and was followed among others by Isililo (1989?), The Curse (19**), Life is a Journey (19**), Mathatha (1995), Living Treasures (1998), Peace in the Valley (1998), Messiah in Canaan (1999), My Life My Voice (2000). In 1999 he founded and became the director of Eager Artists, a theatre company.

Sources

Ntonto Vezi: M.Dram essay, a CENTAPS/Asoka Theatre Project

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