The Twist groups all performed at the Phambili Theatre Festival from 9 to 11 March.  The festival was hosted by our partner, the Stable Theatre, and was well attended and seen to be a great success.

The new 2012 Twist Playscripts book was also launched at the festival, and presented to partners and Twist project participants. The book will be distributed to theatre groups and theatre schools and arts centres around the country.

Web workshop
A workshop for the Twist groups was held during the festival weekend.  The workshop focused on the groups building their own websites, and some have already created these sites, so that they can take on a more proactive role
in marketing themselves going forward.  The workshop was also attended by other groups who were part of the Phambili Festival, and was supported by Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).

Farewell to groups
Four groups have now graduated from the Twist programme, after spending two years with the project: Umsindo Theatre Projects, Ubuntu Arts Development, Big Brotherhood Productions and Uthando Lwabaqulusi. The groups and individuals within them were awarded certificates of participation for their work with Twist – and we wish them the best of luck going forward.  The Twist co-ordinator and the mentors will continue to keep in contact with the groups, and to support them in any way they can.

2012 programme
Due to limited funding for 2012, at this point Twist will not be taking in new groups for the upcoming year.  We will continue with fundraising efforts and building the network of community theatre groups through the year. The 2012 programme will continue with the two existing groups; Emuhle All Artists and Siyakha Performing Artists.  Their next project will be to travel to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.