Isango Ensemble: Grassroots storytelling and development with high-end arts as a catalyst for change
Comic Relief awarded a grant of GBP 250,000 to Isango Ensemble for work in South Africa, dated 9 January 2019.
Overview
South African based Isango Ensemble was co-founded by Paulina Malefane who was born and raised in the South African Township of Khayelitsha, and the theatre and film director Mark Dornford-May. It was set up in the aftermath of apartheid and draws its performers from across the deprived townships surrounding Cape Town, aiming to harness the rich creativity and energy found there and ensure the most deprived parts of South Africa are heard and can tell their own stories. As an all-black company, they aim to break with the status quo of traditional theatre and create new stories which engage with the performers’ heritage and experiences.
Source: Comic Relief, 360Giving data via the 360Giving API, published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Read from https://api.threesixtygiving.org/api/v1/org/GB-CHC-326568/grants_made/?limit=1000&offset=1000. Reshaped by All Business Africa into this record; amounts and currency are as the funder states them.