By Frederick Philander KARASBURG Despite the bitter cold of the South last Friday and the fact that schools had already closed for the holidays, a large number of learners and parents attended the staging of a self-created youth play at the Karasburg Senior Secondary School. The Show Must Go On, was written by Maria Afrikaner, a teacher at the school and work-shopped by Assitej-Namibia theatre facilitator, Richard Swartz, with learners of the school. The performance formed part of the wrapping up of the national education youth theatre structure formation in the South with six town-based centres now solidly established by Assitej-Namibia (Organization of Theatre for Children and Young People), which is affiliated to Assitej-International representing 76 countries worldwide. “It was a marvelous experience to work on the play and with the learners, especially in view of the fact that it was the first time that a teacher of any of the schools I have worked with over the past two years wrote the script. It made things much easier to immediately get into the creative process,” said facilitator, Richard Swartz. He has been working the youth theatre circuit in the country for quite some time now on assignment for Assitej-Namibia. Content wise The Show Must Go On covers a wide range of contemporary youth problems, ranging from interrelationships, musical prowess and even the problem of homosexuality among the youth, all plausible topics. “What is more encouraging is the fact that LÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼deritz Secondary School, one of a few Southern schools, has realized the importance and potential of youth theatre development and will be using its play, Shark Island, as a fundraiser for the school on Friday 8 June. This is exactly what Assitej-Namibia is striving for, for centres and schools to become self-sustaining in efforts to educate learners holistically,” Swartz said. Two very creative theatre activists will leave for Lusaka in Zambia next week to take part in an international theatre puppet workshop. “These two young people will attend the workshop and will return with the idea of creating an educational puppet workshop, which will as from July be performed at all Assitej-Namibia centres as well as primary schools as part of our outreach programme. This is part of ongoing efforts to feed the centres and to broaden our activities among schoolchildren,” said David Ndjavera, the chairman of Assitej-Namibia on inquiry. Assitej-Namibia now has eleven operative and functional youth theatre centres with six more to be established later in the year in the North, west and the north-east of the country, funding permitting. “So far we are very proud of our youth theatre achievements and will continue to work hard to involve as many schools and learners to gain and benefit from our programme for a long time to come. Eventually it is our hope that the ministries of Education; and Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture will more tangibly support our efforts on a yearly basis,” said the chairman. The eleven established youth theatre centres include: Tsumeb, Grootfontein, Otjiwarongo, Gobabis, Okahandja, Rehoboth, Mariental, Gibeon, Karasburg, Keetmanshoop and LÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼deritz.