Actor and director Khaya Ngema on stage with his cast.
FOR almost two decades, actor and director Khaya Ngema has been making reading fun.
He has helped matriculants understand literature books more easily by turning them into plays. Khaya has now included pupils in grades 10 and 11.
Khaya, who has starred on shows such as Imbewu: The Seed and Uzalo, will start his school theatre tour in KZN and the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, 19 July.
The tour will start in Durban at the Bat Centre from 19 to 28 July and will travel throughout KZN before heading to the Eastern Cape.
The actor from Verulam, north of Durban, told the Daily Sun they will visit town halls in KZN and the Eastern Cape to perform grade 10, 11 and 12 literature in Zulu, Xhosa and English.
"Our aim is to make it easier for the learners to engage with literature as Zulu and English are among the subjects they fail and some of them don't even have books or other learning materials.
"Some textbooks have more than 200 pages, and sometimes it's impossible for pupils to understand everything. But iif we dramatise it, they understand it better," he said.
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Khaya said that they included pupils in grades 10 and 11 to prepare them in advance to pass their matric with good results.He told Daily Sun that the textbooks include ImpI yabomdabu Isethunjini, Ubhuku lwamanga, Sophiatown, My children my Africa, Forbidden Love, Love Portion, Swimming Partners, Ukufa kuka Shaka and many others.
Khaya said they started their initiative in 2006 with textbooks such as Romeo and Juliet, Umthathe uzala umlotha, Animal Farm, When Rain Clouds Gather, Sounds and Wings, as well as Ngicela Uxolo.
"We encourage teachers and principals to book in advance to avoid disappointment," he said.
Khaya, the creator of Maskandi Queen, which was recently shown on Showmax, is also the deputy chairman of the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA) in the eThekwini region.
