Celebrating 20 years of Drama in Cape Town
Celebrating 20 years of international drama in Cape Town!
Soon after the dawning of our new South Africa, the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy opened its dramatic doors to the children and adults of Cape Town.
So popular is this programme in South Africa that the Cape Town Academy has now become one of the largest drama schools in the world with over 3,000 children attending classes each week, operating in many of Cape Town schools and the community-base studios scattered throughout the metropole.
In 1979, Helen O’Grady saw the huge need to develop children’s confidence in communication in Australia, realizing that the key to success in life is to be a spontaneous, articulate and expressive speaker. She developed a programme, using the performance arts, to bring out the innate ability of all children. It become so popular in Australia that it very quickly spread worldwide.
The Academy has franchises in all major cities throughout South Africa and the Cape Town Academy is now the Head Office and Training Centre for its network of drama schools throughout Africa. Owing to the huge reputation of this programme, teachers and principals from as far as Morocco and Egypt come to attend training at the Cape Town Academy.
Duncan Rice, Principal of the Cape Town Academy and African Director, says ‘It has been an amazing journey for our drama school with its humble origins in Cape Town, we are now the largest drama school throughout Africa. There is a great need for teaching communication skills to children and adults. To be a confident speaker and performer will open doors for the rest of your life. What is more, research shows that children how attend drama classes are more likely to achieve academically.'
