Apart from television, Darlington Michaels also runs a community theatre in Soweto aimed at unleashing talent in youngsters and raising awareness on challenges faced by children and youth at large.
Former Isidingo actor and founder of Melisizwe Community Theater Darlington Michaels, commonly known as Papa G, hosted a play at Ditsong Cultural Museum on Wednesday 06 March 2019. The play was aimed at educating school learners about the dangers of drugs, teenage pregnancy and sugar daddies.
The play is called Who’s To Blame and focuses on moral degeneration. It highlights the challenges faced by school learners daily such as peer pressure, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse. “The name Who’s To Blame, came about the issues taking place nowadays in schools.
“It centres around who is to blame when children do all these horrific things? Parents could be the reason, our government could be to blame. You find that out of all the things children do, somehow, someone is to blame for it”, said Papa G
The former Isidingo actor says that he saw how the society was facing social challenges and that the community was unaware of such issues. He then thought of ways to raise some kind of awareness about such issues. “I saw a lot while touring as an actor and what the community don’t see. For them to see, it is through me writing a play and giving it to them in order for them to understand what is really going on”, said Papa G
When asked about what he would choose between theater and screen, Papa G confidently smiled and said that he always had love for theater than screen because in a television drama, there is no interaction between the audience and actors. “I prefer theater because the audience is able to feel emotions portrayed by the actor and get to understand the play better than on TV,” said Papa G
Over 253 learners from SunValley Primary school in Mabopane block S were entertained and educated during the play.
Papa G said he plans to take Melisizwe Community Theater plays to all the nine provinces but currently the focus is on Gauteng province. “Only time will tell because the theater is a non-profit organisation and it needs funding from prospective sponsors in order to survive,” he said.