Kyla Davis is a Johannesburg-based director of the eco-aware Well Worn Theatre Company. She’s also an environmental activist, educator and all-round nice person. At just thirty, Kyla’s already a 2010 recipient of the Arts and Culture Trust ImpACT award and generous lottery funding for her ventures, as well as being featured as one of the Mail & Guardian’s top 200 young South Africans to look out for. But that was so last year. This year, she’s more focused on saving the world.

Carla Lever, who may or may not turn thirty during the course of this festival and once came third in the under-ten 200 meter sprint, get to grips with all things green with one of Johannesburg’s hottest young theatremakers.

The Well Worn Theatre Company was the result of young Joburg-local Kyla Davis fusing her two passions: theatre and eco-awareness. After several years living in London, where she used theatre to inform people about climate change and became what she terms “quite a hardcore eco activist”, she moved back to Johannesburg in 2007. “I decided not to drop the ball because there was clearly a need for this kind of work,” Kyla says. “It was a time when climate issues were just starting to become part of mainstream media and people’s consciousness and I thought I could provide some insights and experience in the field.”

And the name Well Worn? “I started thinking about what this company would look like if it was a person, what her personality would be and so Well Worn was born. It spoke to me of things full of character, well-used, sturdy, not neat and tidy but rather a bit wild and dusty…. something that’s been around and has stories to tell.”

Kyla has brought two shows to this year’s green-themed Out the Box festival – The Pollution Revolution, which has toured over 90 schools in Gauteng and Planet B, a critically acclaimed hit at this year’s Grahamstown Fesitval. Both are running at the festival’s dedicated ‘green’ venue of the Magnet Theatre in Observatory. So what are they about?

“The Pollution Revolution is a high energy, low carbon, physical theatre adventure story told by two actors who switch between characters, countries and time zones to tell a story of global warming, energy, waste, water and personal responsibility,” explains Kyla. “Planet B is a little different. We wanted to create a play with eco themes that was more of an emotional response rather than a didactic ‘lesson’ in how to behave. We also wanted to get at the heart, rather than the science, of climate change as an umbrella theme. What is the human story here? What has brought us, as a species, to this tumultuous point in our history? Are we going to make it? Do we even deserve to make it?”

 

In the face of such weighty issues, I refrain from mentioning the fact that word on Lower Main Street is that Kyla also performs large parts of Planet B drenched head to toe in water. As this is the second winter festival she’s toured the production to, there’s certainly no questioning her commitment to the cause.

Despite this enthusiasm, I voice the niggling doubt that all-too-often people tend to associate eco-consciousness with the Sandton soccer mum stereotype: people who are wealthy enough to afford organic and drive to the nearest recycling plant. Kyla’s quick to rise to the challenge. “Oh no no no no! This is fast becoming not the tendency at all. My experience is that many, many people are doing their bit everyday, quietly and with dedication. It’s beautiful to witness. If we can take our school’s project as an example, we have the great privilege of being able to take our play and programme to any school that expresses an interest in ‘green’ issues. And I can confirm that we have had interest from the full spectrum of South Africa’s youth: from the least advantaged, near-rural, township schools where the learners are growing their own vegetables for school lunches to the fanciest of private schools where they are recycling waste and furiously saving energy wherever they can.”

Does that mean there’s hope for South Africa yet? Kyla certainly thinks so. “Whenever I get depressed and think that we are not doing enough, I think back to all the inspiring and motivated teachers, learners and individuals I have met and am heartened to think ‘We’re gonna make it. We’re actually gonna make it’.”

So, what’s a regular day like in the life of an eco warrior dramatist? “I can’t say that there is any such thing as a regular day,” grins Kyla. “From writing proposals, to mentoring youth in eco-projects and ideas, to dreaming and jotting down ideas for future use, to networking (lots of coffee! Lots of heartfelt conversations in stolen corners!), every day is an improvisation. There is far more time spent online than I would like…. too much facebooking and armchair activism, I prefer the real life kind.”

 

With all this multitasking, I wonder if Kyla’s left any time at all for watching other Out the Box shows. Aside from Planet B and The Pollution Revolution, does she have any hot tips for festival-goers? “Butcher Brothers is a sure thing,” she suggests. “It has already wowed audiences for the last two years running at NAF. After Cardenio looks fascinating and I am definitely going to check it out. Athena Mazarakis (eleviate) is a beautiful performer, her work a pleasure to watch. And on the family festival, Jungle Theatre are my favourite bunch of greenie lunatics and the Whale Show is such fun. But that’s a tough question because after browsing the programme again, I have no idea how I’m even going to begin choosing what to watch. Eeny meeny miny mo…”

With so much to cover and so far to travel, Kyla’s a dynamo of production. I resolve to catch up with her again during the festival, maybe this time over a suitably green drink. Like a mojito.

Any parting words? “Well Worn aims to make work that is both valuable and beautiful and I hope that both these plays in our very young repertoire look to address this aim so far. More to come, I hope, and with wider themes yet.”

Of that we have no doubt.

Check back during the festival for more well-worn, well-watered words from Kyla. In the meantime, catch her performing in Planet B (8^th September at 9:30, 9^th September at 20:00, 10^th September at 17:00 and 11^th September at 18:30) and The Pollution Revolution (8 September at 19:00, 9 September at 11:30, 10^th September at 14:00 and 11 September at 12:00.) All performances are at Magnet Theatre in Observatory, tickets cost R50 and bookings can be made through Computicket.

 

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