Bobby Rodwell

AboutBobby Rodwell

Bobby  Rodwell has been working  in theatre, documentary film and radio for the past two decades.  Bobby works as a producer and writer focusing on socio-political issue across the continent.

Bobby’s area of expertise is using personal testimony in theatre for social change, and is currently completing her Master’s dissertation on the authenticity of this approach at Wits University.

The motivation for using personal testimony in theatre came about as a reaction to hearing stories of survivors of human rights violations being told through the eyes of the ‘saviour’ or ‘reporter’. In Bobby’s words, ‘People need to write and tell their own stories – and theatre can be an amazing conduit for this.’

Using this approach Bobby has created The Story I am About to Tell on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission where three people told their own stories as told at the TRC. The theatre became a space where the audience listened engaged and debated around the TRC and its effectiveness.

More recent theatre plays include … Frontieres which gave space for the sharing of  personal testimonies on migration, told by people about their journeys across the continent and into South Africa … Flipping the Script engaged with gender-based violence as told by survivors of violence … Theatre on Trains on gender- based violence which took theatre on to operating trains, and into public spaces.

Bobby studied Theatre, Social Anthropology and African History. Her studies created the synergy and passion for the work that she does.

Over the past twenty years, Bobby has been worked in the community theatre movement and is the funder and a director of the company mehlo-maya (eye-to-the-sun). Bobby sits on various boards in the performing arts industry.

Bobby’s participation in Time of the Writers is an acknowledgement of the work that writers do in the theatre space.