Dear Luke,


I would like to congratulate you again on the work you are doing at Amapondo. And “congratulate” might not be the best word… It’s better to thank you, to encourage you, and to reflect back to you a bit of the infectious energy I experienced. I was impressed and inspired during my short stay as I tried to submerge myself in the Amapondo world. I had two overwhelming impulses: to learn and to contribute, and nothing else seemed to matter.


Your projects are multi-faceted and many-leveled, and because of that you will attract a large spectrum of people and achieve highly varied success. Because of your stance as a facilitator and Amapondo’s potential as a hub, the possibilities are endless. It’s as if Amapondo is in the center of two funnels pointed in at each other—or it’s the middle of an hourglass—and people come from everywhere to find a launch pad and a small tribe of collaborators, provocateurs, and guides quietly welcoming them to accomplish anything.


Your central thesis of cultivating initiative and sustainability in individual communities should be the mantra of a new world order. It seems to me the truest approach to alleviating the current plight of people who are misled by money, media, and self-serving leadership. Your work restores self-worth and independent thought in places that have been disrupted, displaced and deprived of these basic rights. But at the same time your project is not about politics, global poverty, or about redressing the past; it is about giving life now to those around us.


You provide a starting place—a physical, productive, and comprehensible way to act in response to an overwhelmingly chaotic struggle. As a privileged foreigner I must admit that I was overcome by the struggle I found in South Africa. Amapondo has established an accessible and open dialogue, an active forum for questions of cultural relations that begins with nonverbal discourse, communal action and creation. I believe in this kinetic contact and take the same approach when teaching or touring with my own physical theatre company. Your program at Amapondo calls for action and not discussion because you are seeking to effect change, not to generate ideas.


In the end, my greatest take-away from my experience was the cultural education and social consciousness that blossomed in me. Amapondo raised many questions for me about community service, cultural arrogance, colonization, and the capitalist empire. I see my own nation and its history in a new light, and I have a more tactile understanding of the global ramifications of American action—individual, federal, and corporate. I also understand how important this type of education could be to other Americans and American culture. However, this was my experience and just part of the Amapondo ripple you have sent across the Atlantic. Educating privileged Americans is not your mission, nor should it be, but this is one way your program is able to work on multiple levels.



Clearly I’ve been deeply effected by my time at Amapondo. Thank you for everything you have given me. Your community plays an incredible host, and I am looking forward to the soonest I will be able to return.


Warmest regards,


Thom
Artistic Director
The Savannah Theatre Project