Pippa is South African born in 1950’s turbulent years of Age of Defiance against Apartheid, which shaped her history catapulting her into a political consciousness. She cut her teeth on protest theatre culture studying Performance Art at UCT (University of Cape Town) performing at: Space Theatre (CT), Our House (DBN), Market Theatre (JHB) and worked with, or attracted the attention of the likes of: Saira Essa, Muthal Naidoo, Ketan Lekhani, John Nankin, Nomhle Nkonyeni, Thoko Ntshinga, Fatima Dike and more. Before liberation she chose to shelve career dreams to write gritty township lyrics reflecting the brutalities of the time, singing jazzy blues in seedy pubs and fringe theatre resistance drinking holes. She married a SA man of Indian Muslim descent, navigated challenging inter-cultural dualities, bore a mix-child, altering the trajectory of her life … She initiated Ekhaya Crew Centre placing black crew into (then) a predominantly white industry; became part-owner publisher for 10 years of STE Publishers as Marketing Director & Author Liaison recording social and political history, where she developed book editing skills; and collected rights and options of SA authors for future visual interpretation (film) … this is still the dream …
Pippa’s creative spirit and boundless energy has always tried to lead with a message, she loves to help others (including herself) find their voices and achieve their dreams. Dedicated to the craft of telling of stories, in different disciplines, all through her life in … Stage, Screen, as Actor, Director, Writer, Singer, Pippa has been a Film crew member (wardrobe, P.A., Content Directing), Film Crew Agent, worked in Film Development at FAWO (Film and Allied Workers Organization), PAWE (Performing Arts Workers Equity) holds a Teacher’s Licentiate from College of London (ATCL), taught as Screenwriting Lecturer at AFDA Film College, and Mentored screenwriting in her legendary programme Greenlight District Project inside the prisons teaching film to male and female, maximum and medium offenders from 2014-2018. She further honed screenwriting skills analyzing and writing reports on film for the Film Publications Board for 6 years 2014-2020 as a Classifier and now has 9 Film Writing courses and 13 mentors under her belt, both international and South African. She says, “Some were good, some very bad, but I have learned from all of them”.
She Wrote and Directed Mixed Blood for the Women’s Festival in 1984; The Voice Beyond the Veil exploring her own complicated inter-cultural dualities 2004-2007; self-published Strike Up! Structure Your First Film in 2014, which forms part of a 4-part series called The Storyteller. (See eCourses).
Now, with wisdom of age, is ready to tackle her film development dreams … She makes her debut as Documentary Writer / Producer / Director with I Thought Prison Was a Silent Place (still in editing). This documenting is the journey of released offenders, impoverished peoples’ transition into using creative skills to be productive in a harsh world. She has also recently initiated the AWEH Re-integration and Transformation Centre (AWEH RTC) to help offenders continue with their training post incarceration. Story-craft has been a calling for 40 years all through her life, it is how she lives and breathes. No project is too big or too small for her as long as she loves it.
See also:
https://greenlightdisrict.org.za (Offender profile)
www.jazminepippadyer.co.za (performance profile)
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