Warren Nebe, a former TEDx speaker, is the founder and director of Drama for Life. He is a theatre director, senior lecturer, a HPCSA and NADT registered drama therapist, a Fulbright Alumni and Salzburg Global Fellow. He was the founder of The Company@Maitisong in Botswana where he co-created “My Brother’s Bones” and “Sephiri se Dule”. He was previous managing director of Themba Interactive – Initiatives for Life. His performance research focuses on identity construction, representation and memory in South Africa through an auto-ethnographic theatre-making approach. Notions of identity are explored, through his direction, in performance collaborations, “ID Pending”, “Hayani”, “Through Positive Eyes” and “Morwa: The Rising Son”, each receiving numerous awards. Warren is also a research member of the Apartheid Archives Research Project. Warren’s primary research focus is on the development of a counter-hegemonic pedagogy, a critical reflexive praxis at Drama for Life appropriate for the purposes of Applied Drama and Theatre, Drama Education, Drama Therapy and Performance Ethnography in Africa. Warren also curated the SA Theatre Season in 2010,” Honouring the Archive: Theatre, Memory and Social Justice”, and again in 2011, entitled: “SA Theatre Season: The Personal Archive: Diversity in Conversation”. Warren has chaired the Drama for Life Africa Research Conference since its inception in 2008. Warren was awarded the Vice-Chancellor Award for Transformation in 2013, and the Drama for Life Team were awarded the Vice-Chancellor Award for Academic Citizenship for 2014. Warren is currently directing a ground breaking 5 nation site specific processional peerformance focusing on human rights and social justice for LGBTIQ communities in Africa through to 2017 called “AfriQueer: Who Put the Stars in the Sky?” Warren is currently leading a social change project called “Build a President” – based on the legacy of Nelson Mandela – as a social media democracy education project.
