All the world's a stage

They experienced their first snow, their first roller skating trip and for most, their first visit to the United States.

Six musical theater students from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa, have been visiting Ball State University with professor Josef du Preez, head of the dance and theater department at Tshwane. The group has been visiting Muncie for six weeks after Harold Mortimer, associate professor of musical theater, began planning the trip with du Preez last year.

This was the first time a group of students from Tshwane came to Ball State. The students were selected based on their academic excellence and leadership.

With the end of their visit coming Monday, the students and du Preez all agree the Ball State experience has been eye-opening.

"From all our points of views this has been really spoiling us," du Preez said, "What I'm saying is coming from the most wired campus in the United States and going to the most unwired campus in the world, I think it's going to be quite a stretch for us. We intend to take what we've learned here further and we are positively going to engage our students with what we've all collectively learned here."

Muncie Homes and Families
After an 18-hour plane ride and much planning, the students reached Muncie and met their home-stay families. Some Ball State faculty and staff members, including President Jo Ann Gora, volunteered their homes for the group to live in.

Kensiwe Mathebula, a fourth year Tshwane student, lived with the O'Hara family: Laura O'Hara, associate professor of communication studies, and Michael O'Hara, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts.

"It's been a wonderful place to go back to. As wonderful as Ball State is and the university, our home life has been such a blessing, because they've been so hospitable and just loving beyond what they need to be really," Mathebula said.

Two third-year students, Tarquinn Whitebooi and Nicholas Nkuna, lived with Gora and her husband. They said they didn't see her very often, but when they did, it was usually in the morning. Sometimes, the two students got a treat when Gora's chef made different meals for them.

The Student Experience
During the week, the students are just like other Ball State students — they have to attend and participate in class. They take 17 credit hours of musical theater classes while having homework and practice as well.

"The amount of work that the students here get, just to get them going, there's a lot of hard work that happens everyday," Mbali Guliwe, a fourth-year Tshwane student, said. "And I think like everyday you grow. For me, that was amazing because personally, I was not used to getting so much work everyday. In every different subject that you do: acting, play writing, this, that, dance. Everything is just going. You are expected to be prepared the following day, whether you sleep at 5 a.m. to wake up at 6, that's your business. Ball State is just amazing."

Within their classes, the students got to meet and become friends with other Ball State students.

"A cool thing for me was how kind the people were," Lindi Victor, a fourth year Tshwane student, said. "I was very surprised. It's not that I expected anything bad, it's just not the norm to me that people are so kind and so helpful and so friendly. All the students would go out of their way to make us feel comfortable and help us and to take us places. I really respected that."

Whitebooi said he was shocked by the behavior of the students his acting class. The professor asked who was going to perform first, and everyone ran to the front.

"Whether they are prepared or unprepared, they literally fight to have a chance to perform on stage and that's what I love. Nobody's shy here to go up and perform. They just do their thing, listen to what the teacher says, get a critique and come back next time. There's this constant fight for what they want," he said.

New Experiences
Outside of the classroom, most of the students experienced new things, such as seeing and playing in snow for the first time. Some of the students went sledding, made snow angels or just played in the snow with their host parents.

In South Africa, they explained, it doesn't snow except for in the mountains, so sledding for them is a little different.

"For us instead of having snow to do the sledding on, we have sand dunes that we'll do it on," Victor said. "It's practically the same thing."

The group also experienced roller skating. One of the musical theater societies sponsored the students' trip to the roller rink, and after falling down at first, some of the students finally got the hang of it.

"[Roller rinks are] not as popular in South Africa; usually it's just ice rinks, small ice rinks, and so roller skating was so much fun," Mitchell said.
The students, as well as du Preez, were also able to sit in on rehearsals of "Macbeth," "Intimate Apparel" and "My Fair Lady."

After the rehearsals, they got to attend sessions where the directors would discuss notes.

Taking It All In
The group is excited to take their experiences in Ball State's musical theater program and transfer it back to Tshwane.

"I've noticed a huge respect for the work, respect for the artform, which is slightly lacking in South Africa," Mitchell said. "Everyone respects the work, everyone puts in the work, everyone goes home and practices... When I go back home, I'm going to be so much more disciplined than what I ever did."

Mathebula said despite the gap between different countries, her experiences will lead her to success.

"What I think I'm going to take with me is just a refreshed inspiration to achieve my goals," she said. "I see now that I'm no different from anyone else. Just because I come from South Africa doesn't mean I can't make it internationally, according to what I perceive success to be for my life and my goals and my dreams. It's helped me to realize my own South African dream and that I can conquer whatever mountain's in front of me."