Michelle Friedman and Lawrence Simelane
The National Arts Council is sponsoring a second round of writing mentorships for FunDza, this time in Gauteng. Young aspiring writers have been paired with experienced authors in the Mentoring Our Future Writers Project. In this, each member of the pair writes a short story that is linked to the other story in some way. The mentor writer supports the mentee, and the mentors also get feedback from their younger, hipper mentee on their story too.
The stories will be published on FunDza’s mobi network. The first pair of stories – by mentor Michelle Friedman and mentee Lawrence Simelane – have recently been published.
Here are the links to their two completed stories: Michelle’s Hungry for Love and Lawrence’s Dancing Dreamer. Our readers have loved them.
Below is Michelle’s Friedman’s story of how she worked with Lawrence Simelane.
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It’s Friday at 17h00 and Lawrence is head down punching away at my computer. Resilient as ever, he’s determined to meet the 18h00 deadline regardless of the fact that two days ago he buried his older brother and three days before that his computer was attacked by a virus and he’d lost everything, apart from the four chapters he’d saved on my memory stick at our last FunDza meeting at the Sunnyside Hotel and his hand-written version of the last three chapters.
These two events drew us closer.
As we synchronised our stories – each of us changing part of our plot to accommodate the other – I thought about our relationship. At first I wondered how we’d be able to write a story together – he’s in his early thirties and I’m over the hill. I’d only written flash-fiction stories for South African school children and he is a playwright, comfortable with dialogue. He lives in Protea South and I live in Houghton. I was relieved when he immediately came up with a story that fascinated me – a Pantsula dancer and a boy’s search for identity. I added the romance and the metaphors.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. Lawrence was studying acting at the Market Laboratory plus directing a play plus teaching Pantsula to two groups plus writing plays. When could we meet?
Our first meeting was at Macdonalds in Rosebank where I watched his dancers perform on his computer and we hastily concocted a plot. Our second meeting was at the Market theatre late one afternoon. Our third meeting was again at the Market on a Sunday afternoon but he was so late that we decided he’d watch the play and I’d go home. Ruffled about his lateness I told him. He responded warmly and was never late again. Totally open, almost child-like, he beams purity. Lawrence brought me into his acting world. I watched him in three plays – one at The Ridge, one at the Market Warehouse and one at PopArt in M precinct. He can act, sing, dance and write. He’s as humble as a small bird. And he’s happy. He loves his life. On Friday we really connected. We’d both fallen in love with our characters. Here is our recent WhatsApp conversation.
Lawrence: How are the stories for you, Michelle?
Michelle: I like them. Our styles are so different and so they should be. Your dialogue captures the reality of Teboho and his life. I liked the twists with Zama and the computer plus your meeting with Mohau. I relate to Kelebogile and my story is slow and reflective. You write as an insider; I am more of an outsider culturally but close to Pontso emotionally. And you?
Lawrence: I love the stories. It’s just that I’m nervous.
Michelle: Nervous of what? I’ve not written a long story like this; I felt totally unready…I also didn’t know how you’d feel working with this much older white ‘mama’!
Lawrence: Lol, it was good to have you as my mentor, and with the problem that happened in my laptop. Without you maybe I would have just given up.
Michelle: You carried on under extremely difficult circumstances – your plays, acting the loss of your brother and the virus on your computer plus the fact that you support yourself dancing! You’re amazing Lawrence! I loved being able to watch you performing on stage. That you for that.
Lawrence: Thank you too Michelle.
When he left on Friday evening he had dark rings around his eyes. He was exhausted. It had been a week from hell. He sms’d me when he arrived home. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to know him and to work with him.