Interview with Phillipa De Villiers

The multi-talented Philippa Yaa de Villiers obtained her BA degree, with Journalism as a major, from Rhodes University, going on thereafter to obtain an Honours in Dramatic Art and Scriptwriting from Wits University and to study mime and theatre at the Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris. In 1998, she returned to South Africa, working as an actor with Theatre for Africa before Bell’s Palsy propelled her towards a career more focused on writing, although she continued to work in street theatre and performed with Theatresports at the Market Theatre Laboratory. A distinguished career in scriptwriting saw her writing for the SABC, with scripts for Backstage, Tsha Tsha, Thetha Msawawa, Takalani Sesame and Soul City among others. Her theatre scripts include the two-hander Where the Children Live, and the one-woman show Original Skin, which she has performed in South Africa (including at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda) and abroad. Phillipa has published three poetry collections, Taller Than Buildings, The Everyday Wife and ice cream headache in my bone; reviewers have described her poetry as ‘silence-smashing’, ‘unafraid to be erotic’ and ‘sometimes tragic, always irreverent.’ Philippa has been praised for her performances and readings of her work, which emphasises ‘an elusive ‘between-ness’ that evades easy categorisation’. Her poetry and prose are widely published in journals and anthologies and she currently teaches in the Creative Writing department at Wits University. her awards include the National Arts Festival/de Buren Writing Beyond the Fringe Prize (in 2009)and a South African Literary Award in 2011.