As you may or may not have noticed, LEF enjoyed the short company of a sister group this summer. The group – proudly called LEFt – was formed a few months ago. Their main goal was to put on The Importance of Being Earnest in a very short time, to raise money for charity.
The people behind LEFt were all members of LEF at some point – acting as directors, producers and board members – but have since left on adventures all across Europe. LEFt was a one-off collaboration between these ex-colleagues and friends. Their chosen charity, Kenyawi Kids, is a registered Scottish charity that promotes self-sustainability in orphan care in Kenya and Malawi. A few members of the group know the founders of the charity personally. The money raised with Earnest would go directly to STEKA house, a newly-opened home for abandoned and abused children in Blantyre, that aims to provide safe, long-term care for the city’s street children.
The project was ambitious to begin with, what with some actors in another country, some having full-time jobs, and some studying. And even when everyone was finally in the same country (the same building, even!), there were still quite some bumps in the road that needed smoothing. However, everything came together in the last few weeks and the play, performed in the Imperium Theatre on August 15, 16, and 17, turned out to be an enormous success. The audience loved it, and thanks to their generous donations LEFt managed to raise € 1023,- for Kenyawi Kids. We at LEF are exceedingly proud of them.
If you would like to read some more about this project, check out LEFt’s website, Facebook page, or Twitter channel. The project was also featured in VOX Leiden (special thanks to Giulia) and on toneel.blog (special thanks to Alex).