"Wat ek die meeste geniet het van Second Chance Theatre is dat ek het nooit gewiet ek kan so perform op stage nie." (Delmarie - Pollsmoor inmate)
Millions of little girls around the world dream of experiencing the magic of standing under the footlights, receiving thunderous applause from adulating fans. Despite my abject fear of speaking and performing in front of crowds, I was no different. And my dream did come true. I just can't fathom how my tiara turned into a shower cap. I stood on the stage of the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on the 13th September 2019, in front of more than 600 strangers and with that one scene, completely obliterated my previous image of myself. But after my short burst of stage fright, I realized that I was fine with that. Because this is a huge part of what Second Chance is about. Adaptation and change. Adapting and embracing new opportunities that not only change our perception of ourselves but also the perception of our communities. We are more than the crimes we committed and communities need to see us as real, ordinary people (who also wear shower caps), who made mistakes. Mistakes that we not only learned from but that we use, through our work, to inform, teach and motivate. So I guess that means more shower caps in my future. I just hope that the next ones can be sparkly and glitzy, to make me look a bit prettier.