Wan Smolbag Theatre (Vanuatu)

Wan Smolbag or ‘One Small Bag’ started as a theatre group producing plays about health issues in 1989. With one small bag of costumes, the group of 15 actors would travel around the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu encouraging people to think about sensitive issues.

Today Wan Smolbag have a staff of around 100 full- and part-time staff and over 400 volunteers.

The group creates plays, films, radio programmes and songs, runs workshops and produces teaching materials on topics like clean water, gender, HIV and AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Wan Smolbag even runs an urban youth centre, two youth-friendly reproductive health clinics and a youth centre at Loltong village on the island of Pentecost. The use of drama to change lives, especially for youth, remains at the heart of what Wan Smolbag does and the group is actively working in schools and in the community to share their services with those who need it most.

Find out more about the company at wansmolbag.org.

View Wan Smolbag's catalogue of plays in Bislama (the most broadly spoken language in Vanuatu) and English here.

Download Wan Smolbag's incredible range of resources - music tracks, teachers' workbooks, comic books, playscripts, poster designs and more - here. Please adhere to the company's terms of use outlined at this link.