Our Team

Dr. Petro Janse Van Vuuren

Petro Janse van Vuuren is a Communicator Coach and Story Strategist. She thinks of herself as a muse to the muses who like to inspire and equip those who inspire and equip others. As such she is a dynamic and inspiring speaker.

Petro received her PhD in Drama and Performance at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2007. In her thesis she developed a strategy for using improvised drama as a means for reflecting on personal and communal values.  read more

Burgert Kirsten

Burgert Kirsten is an Industrial Psychologist and Improvisational theatre actor/coach.   He sees himself as a connecter, who facilitates people’s connection with themselves, their creativity and with one another. This serves as a solid foundation for facilitating creative group processes.  He has conducted workshops using his unique improvisational methods for large companies such as Siemens and SAB Miller, and also for small groups of teenage recovering drug addicts and youth prisoners. In the end Burgert believes that no matter who you are, all people have the desire to connect with themselves and one another. And he is passionate about facilitating this connection.  Read more

Manuela Glasbrenner

Manuela works and plays with Playing Mantis as an associate. She was born in Germany and holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Mannheim (Dipl.Psych., German equivalent to an M.Sc.).

Manuela works as a facilitator and coach within the paradigm of Positive Psychology.
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Annene Pretorius

Annene Pretorius is a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, trained as TO facilitator (or Joker in the language of TO) with Mark Weinblatt of the Mandala Center for Change, Washington. She has extensive experience in social development through applied theatre.

Annene’s philosophy is that living in a society means changing it – it depends what you see when you go to the theatre. “We are all theatre”  Read more

Charl-Rudolph Campher

Charl-Rudolph Campher is currently studying Industrial Psychology and is in his final stretch for finishing his degree. He has been living in Stellenbosch for the last 16 years and had been searching for creative ways of improving people’s lives. He greatly resonated with the way in which Playing Mantis applies drama and improvisation to the everyday struggle to be in the present without worrying about the past or the future. Read more