Paula Fourie, Author of Prelude and Co-director: Born in 1985 South Africa into a family in the diplomatic service, Paula Fourie spent the major part of her childhood in the USA and Europe, returning to South Africa in 1994 without having witnessed firsthand the turbulent final years of apartheid. She began writing as a teenager, and in 2002 won a national writing competition with a short story. She has continued her creative writing alongside her work as a musicologist and choral conductor. In 2013, she obtained her doctorate from Stellenbosch University with a dissertation on the life and work of South African musician and musical theatre composer Taliep Petersen. Her published academic work includes book reviews, interviews and journal articles. Writing in both English and Afrikaans, her poetry has appeared in several South-African poetry journals. Fourie has been working with Athol Fugard since 2012. The Shadow of the Hummingbird is her first published excursion into the world of playwriting.