In 2001 Rexleigh mounted her own fantasy stage musical The Rainbow’s Child in the University of Witwatersrand theatre, directed by Yvette Hardie and choreographed by Trish Mckenna.
The storyline of The Rainbow’s Child provides a metaphor of hope and a vehicle for conveying crucial environmental information and sound principles of planet management, within the familiar framework of a hero’s plan to rescue earth and life as we know it, from disaster.
The rainbow narrative is carried by several fantasy creature-character survivors of a ravaged earth and a wish character called Tumbleweed, who undertake a journey to rescue the keeper of creativity, a Rainbow Bird called Mnisi, from imprisonment in a ring of fire. Mnisi holds the secret of the rainbow and the key to restoring the planet.
From 2010-2012 Rexleigh scripted, filmed and edited a children’s environmental TV series based on The Rainbow’s Child.
Recently she launched an electronic Rainbow Warriors gamebook literacy initiative derived from The Rainbow’s Child material and music, available as a download on the interactive website therainbowschild.com.
The Rainbow’s Child DesignArt Olympics, an online mask-making competition for secondary students was launched on this rainbow website on 1 March, 2021. Closing date is 31 July 2021. Prizes donated by MTN SA Foundation.
The Rainbow’s Child story is currently being developed for an animated film production.
In the following video (handheld, 1991) The Rainbow Bird Mnisi (A Swazi word for “Rain”) sings the “gospel-style” item Rainbow Love. This is followed by an improvised rain dance by the cast of the stage musical, which was mounted in the University of Witwatersrand theatre, Johannesburg, with secondary students from the National School for the Arts. The solo vocalist here is Letoya Nubia Makhene-Pulumo.