2011 theatre season full of exciting projects

There are promising signs that the 2011 theatre season is going to be innovative and dynamic.
Although it has been difficult to obtain concise schedules of theatre performance schedules and projects by theatre organisations and theatre groups from different parts of the country the information so far gathered shows that 2011 will be full of exciting theatre projects and performances.
That development will also introduce new players and new theatre approaches.
The Zimbabwe Theatre Association will on World Theatre Day  launch its National Theatre Awards, which are expected to recognise outstanding theatre achievements in the last 10 years.
The awards are expected to cover a much wide spectrum of theatre disciplines.
The association will also launch the Zimbabwe Theatre Hall of Fame on the same day.
A theatre chronicler was contracted by the association in December 2010 to undertake a comprehensive research and produce an initial list of theatre practitioners in Zimbabwe from as far back as 1930.
The list will be used by Zita to shortlist theatre practitioners who will be the first ones to be admitted to the Zimbabwe Theatre Hall of Fame.
The contracted theatre chronicler has since December 2010 been asking theatre practitioners to submit their profiles, which should include: when and where they were born; when they entered into Zimbabwean theatre; what they have done either as actors or technical staff.
Theatre practitioners have been requested to be as detailed as possible as their comprehensive profiles will be attachments on the internet-based Zimbabwe Theatre Hall of Fame.
The theatre chronicler has also produced profiles of theatre practitioners who were featured in books, magazines, newspapers and theatre encyclopaedias that have entries on Zimbabwean theatre.
Some relatives of the departed theatre practitioners have been asked to assist in compiling such profiles and to suggest people who can be approached to provide information about the concerned departed theatre practitioners.
During this first quarter of the schools calendar, the Zimbabwe Theatre Association will launch the National High Schools Theatre Festival, which will conclude in the second term.
The Steering Committee of the International Theatre Institute (Zimbabwe Centre) has decided to mark World Theatre Day with a seminar on Zimbabwean theatre.
The centre hopes to collaborate with the Zimbabwe Theatre Association, other centres of international theatre organisations and theatre institutions and groups to celebrate the day with a series of discussions about trends in Zimbabwean theatre as well as looking back at what has been achieved.
It is also hoped that some theatre groups and cultural organisations will provide their theatre facilities for the hosting of the seminar and the presentations of theatre performances, which will be sponsored by theatre groups.
Lloyd Nyikadzino leads a task force that is co-ordinating the activities to mark World Theatre Day.
He welcomes suggestions from theatre practitioners on issues that could be discussed in the seminar as well as people who will be interested in presenting papers on various topics about the history of Zimbabwean theatre and  the challenges being faced today .
Chipawo, which began its 2011 theatre season with stage performances to mark the end of a cultural exchange with Barefoot Dance Company of Durban, South Africa, will, in the first quarter of the year, take its play “Mutambo Wepanyika” by the New Horizon Theatre Company to schools in Harare.
Later in the year, it will go to schools in Harare and other towns and cities.
After the successful performance of its play “The Most Wonderful Thing of All” at the Book Cafe to participants at the Unesco Trainers’ Training Workshop on intangible cultural heritage and the general public, New Horizon theatre Company has decided to hold public performances, especially at institutions of higher education.
The two-hander play was a result on a workshop that discussed Henrik Ibsen’s “Dolls House” and tried to question how in today’s Zimbabwe, Norah, who walks out of a marriage and leaves behind her two children would be regarded.
The play, which was first performed at the Henrik Ibsen Festival held in Lusaka, Zambia, in October 2010 touches on very contemporary issues about marriage.
Rooftop Promotions’ 2011 theatre season  opened at Theatre in the Park on February 1 with “Ganyu” from Malawi, performed by Mwezi Arts Productions and directed by Stanley Mambo.
Ganyu, which runs until February 27, is a fascinating and  breathtaking acrobatic-dominated show that is indeed spell-binding and intriguing even though the story in it was difficult to discern.
“Ganyu” demonstrates what the human body can do with adequate training, mental discipline and commitment to perfection.
When performers understand each other, a bond of trust and confidence that ensues, creates what audiences see as humanly impossible.
There was, however, a view by some members of the audience that it becomes a presentation flaw when such magnificent acrobatic movements are presented over the length of time that numbs the mind to a point of exhaustion.
Therefore, the length of the show is something the director should look at and could do this through a selection and the removing of actions that look repetitive to eye of the ordinary theatre-goer.
After ”Ganyu”, Rooftop Promotions will present in the first week of March, the play “365 Days”. This will be followed by a play “Me and Friend” from South Africa, which will conclude Rooftop Promotions first quarter theatre programme.
Meanwhile, Rooftop Promotions’ “Rituals” continues with performances in various provinces having already toured Manicaland, Masvingo and Bulawayo provinces.
Tomorrow, the Bulawayo-based Nhimbe Trust will conduct auditions for its Schools Playwrights and Actors Academy (SPAA), which was launched in 2008.
The academy, which targets youths from high schools in Bulawayo, will hold the auditions at Eveline High School.
In early March the Nhimbe Trust’s Women in Theatre will conduct its workshop for theatre directors and producers. It is at this workshop that an inaugural script will be produced.
Clayton Ndlovu, who last  year obtained a Master in Theatre Arts from Wits University, South Africa, and who co-directed Chipawo’s play “Mutambo Wepanyika” and stars in Studio 263, has moved his base from the Zimbabwe College of Music to Maitisong College in Gaborone, Botswana, where he will lecture in drama.
The former deputy director of the Zimbabwe College of Music will continue to be the artistic director of Zimbabwe’s performing arts group to the Umoja International Camp.
Before leaving for Botswana,  Ndlovu participated in the selection of 15 young performing artistes who will constitute the Zimbabwe Umoja Ensemble that will operate as a performing arts team for one year until the next auditions in January 2012.
During the forthcoming Umoja International Camp, which is scheduled for Zimbabwe performing arts teams from Norway, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, will present their national performing arts productions before creating, together in the camp, a piece for   presentation to the public at the end of the camp.
This year the auditions for performing artistes to constitute the Umoja ensemble were open to youths in Harare.
It is unfortunate that managers of theatre groups in different parts of the country were not able to send their theatre performance schedules for the first quarter of this year in time to be included in this piece.
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