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The novel is one of the Ndebele Ordinary level setbooks which was recently translated into the English language, The Rich Man from Pietermaritzburg.
In an interview acting coach and director of the play Styx Mhlanga said the main idea behind the project was to use theatre as a way of educating students.
“The main purpose of this project is to use theatre as an educational tool whereby we offer a post- performance platform for students studying the book to discuss it with teachers and actors.
It is also a way of exposing acting students to larger audiences and preparing them for the industry,” said Mhlanga.
The theatre guru said Bambatha Actors’ Centre was calling its 2009 acting class students to come for auditions for this project at Studio 10 housed at the National Gallery in Bulawayo.
“We would like to beef up our cast and create an exciting competition for first places in the play,” said Mhlanga.
He said the play will premiere in September before it goes on a tour of schools in and around Bulawayo.
“The play will premiere at Amakhosi Cultural Centre at the beginning of September 2012 and later on embark on a tour of boarding schools,” he said.
The crop of acting students at Bambatha Actors’ Centre have just finished recording a ZBC radio drama entitled, Hawu Bafana, written by veteran novelist Naison Thwala.
“It is our hope at Bambatha Actors’ Centre that in future every interesting acting project in the city would have someone who went through our training programme
He added: “So far one can point a finger at new shows on the scene like Stitsha, Nyaminyami, Hawu Bafana, Sitshuzi Mazikhethela, and ZBC’s Suku, It Never Rains, Moja, My Uncle, The Button Box, The Zim Theatre Review and many more.
Bambatha Actors’ Centre has joined the Centre for Talent Development, which is also working on two plays The Lion and The Jewel by Nobel Laureate and Africa’s most prominent playwright Wole Sonyika and Henrick Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
The Lion and The Jewel is Soyinka’s best known play that uses an interesting fusion of traditional and modern imagery with Soyinka artistically revealing the interesting and yet controversial conflict between tradition and modernisation. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen deals with the age-old theme of women emancipation.
Online Reporter