admin Bongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
THEATRE enthusiasts have been encouraged to take their friends to watch productions at the Bulawayo Theatre every monthend this year to increase interest in them and grow audiences, as two plays premiere at the venue.
As part of the end of month plays by Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, on January 22, Without a Name an adaptation of the late playwright Yvonne Vera’s same titled novel, that debuted at the festival last year, will be shown.
Addicted written by Rudo Mutangadura will debut on January 30. It is a play that tackles addictions of three women, to shoes, fake hair and skin lightening creams. The cast includes Charmaine Mudau, Nomashawekazi Damasane, Musa Sibanda and Trevor Siyani.
Raisedon Baya director of Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo said this was part of an exercise to build theatre audiences.
“Theatre lovers or enthusiasts should expect more, not just from Without A Name, but from a host of different theatrical performances planned for every last week of each month till December as part of a serious audience building exercise dubbed ‘take a friend or family to the theatre’,” said Baya.
He said he believed that people were hungry for quality theatre productions.
“This end of month shows is an initiative premised on the belief that our people are starved of relevant stories that speak to them directly and therefore would come to the theatre in search of such. In programming the end of the month shows we ensure good, quality, fresh and watchable performances that explore ideas close to our audiences,” said Baya.
He encouraged other playwrights to submit their scripts if they wanted to be part of the theatre exercise.
“We’re also calling upon playwrights with interesting scripts that they would like feature on the end of month theatre shows to contact us. Our dream would be to program a diversity of voices and talent throughout the year”.
Online Reporter