adminSaturday at the Charles Austin Theatre.
New Horizon Theatre Company’s maiden appearance at the festival has been made possible by the Embassy of Spain which enabled the 19-member cast to travel to Masvingo .
Last year, the embassy sponsored the production of the play which is a Shona version of “The Great Theatre of the World” by Pedro Calderon de la Barca, whose theatre work is regarded as “the culmination of the Spanish Baroque Theatre”. As such he is regarded as one of Spain’s foremost dramatist and one of the finest playwrights world literature.
Calderon authored 70 plays between 1623 and 1681.
Calderon’s “The Great Theatre of the World” was translated into Shona as “Mutambo Wepanyika” in 1958 by teachers and students of Gokomere School and was published by Mambo Press.
New Horizon Theatre Company’s production of the play, in December 2010, was the first such production by a professional theatre company in independent Zimbabwe.
Dominated by highly captivating music and dances, the hour-long play was co-directed by Clayton Ndlovu and Stephen Chifunyise – the writer.
The Embassy of Spain has also enabled Chipawo to undertake very well received performance tours of Mufakose 1 High School, Glen Norah 2 High School, Roosevelt High School and Lord Malvern High School in Harare.
The play was also presented as a good example of theatre in mother tongue at the occasion to celebrate this year’s International Mother Language Day held in Harare in February.
The advantage of “Mutambo Wepanyika” is its theme and content are evergreen and not time bound.
The play is relevant and speaks to all people who believe in the existence of God. As a result of this, Chipawo has made this play the backbone of its repertoire of plays which include “Climate Change”, “Sidile (Cindella),” Secrets of a Woman’s Soul”, “Vicious”, “The Most Wonderful Thing of All”, “African Children’s Charter”, “The Little of Murewa” and “Waiting for the Rain”.
Director of the Youth Cultural Arts Festival Leeroy Gono said there will be plays by Patsime Trust, Victoria High School, Eveline Girls High School and Gutu High School, Pamushana High School, Serima High School and Pelepele of Swaziland.
Patsime Trust will tomorrow afternoon be a sample of post-performance discussions. At the official opening of the festival the Mayor of Masvingo will today give a special performing arts production presented by Schools in Collaboration.
The Friday evening slot will be occupied by a special music concert featuring Edith WeUtonga, Uncle Jaunda and Anatsi.
In the evening of Thursday, the musical stage will be occupied by Jiggaz and SheRasta while the closing of the festival on Sunday evening will be performances by Diana Samkange, Blackbird and the ZigZag Band.
Also to feature on the music programme of Sunday afternoon will be Feel Africa – the winner of the Masvingo Chibuku Road to Fame Competition. A special music show on Saturday afternoon entitled the “Clash of DJs” will feature DJ Liquids of Masvingo and DJ Shaz of South Africa.
Scheduled for Saturday morning is a one-hour session on dance entitled “Stomp the Yard Dance” while a poetry performance “The Poetry Slam” featuring different poets is schedule for Friday morning.
The festival has also scheduled an ambitious programme of workshops.
On Thursday morning, Precious Mudzingwa of Theory X will run a workshop on acting. In the afternoon of the day, filmmaker and theatre director Patience Tawengwa will run a workshop on film-making while on Saturday morning the writer (Stephen Chifunyise) will run a workshop on script writing. Cleopatra Ndlovu is scheduled to run a workshop on arts management on Friday morning. The last workshop is scheduled for Saturday and will be run by the Miss Zimbabwe Trust entitled “What it Takes to Make It”.
A special artistes forum has been scheduled for Friday. The main topic of the discussion, which is open to all practising artistes, is “Towards professionalising the arts”.
The view that careers in the arts are not professions worth considered is widespread in our society where preoccupation in the arts is still regarded as activities of “marombe”.
This means that that there are no meaningful economic benefits and values despite the fact that all over the world creative industries are offering the largest opportunities for employment creation and income generation by the young people.
The range of artistic fields to be featured will depend on what the youth in Masvingo are prepared to show. This is an opportunity to exhibit artistic talents dominant in the province and to attract national attention.
Festivals are critical tools for community cultural participation and expression, cultural identity awareness raising, the marketing of cultural goods and services and for the promotion of the huge diversity of cultural expression.
The patronage of this festival by the city fathers and mothers of Masvingo through the mayor signify clearly their commitment to the well-being, aspirations and welfare of the youth in the city in particular, and Masvingo province in general.
One hopes therefore that this commitment will be expressed through financial and material contribution to the artistes from the corporate and business sector in Masvingo at the festival’s prize giving ceremony, which is scheduled for the evening.
Online Reporter