Nhimbe Trust partners Amakhosi in mentorship programme

This is in a bid to create room for more female voices in play writing, directing and producing in the sector.

On Sunday, 20 young women from around Bulawayo attended the first Women In Theatre meeting, held at Amakhosi Cultural Centre. This marked the beginning of the mentorship for the females in this programme which was founded by Nhimbe Trust and Africalia in 2011.

The director of Nhimbe Trust, Josh Nyapimbi, said this development comes as a result of a     partnership negotiated between Women in Theatre Programme and Amakhosi Arts Academy in the past weeks.

He said the partnership came as a response by his organisation to an SOS by the management of Amakhosi Cultural Centre seeking interventions from any one who can help address the challenge of missing women voices in the Zimbabwean theatre industry. This is reflected by among other issues the low participation of women at the ongoing Plays On Sunday at Amakhosi.

“The partnership seeks to establish WIT within the Amakhosi Arts Academy and capacitate those women who bring themselves forward to either write, direct or produce plays,” he said

The women would present their work on Plays On Sunday at Amakhosi and take them to other venues across the country, regionally and internationally if opportunities and resources permit.

Amakhosi Arts Academy has designed the capacity mentorship WIT programme to be theatre project based and flexible. Women are required to register with the WIT project that they are working on and attend forums for the mentorship.

The 20 women present at the first meeting appointed Nonhlalo Dube, the writer of the television screen play Yeyeni Bantu, Theatre Projects Coordinator. The meeting was attended by among others Thembelihle Moyo and Miccain Sikhosana, the only two women who have presented their productions on Plays On Sunday since its inception in November last year.

The next WIT would be held on Saturday at Amakhosi from 10am till 4pm.

“We encourage all those women out there interested in the theatre industry and have stories they want to tell to attend and participate,” Nyapimbi said.