adminBongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
Plays on Sunday organisers say they want to improve on their marketing of the event to avoid a situation whereby more artistes than ordinary people attend the plays as was the case last year.
The plays held at Amakhosi Cultural Centre every Sunday from 4PM, are usually free of charge depending on the production.
Plays on Sunday producer Jeffery Sibanda said a consultative workshop held at Amakhosi Centre last month revealed that people were not aware of the plays.
“People told us that they weren’t aware of the programme. They said our means of communicating through platforms such as social media networking sites and posters was not effective, hence our decision to go back to the drawing board,” Sibanda said.
He said they had decided to vigorously market the plays so as to attract people.
“Our vision is for people to come and watch and enjoy theatre on a Sunday as a family. This will make them appreciate theatre and the role it plays in entertaining them.
“We therefore want to use more aggressive marketing strategies where we’ll print fliers and go door to door in various neighbouring suburbs to promote the plays,” Sibanda said.
According to the producer, an average of 60 people watched the 41 plays shown at Amakhosi last year, with 70 percent of the audience being artistes.
However, this seems to be changing as last week’s play attracted a better crowd.
“The crowd that attended last week’s play was good and I was happy that more ordinary people came. This doesn’t mean that we’ve achieved our targets, but it means we’re heading in the right direction,” Sibanda said.
Turning to this week’s programme, Sibanda said a two-man play, Mystery, by South Africa-based actor Nhlanhla Malinga would be shown.
As a way of enticing people to attend the plays, organisers have added comedy which has proved to be a crowds’ favourite in the city. Comedy by Long John and Mandlenkosi Simbarashe will be shown during the play’s intervals.
Online Reporter