The bright spots of theatre

Stephen Chifunyise Theatre
CorridorsA very bright spot in the 2013 theatre season was the establishment in March of the Association of Community Theatre Artists(ACTAH) under the leadership initiative of Tafadzwa Muzondo, the Director of Edzai Isu Theatre Intiative.ACTAH was established by 25 community theatre groups in Harare with the main objective of “professionalising community theatre”.

The association began by examining how its members can secure membership to medical aid, insurance and social security schemes.

At its meeting in May the association resolved to “revive the use of community halls in Harare for theatre purposes” and to “explore ways of ensuring that the theatre sector becomes viable.”

Muzondo and his Edzai Isu Theatre Initiative were also a bright spot in the 2013 theatre season when they received a healthy sponsorship of Population Services International to take 300 performances of theatre intervention on HIV and Aids awareness at work places with their play “Hanya Nani”.

What was a unique innovation in this theatre project was the engagement of nine of the nation’s award winning actors to perform the play.

In Bulwayo the 100 performances featured Mandhla Moyo, Zenzo Nyathi, and James Mukwindidza, while the 100 performances in Harare featured Eddington Hatitongwe, Livus Chitsungo and Derek Nziyakwi.

The 50 performances in Gweru and Mutare featured Silvanos Mudzvova, Everson Ndlovu and Steward Sakarombe.

2013 also witnessed the establishment by the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe of a mobility facility that funded the touring of theatre productions within Zimbabwe. The facility which responded to requests by theatre groups, associations, institutions and individual thespians became a very good source of viable theatre distribution.

It offered theatre groups opportunities to keep their theatre productions alive by presenting them to different communities in different parts of the country for much longer periods.

Another bright spot in the 2013 theatre season was the successful launch by Bulawayo’s Amakhosi Theatre Productions of “A Play on Sunday Programme” at the Amakhosi Cultural Centre.

The programmes offered opportunities for presentation of theatre productions by theatre groups from different parts of country.

Not only did this project produce a regular theatre space, it also offered theatre groups with productions to secure funds from the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe’s mobility facility that had the capacity to respond to requests for travel with theatre productions to other parts of the country.

In terms of theatre education, the Amakhosi Theatre Production course on directing plays that was organised at Amakhosi Cultural Centre in collaboration with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and attended by 50 primary and secondary school teachers from Matabeleland South Province, and was a bright spot in the 2013 theatre season.

It gave much exposure and knowledge to the teachers and was a very good and positive development in the growth of theatre in the country.

The course which was open to teachers from both public and private schools was facilitated by Cont Mhlanga – the award winning playwright, veteran theatre director, theatre educator and director of the Amakhosi Theatre Productions and Cultural centre.

The support of the UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity(IFCD) to the Zimbabwe creative civil society’s programme of promoting effective festival management through hosting a platform for festival managers to exchange ideas on how to manage festivals for viable cultural industry was equally a bright spot in the 2013 theatre season. The programme which was facilitated by Nhimbe Trust in its capacity as the secretariat of on the National Plan of Action on Arts and Culture (NPAAC) brought together in Harare in June managers of festivals which have theatre programmes.

Festival managers proceeded to establish the Zimbabwe Festival Network , as a national platform for exchange of information about arts and culture festivals as well as sharing ideas about products earmarked for festivals at home and abroad and to collectively deal with challenges being faced by festival organisers in Zimbabwe.

Another bright spot in the 2013 theatre season brought about by the support of UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity, was the capacity building of 25 national arts organisations in Harare in October.

The capacity building workshop was facilitated by Nhimbe Trust .

Among the national associations that took part in this workshop were the Zimbabwe Theatre Association,International Theatre Institute (Zimbabwe Centre), the Zimbabwe Association of Theatre for Children and Young People Association Community Theatre Actors in Harare and Women in Theatre.

It is expected that with the knowledge gained at the capacity building workshop, theatre associations will improve in such areas as corporate governance, fund raising, promotion of their programmes and their organisations and in effective lobbying for the creation of an environment that promotes a viable theatre industry.

Probably the brightest spot in theatre industry development in 2013 was grabbed by the stand up comedy driven by Simuka Comedy featuring Michael Kudakwashe, Doc Vikela, Simba the Coming King, Carl Joshua Ncube, Toropito, Clive Chigubhu, Q the Boss, Comrade Fatso, Seb Diesel, Nthando van Moyos, Edgar Langeveldt-the grandfather of Zimbabwe comedy and Black Pearl.

Simuka Comedy successfully occupied space at Book Cafe, The Zimbabwe Germany Society Performance Venue and the Old Mutual Theatre at the Alliance Francais Centre to build a regular stand up comedy programme that clearly demonstrated great potential to become a very viable creative industry.

And to cap the amazingly successful year of stand-up comedy was the highly successful and very illustrative Carl Joshua Ncube-led First International Comedy Festival in Zimbabwe.

The show was hosted in November by Rainbow Towers and RTG Hotels and graced by two South African giants of stand up comedy – Denovan Goliath and Jason Goliath.

Michael Kudakwashe and Q the Boss effectively joined Carl Joshua Ncube in providing a rich variety of Zimbabwean comic laughs that illustrated vividly that Zimbabwe’s stand-up comedy industry has grown tremendously.

The industry now has acquired fee-paying and appreciative audiences and is blessed with a rich field of comic talent that is growing in numbers and that has found rich local content for a viable comedy industry.

The Harare International Conference Centre performance that attracted a huge audience of more 1 000 people proved beyond doubt that Harare is a viable stop over of the African Comedy Circuit.

It is my hope that the National Arts Merit Awards scheduled for February 2014 will be an appropriate opportunity to recognise the tremendous growth in this industry.

Lets hope 2014 will see the growth of theatre in the country especially in the outlying areas, where there is an abundant of raw talent.
2014 looks very promising.