adminHardie came to Zimbabwe last week for the Harare International Festival of the Arts with Susanne Lebeu’s play “The Ogreling” which she adapted to a Southern African context and directed with the assistance of Ntomboxolo Muketsi.
The play is produced by FreeVoice Productions of South Africa.
From today until Saturday May 11, “The Ogreling” will be performed at REPS Theatre Upstairs as “part of a cultural exchange supported through the Pro Helvetia Southern African Programme for Arts and Culture which aims to encourage more artistes in the region to make high quality and relevant work and to reach more audience through larger distribution of the work within the region.”
“The Ogreling” has been described as a “wonderfully intelligent production for young people to the magic of theatre and a reminder for adults that fairytales don’t have to just be for children” .
The play is, however, not recommended for children under 7 seven years of age.
Featured in this production is Thembani Lusipho and Zanele Radu with shadow puppetry performed by Beren Belknap – an awarding puppeteer.
Since Tuesday Ms Hardie has been holding workshops on theatre for children and young people.
The first workshop which was held at Cyril Jennings Community Hall in Highfield dealt with theatre techniques and included Professional Lessac-based body and voice techniques as well as techniques ideal for adults creating plays for young audiences.
In the afternoon of the same day, the same workshop was held at the University of Zimbabwe for theatre students and their lecturers.
Yesterday, Kwayedza High School hosted a workshop on how to create shadow puppets and how to create shadow puppetry theatre.
In the evening Ms Hardie addressed a meeting at the Town House which was attended by “current and prospective members of ZATCYP.”
At this meeting she discussed about Assitej and its programmes.
Today, the theatre workshop to be held at the Reps Theatre Upstairs from 0900 hours to 1400 hours will comprise mainly of a presentation by Theatre Project South Africa on theatre company management and the organisation of theatre tours and festivals.
Invitations to this session have been extended to all theatre practitioners, especially leaders or heads of theatre companies and theatre associations.
It is hoped that theatre professionals in Harare will find time to attend this workshop which, like the other theatre workshops held since Tuesday will accessed free of charge.
Outcomes of these theatre workshops and meetings with Ms Hardie will see an increase in the productions of theatre for children and young people in Zimbabwe; the strengthening of ZATCYP; the acquisition by theatre practitioner’s skills in producing shadow puppets and the production of shadow puppetry theatre.
In the early 90’s community theatre groups and school-based theatre clubs pre-occupied with theatre for children and young people were most popular producers of theatre for young people and youth.
Unlike in Europe where most of theatre groups dealing with theatre for children and young people are mainly adult theatre groups, in Zimbabwe there is a dominant tendency for theatre groups of young people to produce plays for children and young people.
In Southern Africa national centres of Assitej are in Angola, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It is hoped that during her tenure as president of Assitej will greatly influence the establishment of national centres of this global association in the remaining Southern African countries.
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