adminStephen Chifunyise Theatre Corridors
In this fourth part of the series on 2013 theatre review, I shall attempt to cover some of the responses to the review of the theatre industry received from theatre practitioners and other cultural operators. There have been very incisively and very thoughtful responses and reactions which unfortunately cannot be adequately covered in this final part of the review of 2013 theatre season.
It is possible that some of the comments and recommendations concerning critical theatre development issues will be featured in the coverage of the activities of the 2014 theatre season.
In the third part of the 2013 Theatre Season Review (Twists and Turns ) I wrote: “It is unfortunate that bright spots on 2013 Theatre Season already identified such as the holding of the First National Theatre Indaba . . the creation of the Chamber of Creative Industries . . did not receive the attention of the creative civil society that would have identified the important elements of these innovations.”
In his response to this observation Cont Mhlanga stated:” It is serious oversight to point at the Arts and Culture Indaba resolutions to form a sector chamber as one such resolution that failed during the 2013 and has not yielded any results.
“This resolution was only passed in November and what does one expect could have been achieved in less than two months to year end. I suggest that this resolution should be evaluated in 2014 and not in 2013.”
Cont Mhlanga proceeded in his response to give a report on what has been done towards the establishment of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Creative Industries (ZCCI).”
After the Indaba, we remained behind to map out a starting point to have the chamber formed and launched and we tasked the chairman to come up with a guiding and founding document of the chamber. The document had to answer 11 headings as we would need answers to these if we were to engage the relevant stakeholders in the sector for any meaningful input.”
He listed the following as the headings of the founding document of the chamber:
1. preamble; 2.the main tasks of the committee; 3.Government policy on cultural industries; 4. mission, vision and values of the chamber;
5. the chamber’s main objectives); 6.membership; 7. qualifications for membership; 8.chamber’s structures; 9.categories of members and fees; and 10.chamber’s code of ethics.
Cont Mhlanga further stated that by December 17, 2013 the chairman of founding committee of the chamber had submitted to committee members his input. “Now that clear founding document is in place these are the following steps that the committee is following:
The chairman has called a meeting in February 2014 to, among other things, endorse the founding document at a formal meeting.
Posting of the founding document to every stakeholder person, institution, company and promoters registered with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe for input on all the headings
After sector consultations, the final founding document to a legal person to be guided by it to formulate a constitution or memorandum of the chamber.
The registration of the chamber.
The timeline for this process is the end of April 2014.”
He concluded his response by stating that before the above mentioned process has been finalised, there would be no need for anyone to talk about the chamber because “ there is no chamber in the first place as the owners of resolution have not bound themselves to any constitution.”
A Bindura-based theatre practitioner responded to the 2013 theatre season review by indicating that it would be good if theatre critics, theatre reviewers and chroniclers would use annual reports of theatre associations and theatre networks in their analysis of the theatre industry as that would provide a comprehensive view of the state of theatre industry in the particular.
The challenge with this approach is that not only is it difficult for the Press to access reports of theatre associations but also that such reports would be acquired much later in the year. And yet the purpose of reviewing the theatre season at the end of the year is to ensure that lessons learnt and appreciated during the year can be taken note of in the theatre programmes of the following year.
Another response to the 2013 theatre season review from a Shurugwi-based thespian was that the review was biased to what happened in Harare and Bulawayo and that it is unfair to expect Press reviews of theatre activity taking place in districts outside Harare and Bulawayo when the Press does not take note of theatre programmes in these places.
Equally concerned was a theatre educationist who stated that the Press has tended to ignore theatre activities taking place at universities and colleges and that if theatre activities in these institutions were taken note of, a fuller picture of the scope of theatre activity in the country would have been captured. Press coverage of theatre activities at different institutions of learning would be attained if the concerned institutions were able to issue Press releases about their theatre programmes and schedules of theatre performances at their institutions.
As this is the concluding parting of the series of 2013 theatre season review, it is necessary that I highlight some bright spots in the 2013 theatre season which some theatre practitioners who responded to the review strongly felt could not be ignored in this review.
Once again the Harare International Festival of the Arts offered a very high point of theatre excitement in 2013 with a theatre programme that featured 19 theatre productions. 10 plays on the five-day theatre programme were new local productions.
Some innovative local theatre productions that should be highlighted are: “Harvest of Thorns”, an adaptation for stage of Shimmer Chinodya’s award winning novel by the author and some of award winning actors with music by Hope Masike; Savannah Arts’ production “Half Empty-Half Full” directed by South Africa’s Mcendisi Shabangu and feature Teddy Mangawa and Tafadzwa Hanandah; the adaptation of Dambudzo Marachera’s “Pub Stories” directed by South Africa’s Monageng Motshaki; Blessing Hungwe’s “ Looking into the Abyss” produced collaboratively by Ndiripo Kana Muripo Theatre Initiative and British-based Developing Artists founded by Giles Ramsay who directed the play; “Washington Junction” collaboratively produced by Edzai Isu Theatre Initiative and Savannah Trust and directed by Patience Tawengwa.
Other exciting local productions that featured at HIFA 2013 Theatre programme were Mgcini Nyoni’s “The Really Stupid Things Men Say”; “The Immigrants”, Authur Millier’s “A view to a Bridge”, re-imagined by Thabani Moyo and Raisedon Baya; “Standing in Pairs” by Arts Lab and Tumbuka Dance Company and directed by Melissa Everleigh.
“Dickens — the Master Storyteller” directed by Mark West and Kevin Hanssen.
The decision taken by the International Theatre Institute (Zimbabwe Centre) to collaborate with the University of Zimbabwe Theatre Arts Department to commemorate the World Theatre Day on March 27 by honouring through the issues of certificates of recognition to thespians who were considered to have tremendous contributions to the development of theatre in Zimbabwe in the last five years also became a very bright spot in the 2013 theatre season.
An equally bright spot was Amakhosi Theatre Productions’ programme of commemorating World Theatre Day in Bulawayo with a colloquium on theatre development in Zimbabwe that was attended by theatre practitioners, theatre critics and university theatre academics from all the country.
The publication of “Me Tambo”, an on-line monthly theatre newsletter by the International Theatre Institute (Zimbabwe Centre) in June was another very bright spot in the 2013 theatre season.
Compiled and edited by Elizabeth Muchemwa and Lloyd Nyikadzino “Me Tambo” was launched as a newsletter about (mitambo) plays, theatre and everything theatre. Although it can be argued that a record of about 38 plays produced in Zimbabwe in 2013 is no mean achievement of the theatre industry the poor theatre consumption capacity of the nation was demonstrated by the fact that most of these plays were performed only in Bulawayo and Harare.
Of those performed in Harare 11 of these were produced and performed at REPS Theatre and were locally written plays; eight were performed at Old Mutual Theatre; three at the University of Zimbabwe ; one at Prince Edward High School’ Beit Hall and one at Celebration Church Centre. Of the 15 produced in Bulawayo, 12 were at Amakhosi Theatre and three at other venues such as during the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulwayo whose theatre programme had several plays that had featured at Hifa. In Maswingo, Austen Theatre had two theatre productions by Leroy Gono which were covered by the Press. It has not been easy to secure information about new theatre productions and where they were performed
The 2013 theatre season in Harare concluded in December with a performance of Danai Gurira’s “The Convert” at Prince Edward High School’s Beit Hall. The play which was produced by Almarsi Production founded in 2012 by Danai Gurira and Patience Tawengwa was directed by an visiting American thespian Adam Immerwahr with the assistance of Lloyd Nyikadzino and Elizabeth Muchemwa. It was good news to hear from the producers that the play will tour Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries in 2014.
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