Twists and turns of 2013 theatre

Theatre Corridors Stephen Chifunyise
The whole idea of beginning the review of the theatre industry in Zimbabwe in 2013 by highlighting what were regarded as bright spots in the theatre sector that year is to try and point at activities, productions, and related theatre events that were either significant signs of growth in the theatre industry or were actions that impacted significantly on the viability of the industry.

It is vital for players in the theatre industry to appreciate that theatre as a creative industry new creative innovations that are born in it should be recognised and adopted for the purpose of attaining sustainable growth and viability.

It is unfortunate therefore that the bright spots of 2013 theatre season already identified in the last two parts of this review, such as the holding of the first National Theatre Indaba and the adoption at that event of many critical resolutions and actions necessary for growing a viable theatre industry; the creation of the Chamber of Creative Industry at the 2013 National Arts and Culture Indaba; the establishment of the Zimbabwe Festival Network and the formation of the Association of Community Theatre Actors of Harare did not receive the attention of the creative civil society that would have identified the important elements of these innovations.

In many respects, the lack of reactions is due to the absence of a culture concerted dialogue and debate among theatre practitioners and their organisations on critical issues affective the theatre practice in Zimbabwe, its viability and its significance in the creative economy of Zimbabwe.

A thespian in Harare reacted to this theatre review by saying that it would be more useful for the theatre industry practitioners to discuss the challenges faced by the sector and their poor performance of theatre sector rather than being pre-occupied in highlighting what I considered bright spots of the 2013 theatre season .

While I appreciated this view, I felt that it was necessary to state that it would be ideal for theatre industry practitioners to convene round table in the early parts of 2014 to review 2013 and to agree on what actions should taken to tackle the problems identified so that the review of 2014 theatre season will not again list the challenges and the unattended resolutions of indabas of that year.

In this third part of the 2013 theatre season review, some bright spots will continued to be highlighted while attempting, at identifying challenges faced by the theatre sector will be tied into that observation so that in 2014 efforts to resolve the identified challenges are promoted as vital steps in achieving significant development in the theatre industry.

I appreciate very much the view that choice of what I present as bright spot in the 2013 theatre season has relied mainly on theatre events, theatre productions and activities of theatre institutions and thespians that have been reported in the national press.

The dilemma with this approach is that the Harare -based media, especially the print media, have developed coverage of the entertainment industry that is encompassing of a wider spectrum of the performing arts while the media in other parts of the country has not provided for the coverage of theatre activities and has not recognised industrial dimensions of the arts and culture sector.

The opening of the Old Mutual Theatre at the Alliance Francaise Centre in Harare was a significant bright spot in 2013 especially given the fact the biggest challenge to the theatre scene in Harare was the closure of the space that had for that 17 years been Rooftop Theatre Promotion’s Theatre in the Park – a theatre space that was a home of many world premiers of Zimbabwean plays and had been taken as the prime theatre venue of Harare.

The inability of the management of Rooftop Promotions and the Executive Board of the Zimbabwe Book Fair Association – the owners of the gazebo used as Theatre in the Park, shocked many players in the theatre industry inside and outside Zimbabwe.

For a theatre space that had handled as many as twenty theatre productions each year to become inaccessible to the theatre sector was tragic and an industrial crisis of major proportions.

“This theatre space is just a grass thatched hut in an open garden for goodness,” cried one regular patron of theatre productions in Theatre in the Park who could not understand why a lasting solution could not be found to ensure the continued availability of the space which Rooftop Promotions has effectively popularised and facilitated for many years as a convenient ‘little theatre’ in the capital city.

What was most unfortunate with this crisis is that the concerned organisations, one belonging to book sector and the other to the theatre sector were both members of the creative industry that had worked together for many years to promote creative writing and dramatisation and consumption of that creative writing.

The absence of Theatre in the Park in the 2013 theatre season helped to illustrate the fact that the growth of the theatre industry in Harare was made possible by the availability of easily accessed space for theatre presentation and consumption.

This crisis showed that the good capacity of theatre groups to come up with new theatre productions each year could not grow a viable theatre industry when there is low capacity to consume theatre products mainly due to the absence of venues easily accessible to the theatre creators and theatre consumers.

This crisis also showed the critical absence of authority responsible for and concerned with challenges being faced by the arts and culture sector and who has the will, concern and capacity to seek for solutions to challenges hindering the growth of the sector.

It was amazing how neither the ministry responsible for culture nor the Harare City Council showed concern about the debacle and its impact on the growth of the creative industry in the capital city.

Equally noticeable was the absence of the voice of theatre practitioners whose access to the theatre space for theatre production, and presentation, play reading, theatre training and meetings was denied.

The critical and negative impact of the absence this theatre space was that Rooftop Promotions which had previously produced at the Theatre in Park as many as ten plays each year, both its own productions and touring plays by other theatre companies, was only able to come up with one theatre production in 2013 which it presented at the Alliance Francaise’s Old Mutual Theatre.