Youths shine at festival

Swagga T recently in Masvingo
The Youth Cultural Arts Festival ended on a high note with Pamushana High School scooping the grand prize. The school’s drama club won a trip to Durban to perform during the cultural exchange programme. Pamushana also walked away with best actor and actress and supporting actor while Victoria High School had the supporting actress.

Masvingo Christian College and Victoria High School were voted as second and third best dramas respectively. Mucheke High School this year were disappointed as they came fourth.

The school, which has been winning for the past two years in a row since the festival began, was surprised when the organisers announced the winners.

The three-day festival, which ran under the theme “Its Time”, saw schools such as Mucheke High, Thornhill High, Victoria High, Hippo Valley, Pamushana High and Masvingo Christian College taking part in drama competitions based on societal settings.

They put up scintillating performances which could make top local actors such as Gringo, Kapfupi and Mai Huni green with envy as they did it so well at such a young age.

Not to be outdone were Masvingo teen groups like Xplosion, Chenjerai Mazambani and Proto-Types among others in the dancing category who wowed the crowd outside the Charles Austin Amphitheatre.

YOCAF artistic director Leeroy Gono said the festival was a success.
“All went according to plan. The festival is in its third year running and it’s growing each year. We are happy with the overwhelming response,” he said.

He said next year they are planning to invite more schools so as to promote the arts and culture.
“That is another purpose of the festival which is to nurture and promote talent at grassroots level,” he said.

The festival saw US theatre and dance graduate Julie Wharton facilitating a workshop on theatre directing. She said there’s huge talent in Zimbabwe and the actors lack training and training opportunities.

“The training could be delivered via more university programmes, a theatre conservatory or more private classes,” she said.
Wharton said organisations such as Almasi Collaborative Arts are on a mission to offer training opportunities.

She said arts are underfunded all over the world.