The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
STAGED readings are not popular on the Zimbabwe theatre scene but through the drive of Almasi Collaborative Arts, this is changing.
Recently, Almasi held the second edition of the African Playwrights Conference at Zimbabwe German Society. The conference was facilitated by internationally produced playwright, as well as a teacher and performer, Alice Tuan, backed by Almasi Fellow Gideon Wabvuta.
The symposium gave room for selected practitioners who included playwrights Rudo Mutangadura, Farai Mabeza and Patrick Miller to be schooled in various areas such as play development.
“The Almasi African Playwrights Conference is designed to identify, nurture and develop Zimbabwean writing talent in order to compete on the global stage.
The focus being to reignite the Zimbabwean voice in the dramatic arts and bring about a new era of great Zimbabwean dramatic storytellers,” said Almasi Collaborative Arts associate assistant director, Zaza Muchemwa.
She added that they are very excited about hosting this second edition after the first one was held in 2015.
“Almasi is excited for having hosted this second edition of the African Playwrights Conference and look forward to seeing its impact on the Zimbabwean dramatic arts sector.”
The two-week training ended with the presentation of three staged readings by the aforementioned playwrights and it was clear that something had been imparted on them and their casts’ as they put up top drawer performances that left the audience in awe.
However, of all the plays that were staged, one that stood out was Farai Mabeza’s “Am I African”. Featuring a superb cast that included the likes of Michael Kudakwashe, Dereck Nziyakwi, Caroline Mashingaidze, Jean Fields and John Denison, the subject of whether a white person can be referred to as being African was explored in an emotional manner that left many with a lot of questions spinning in their minds.
The story tackles issues to do with land reform in Zimbabwe and highlights how some white farmers who were born and bred in the then Rhodesia lost land which they had purchased during the land redistribution era, all because they were not dubbed African. If the emotionally packed production is developed for the big stage, with the same cast and emotion, this can be one of the best productions to be released locally not only in 2018 but in the past three years.
Almasi executive artistic director, renowned Hollywood actress and playwright, Danai Gurira, who also came through for the conference from her USA base, said the training period was thrilling.
“I cannot express how thrilling it has been to sit on in this process, to watch these artistic minds get challenged and grow. Sharing my own experiences as a playwright and getting to know so many talented individuals on the artistic scene here in Zimbabwe, from the playwrights to the stage managers.
This has inspired me to do more through Almasi to provide opportunity and access,” said Gurira.
The inaugural Playwrights Conference was held in 2015 and featured Ojai Playwrights Conference and its artistic director, Robert Egan.
This collaboration of the Ojai Playwrights Conference and Almasi Collaborative Arts saw the development of three original plays by Gideon Jeph Wabvuta, Thandiwe Nyamasvisva and Zaza Muchemwa.
