The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
SLIGHTLY over a year since reopening its doors, and having played host to 39 plays, 10 musical concerts, five film launches and four visual arts exhibitions, Theatre in the Park’s role as a critical space for the consumption of creative arts continues to rise.
The venue also offers two dedicated rehearsal days per week for dancers and four dedicated days for theatre practitioners. And now the venue owners have entered into partnership with one of the continent’s most esteemed festivals, the Harare International Festival of the Arts.
The latest development will see the 450-seater auditorium becoming the new theatre centre for Hifa, which is slated to run from May 2 to May 7, 2017 in the capital.
Rooftop Promotions producer Daves Guzha said all activities hosted at the venue to date showed there was need for the city to invest in cultural spaces. Rooftop Promotions runs Theatre in the Park.
“We are really excited to be partnering Hifa 2017,” said an elated Guzha, “When HIFA approached us we were really overjoyed as this is line with our vision to host quite a number of arts disciplines.
“So come May, we will be hosting some of the theatre shows during the festival as well as some of the musical concerts.”
He added that this development proves that Theatre in the Park has amazing potential to be the go to place.
“Efforts are currently underway to get a coffee and wine bar licence,” he added.
Guzha also spoke on the cancellation of the much anticipated Zambian theatre show “Kozo”, which was set to run from March 28-31, 2017 at his theatre.
“While we were naturally deflated by the postponement of the show due to reasons beyond our control, we are happy that negotiations are already underway to ensure that this show comes back at a date to be announced soon. I would like to unreservedly thank the Zambian team for agreeing to this cultural exchange.”
Meanwhile, Guzha and his team from Rooftop Productions continue to share knowledge with those honing their theatrical skills by engaging Philosophy students from Harare’s Arrupe College.
“As is one of our objectives, to help nurture new talent in theatre, we have been working hand in glove with students from Arrupe College. We took the philosophy students from the college through the basics of theatre and taught them how to act and write their own plays.
“The training was well grasped by the students and they staged their first play at the college on Friday last week,” said Guzha.
