Bulawayo theatre lovers recently had a three-some lengthy production treat in a two-day session to quench their thirst from Savanna Trust’s latest project; ACCEL ZW aimed at strengthening the production and performance skills of theatre makers from rural and urban high density communities.
The productions — Chiyandiso Chikalikali by Pezhuba Pachena Arts Assemble, True Lies, a concept by Jahunda Community Arts Production and Isiphelo Sohambo, The Last Mile of the Way by YADS was held last weekend at Bulawayo Theatre.
The plays are supported by The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe and The Delegation of the European Union to Zimbabwe.
Savanna Trust communications officer Sebastian Muzanenhamo told Standard Style that they aim to create a strong cohort of artists from across Zimbabwe who can produce, perform and monetize high quality professional theatre productions.
“With reference to the ACCEL ZW project our main aim, goal is to accelerate the creative capabilities of artists from marginalised communities and also equip them with necessary entrepreneurial and leadership skills that foster viability and sustainability of their groups and the theatre sector as a whole.
“As a critical component of the ACCEL ZW project, the trained artists should tour the country and perform at professional theatre venues. Bulawayo Theatre is one of the few remaining viable theatre venues in Zimbabwe, hence the motivation was to give our artists exposure of performing at a professional theatre venue,” he said.
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He added that the Trust realises the strong need to quench the appetite of theatre lovers with good and high quality theatre plays.
“The plays showcased over the weekend offered an audience a diverse range of issues and unique forms of artistic presentation. We want our audience to explore what Zimbabwe theatre has to offer. Over and above this, the staging of the three plays is also critical to the actors, as they get to explore how fellow artists are creating and presenting artistic work. As an organization we believe the timing is just perfect," he said.
“If you look at Zimbabwe theatre festival calendar, a lot of activity starts to happen around September which means our theatre audience are left with a long wait and a hunger for plays. This is a gap that we have noticed and ACCEL ZW is trying to cover."
The three productions brought out different societal issues that are driven through elements of physical movement, ritual theatre, poetry, song and dance.
Some major themes included Identity, betrayal, loyalty, vengeance to mention a few.
Muzanenhamo added that “After the Bulawayo performances, the plays are scheduled to continue their tour to Harare and are set to be showcased in March at the Jasen Mphepo Little Theatre.