Staff Writer
Writing a theatre play is often a challenging and solitary process.
Yet it can also be an extremely nourishing and rewarding experience, especially if you then get to see it read or performed in front of an audience. However, unlike actors and directors, there are not many training or capacity-building opportunities in Zimbabwe and Africa for playwrights.
To address the aforementioned, “EMERGING VOICES” is a mentorship program created and implemented by the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy with the support of The International Chair in Creative Writing (Africa) at the University of East Anglia, running from June to September in Zimbabwe.
The project is intended to implement at grassroots level a creative writing skills mentoring program. The program has been designed in such a way that 12 emerging writers from all over Zimbabwe are provided a space, virtually and physically, to explore writing for theatre through interaction, practice and discussions.
The Zimbabwe Theatre Academy have carefully selected high-profile prominent writers to facilitate the program and mentor new voices in Zimbabwean dramatic writing. The facilitators include Award Winning Novelist, Filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga, Prof Jean McNeil, Playwright Gideon Jeph Wabvuta, Dramatic Arts Practitioner Zaza Muchemwa, Playwright Ben Musgrave and Dr Sola Adeyemi.
The process has given an opportunity to writers to study major components of playwriting, including introduction to playwriting, action, dialogue, character, and setting, and deepen their understanding of these components by completing and work-shopping writing assignments and receiving feedback from the local and international mentors.
The playwrights are creating new original plays developed from their own ideas, hoping that when they are finished, the Academy can stage some of them and some can find local and international theatre companies or organizations that are interested in putting them on.
The project has demonstrated the importance of supporting and nurturing local young talent and providing them with opportunities to commune with others, develop their skills and nurture their own unique voices.
Over the past two months, various online sessions have been presented and there will be a physical gathering from the end of August to the middle of September which will conclude with public readings of new works by the Mentees on 13 September 2022 in Harare at Reps Theatre.
About Author
