FILM and theatre director Patience Gamu Tawengwa says her recent visit to the United States inspired her to work towards professionalising the dramatic arts sector in Zimbabwe.
Entertainment Reporter
The multi-award winning director spent 38 days in the US on an arts and culture exchange programme from late August through September. “For most of us when we came into the game (theatre) it was very much like a guerilla-style trial and error,” said Tawengwa reflecting on the current state of the theatre industry in Zimbabwe.
“You just start with an idea, you call a couple of friends, you do something, but if things go wrong, there is no structure, there is no accountability, there is no fallback plan.”
During her visit, Tawengwa shadowed multi-award winning theatre director Emily Mann during the production of the play Proof at the McCarter Theatre. Mann is the resident playwright for the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, where she has overseen over 85 productions.
“I think being professional means you are doing things according to a certain structure,” said Tawengwa, who in 2011 received the Zimbabwe Theatre Association Award for directing the play, Loupe.
Her US tour was punctuated with several meetings with people from different organisations to discuss “the business of theatre, how a non-profit (organisation) is run, fundraising, audience development and community engagement”.
Despite her vast experience and recognition in the film and theatre sectors, Tawengwa acknowledges Americans invest more in developing their stories than their Zimbabwean counterparts.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“Their stories are human like ours, but are better told. That is what we are trying to achieve in Zimbabwe.”
Through Almasi Collaborative Arts Centre, which she co-founded with American-born Zimbabwean actress and playwright Danai Gurira, Tawengwa has been working towards promoting the development of the dramatic arts sector in Zimbabwe.
Since its formation in 2011, Almasi has worked with several American playwrights and theatre directors including Julie Wharton and Nikkole Salter, who is currently in the country to facilitate an intensive playwright seminar for six Zimbabwean playwrights.
Tawengwa explains: “We want to see how we (can) marry the best practices of American theatre with our own Zimbabwean ways to try to contribute to the goal of professionalising the Zimbabwean arts industry, which is what every arts practitioner in Zimbabwe is aiming to see the industry providing.
“Americans have a long history of doing theatre, I took a trip to Broadway and I was blown away by the scale of what I saw — the richness and complexity of their stories, whereas our stories are very linear.”
