CHARITY organisation, Gleam of Hope Trust has launched a talent show dubbed “Talent Identification and Development Programme Zimbabwe 2017 (TIDP)” to nature and develop untapped talents for the big stage.
BY PRECIOUS CHIDA
The trust held its inaugural auditions under the theme The Self-Definers at Theatre in the Park, Harare Gardens on Saturday with contestants battling for honours in eight categories which included visual art, speech and acting, singing, writing and dancing. Fifteen lucky contestants were selected for the next level of the competition to be held later this year.
In an interview with NewsDay after the show, Gleam of Hope Trust founder, Loretta Makumbe said the talent show is meant to nurture upcoming artistes and provide a platform for them to showcase their abilities.
“Unlike other talent shows, we categorised our events for easy adjudication because we wanted to avoid scenarios where a singer competes with a visual artist which makes it quite difficult for the judges to evaluate the performance,” she said.
“The programme was not restricted to arts and culture.
We had rare talents like technological innovations which are usually left out in many talent competitions.”
She said they will be incorporating technological innovations as part of the talent search programme to recognise a talent that is not usually encompassed in Zimbabwean shows.
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“We want to establish missing talents in Zimbabwe so that we can invite volunteers abroad with unique talents to come and offer training to our youths. This will be done in creating our local talent academy,” she said.
The auditions had different judges per category who included musician, Blessing “Bled” Chimanga, National Gallery of Zimbabwe deputy director Raphael Chikukwa and Festival Director of Visual Arts at the National Institute of Allied Arts Vanessa Hounsell.
Makumbe said they are planning to make the next competition an international concert, as they focus more on the development of the talents.
