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Drama competition to expose untapped talent

Life & Style
“As Geraldine Roche Drama, we use film and theatre to relay our messages to society. So, we created a competition four years ago which is themed according to what society is going through,” she said.

BY SHARON SIBINDI BULAWAYO-BASED Geraldine Roche Drama (GRD) production has embarked on a drama competition that focuses on issues affecting different communities as a way of giving a platform to rising artists to showcase their talent.

Different groups from Bulawayo will take part in the competition that will run until April 9 at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music.

Geraldine Roche Drama programmes manager, Khaliphile “Khally” Sibanda told NewsDay Life & Style that the competition will have different judges weekly in an effort to attain fairness.

“As Geraldine Roche Drama, we use film and theatre to relay our messages to society. So, we created a competition four years ago which is themed according to what society is going through,” she said.

“Our main purpose is to unite artists with different art disciplines because we allow all theatre types. We also consider GRD a platform for budding artists, everyone learns and practices in our competition.”

Khally said the response to the competition had been good as competitors could relate with some of the themes that are being covered.

“We have themes like water shedding/water and sanitisation, gender-based violence on men and boys as well as LGBTIQ+ and mental health, among others. These relate better with competitors,” she said.

“Apart from the judges we have, the audience vote and it works for many groups in the sense that if you have the highest votes, you have 10% being added to your total percentage.”

“On top of that, we will do documentaries on all the groups that participate in our competition and then each group will select their favourite story and we will develop it into a film. I am working with some crew members and different judges.”

She said artists were good at giving solutions as they entertain and educate society.

“Residents of Bulawayo become our target audience because what we are covering is what they are experiencing and we give possible solutions,” she said.

  • Follow Sharon on Twitter @SibindiSharon

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