NEWZEALAND — based Zimbabwean playwright, Stanley Makuwe was recently shortlisted for the 2014 Adam New Zealand (NZ) Play Award for his new play, Footprints on Ika’s Heart.
By Tinashe Sibanda Entertainment Reporter
Supported by the Adam Foundation and the Play Press, the Adam NZ play award is presented annually by New Zealand’s Playmarket. The award, formerly the Playmarket New Play Award and now in its 6th year, is the only one of its kind for new writing and encourages writers to banish all self-censorship, all worries about what theatre wants, what is affordable and what they think audiences want to see.
Makuwe stands a chance among other playwrights, to be the winner set to be announced later this month, who will walk away with $5 000.
“I am really thrilled by the nomination and feel very much motivated to work harder. I never expected this achievement because of the level of writing for theatre here which is very high, he said.
Makuwe said most, if not all other playwrights on the shortlist were professionals who lived and breathed theatre, and for him to be able to juggle between his everyday job and writing, and go on to stand with the best was something he never dreamt of.
He added that when he was shortlisted for the BBC International Playwriting competition in 2011 he thought, this was it, because such dreams come true once in a lifetime, thus getting such a high recognition twice in two years was unbelievable.
The play is titled Footprints on Ika’s heart. In brief it’s about two young lovers escaping war from Africa to the Western world with the hope of living and loving freely, only to find themselves facing another war (challenges) of survival in foreign lands.
- 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
“My biggest challenge was trying to mix together African and Western styles of story-telling. I remember when I wrote the first draft, I was so inspired to give a purely African voice to the story, but one critic told me there was no way the audience and readers were going to accept that,” Makuwe said.
He added that he had gone back and revisited his story-telling and realised that the way forward was to fuse both African and Western story-telling techniques.
Makuwe said he was grateful to that critic because it had given him a unique voice which to him was like combining mbira and guitar whose sound was beautiful to the ear.
“Being the only African playwright in New Zealand was also a challenge on its own as there was no-one to share notes with, no-one to discuss difficult scenes with. I had to go to my New Zealand friends who at times failed to understand my stories,” he said.
However, Makuwe said once you achieve something you want to go a step further, so his dream was now to win the top prize for Zimbabwe and the small, but very supportive group of Africans living in New Zealand.
