Bruce Ndlovu

Entertainment Reporter

A theatre production by renowned local playwright Styx Mhlanga and plays by the country’s tertiary institutions are set to be the highlights of this year's World Theatre Day celebrations to be held under Amakhosi Theatre's Inxusa brand. The four-day expo is scheduled to run from 25-28 March.

Mhlanga was supposed to debut his first production of the year alongside fellow playwright Raisedon

Baya but the latter has pulled out, citing an overloaded schedule as the reason for his failure to produce a play for this year's celebrations.

In an interview yesterday, Baya confirmed that he will not be premiering the remake of his play, the Water Story, as he was busy and could not find time to make a full production.

“I will not be able to make a play in time for the celebrations because I am tied up with other commitments at the moment. At the moment I do have enough time for rehearsals and other important issues that go into making a production,” he said.

This year’s expo will be focused on strengthening ties between theatre scholars and theatre industry practitioners, with the focus over the four days mainly on the country’s published plays.

In an interview Amakhosi director Cont Mhlanga said the participating tertiary institutions will be expected to present one play and an academic paper on theatre. Midlands State University (MSU), Great Zimbabwe University (GZU), National University of Science and Technology (Nust) and University of Zimbabwe (UZ) are the institutions that have confirmed their participation for the expo.

“Each university will present a play plus an academic paper. We hope that through such initiatives we can prepare individuals for life on stage while also making sure that they become ambassadors for theatre in future,” he said.

Mhlanga said they had decided to focus on published plays because students in the country did not have enough homegrown published plays which they could study. He said they were also looking at inviting authors of featured plays to speak on their work after watching it performed on stage.

“Students in the country mostly study plays from South Africa, West Africa or from East of Africa. We want students to look at homegrown texts because our curriculum is dominated by plays from outside the country. We will also be inviting authors to offer their own take on their work after seeing it performed live on stage,” he said.

Mhlanga said he hoped to take the Inxusa brand beyond the country’s borders as they were looking at involving other countries in the region and beyond.

“This is an annual event that presents a challenge to students out there but also to seasoned professionals who we ask to debut a new play every year. This year we invited Raisedon and Styx. We are looking at slowly introducing more players from the region because it is an initiative that we would like to see spreading beyond the country’s borders,” he said.