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at HIFA 2011, such as “Burn Mukwerekwere Burn” by Blessing Hungwe, “Colour of Dreams” by Christopher Mlalazi, “The Comeback” by Sifiso Mabena, “Diary of A Madman” – an adaptation by Spear Theatre of a comic tale by Nikolai Gogol and “The Accidental Death of A Radical” – an adaptation by Theory X of Dario Fo’s “Accidental Death of an Anarchist”.
Other plays which have had their world premieres in the last five months include “365” by Stephen Chifunyise, “Nyaradzo: The Spirit of Nehanda” by UZ Drama, “Ten Years From Now” by Raisedon Baya and Stephen Chifunyise, “Simudza Mureza” by Savannah Trust and “Beauty and the Ugly” by Peter Churu.
It is a pity that in the history of theatre in Zimbabwe, most of these excellent and well-received plays are “killed” after a few performances and never to be seen again.
In most cases the performances will have been in Harare and occasionally taken to other parts of Zimbabwe. It has also become our culture that productions of new plays are not taken up for production by other by theatre groups.
As a result Zimbabwe has become a country that enjoys or has the luxury of producing excellent plays which are thrown into the dustbin of history after having been seen by few hundreds of audiences.
It is as if it is taboo to produce a play that has been already been seen by other audiences and reviewed by the mass media. Current estimates are that each year not less than 20 new plays are produced in Zimbabwe.
This may even include those specially commissioned productions dealing with specific development issues and campaigns. It is not exaggeration therefore to claim that Zimbabwe has one of the most productive theatre sectors in Africa.
But if performances of these plays do not last enough to generate income for those who produce them, our theatre industry becomes a non-viable one where theatre practitioners cannot survive on theatre production alone.
It should be appreciated that theatre companies and indeed playwrights commit enormous time and resources in producing these theatre pieces, which are seen by a very insignificant number of the intended audiences. Because of inadequate resources many theatre companies in Zimbabwe commit few days to the rehearsals of plays.
Such rehearsals are often undertaken under conditions that are severe and which can only be borne by individuals with extreme levels of self-sacrifice for the sake of attaining their artistic ambitions.
During the hey days of the Theatre for Development and Popular Theatre propagation, it was argued that if the people are not coming to the theatre, practitioners must find ways of taking theatre to the people.
This is why community based theatre was considered the most viable way of taking theatre to the people. In the heyday of community theatre in Zimbabwe in the late eighties community theatre groups consolidated the strategy of taking theatre to the people through criss-crossing the country with their theatre productions.
That is when a breed of full time theatre practitioners emerged and was confident that their efforts would lead to a vibrant and rewarding careers in theatre.
Those that have gone about taking theatre to the people recently have had to try several strategies. One such strategy has been to seek state subsidy of their theatre productions so that entrance fees to the performances of the subsidised theatre productions can be very affordable to the communities where theatre is taken.
This strategy is successful if part of the public budget for culture, at both central and local government, has the capacity to accommodate the concept of taking theatre to the people and promotion of rewarding careers in theatre.
Another strategy has been where theatre groups secure funds from corporations who have provision for supporting the access to culture by communities where they operate, as part of their corporate social responsibility.
The problem with this strategy is that theatre groups with plays do not often know which corporations have in their corporate social responsibility budgets, funds for such cultural activities.
Those practitioners who know of such corporations are often not aware of when these corporations can be approached. Often these corporations expect to be approached at particular times with project proposals they will consider.
This difficulty can be lessened if corporations make known, through the mass media, the availability of such support and conditions that govern its provision.
It is appreciated that most corporations are afraid that if they make such offers known to the general, they will be flooded with application and requests they cannot handle.
This is why such corporations prefer to provide such funds specific organisations which unfortunately do not accommodate the many theatre production houses and groups.
Another strategy of bringing or taking theatre to the people is the provision to theatre groups of performance spaces within the community, free of charge, as a form sponsorship that allows theatre groups to charge very nominal entrance fees.
In Harare, for instance, there are many halls in both low and high-density suburbs, which could be availed to theatre groups on specific days of the week on regular basis. The idea of corporate sponsoring of plays which have had their run in limited spaces in town to be taken to colleges and universities where the theatre groups charge very nominal entrance fees is also a very effective strategy of taking theatre to the people.
Those theatre groups that have ventured into taking unsponsored theatre productions to schools have found it not viable because of the huge percentages schools demand from the entrance fees. The schools argue that they take such opportunities as fund raising exercises. Equally challenging is the process of securing the clearance of theatre productions groups, intend to take to schools.
It is appreciated that there are some theatre pieces that might be unsuitable for school audience and hence the rather cautious approach taken by the school and ministry authorities.
It would quicken the process of clearing theatre productions intended for school performances if the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture use its education officers at provincial level responsible for arts and culture and the National Arts Council Provincial Officers be clear such plays.
This would encourage those with sponsored plays not to ignore schools in their strategies of taking theatre to the people.