African Voices Now Festival
The African Voices Now Festival is the staging of three brand-new Zimbabwean plays. These productions are the culmination of hands-on training for emerging Zimbabwean artists in all areas of theater; writing, directing, acting, sound design, and stage production. The festival showcases the work of artists trained by Almasi, bringing fresh Zimbabwean stories to the public stage.
This year’s festival will feature three new plays
Can We Talk? by Batsirai Chigama
These Humans Are Sick by Tatenda Mutyambizi
The Return by Rudo Mutangadura
These plays were developed through an intensive artistic journey with guidance from some of the world’s most renowned and respected theater professionals:
Oskar Eustis, the Artistic Director of The Public Theater in New York, who helped bring Hamilton and Fun Home to the stage, led the Almasi Africa Playwrights Conference in December 2024.
Lynn Nottage, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for Sweat and Ruined, then mentored the writers through a rewriting residency.
Peter Francis James, a celebrated Broadway actor and voice coach who has worked with top-tier actors and on shows like Law & Order, will lead the Acting Intensive for the actors who will be in the plays.
Emily Mann, Tony award-winning director and playwright best known for her Broadway productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Having Our Say, as well as her leadership as Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre Center, will lead the Directing Workshop to equip our how these stories are brought to life on stage.
The festival brings together everything these artists have learned, culminating in professional performances open to the public. It is more than a showcase; it is a launchpad for rising African talent.
Our partnership with The Public Theater, will ensure that at least one of these plays will be selected for continued development and potential performance in the United States, opening the door to even wider exposure of Zimbabwean narratives.
African Voices Now is a celebration of Zimbabwean creativity, discipline, and vision. It reflects Almasi’s commitment to transforming lives and building careers, starting at home and reaching across the world.
FEATURED ARTISTS & PLAY SYNOPSES
BATSIRAI CHIGAMA
is an award-winning spoken word poet, author, and literary activist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. A co-founder of the Ipikai Poetry Journal, she has been a driving force behind the journal’s mission to create space for contemporary Zimbabwean poetry in all its depth and diversity. Her writing, known for its lyrical force and social consciousness, has been published widely and translated into several languages.
Chigama’s debut poetry collection, Gather the Children, received the National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding First Creative Published Work in 2018. Her second poetry collection, For Women Trying To Breathe & Failing, won the Outstanding Poetry Book Award at the NAMA awards in 2022.
Deeply committed to mentorship and community building, Chigama has performed at literary festivals across Africa, Europe, and North America. She continues to shape Zimbabwe’s literary landscape, not only through her words but by championing the voices of emerging poets.
Can We Talk?
Brought together by the death of their elder sister Saru, who refuses to be buried, three sisters—Anokosha, Bope, and Yanano—take a journey back to their childhood to discover a grave secret. How will the revelation affect the sisters' relationship with each other as well as their parents
TATENDA MUTYAMBIZI
is a Zimbabwean playwright with experience writing for both stage and screen. His work explores the complexities of human existence with a keen observational insight. Tatenda has participated in prestigious platforms such as the Almasi African Playwrights Conference (2021, 2023, 2024) and is a featured writer in the upcoming African Voices Now Festival for New Plays. His short film was officially selected for the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. He has received training from the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy and continues developing his craft through the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program in partnership with the University of East Anglia.
These Humans Are Sick
Set in the vibrant yet filthy streets of a Harare ghetto, These Humans Are Sick follows the journey of a young hustler determined to escape the grip of poverty, no matter the cost. His cunning pursuit of a better life sets off a chain of events that pulls others from his community into a web of ambition, desperation, and unintended consequences. The play unpacks the human obsession with more money, more freedom, more status... Can survival be achieved without losing one's soul?
RUDO MUTANGADURA
is a Zimbabwean playwright living and working in Harare. She has been writing for the stage for the past 12 years. Rudo writes about the complex relationships between women as they interact with each other and navigate life. She loves old movies, vintage furniture, and the sound of crickets chirping at night.
The Return
The Return centers around two sisters, Jacqui and Maryanne, who live in different parts of the world—one in Harare, the other in Birmingham. After the death of their father, they reunite to decide what to do with their ailing mother. But as old tensions resurface, diaspora wars break out between the two women as they struggle to reconcile who they have become since they last met 10 years ago. Can they bridge the divide the diaspora has placed between them?