I started working with Almasi in 2014 and the experience has been quite enlightening and eye-opening for me as an artist. Almasi through its staged readings and training workshops helped me grow artistically.
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Ever since his first performance as Joseph in a nativity play when he was five years old, Patrick “Millz” Miller’s passion for the arts has steadily been growing. Over two decades after playing this role Millz has been establishing himself as a playwright and performing artist.
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Since the completion of his Masters in Physical Theatre program at Dell’ Arte School of Physical Theatre California, Tafadzwa has been immersing himself in the Zimbabwean dramatic arts scene.
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Kudzai Sevenzo is a Zimbabwean actress, voice-over artist, singer, and an Almasi fellow. Her career started in music, where she released two albums and later on worked as a tv anchor for Africa’s broadcaster, Mnet’s ‘Studio 53’, which featured the diverse cuisine, ar, and culture of several African countries.
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It is not always fun to stand in front of an audience of mostly strangers, acquaintances and a few new friends. It can be nerve-wrecking, well it was for me.
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It was fun to work on the staged reading of The Language Archive by Julia Cho. I selected the play because I was interested in many of the issues dealt with in the play. Over the years I have developed a mild interest in languages.
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My experience with Familiar rehearsals started with table readings the day after I arrived in Washington D.C. If you have never visited Zimbabwe before, never spoken the language of the characters you are portraying and never been integrated into Zimbabwean culture, you best immerse yourself in research because knowledge is power!
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Hwindi is a comedy TV series that satirizes the immense difficulties Zimbabweans face in their battle to stay alive. On the 20th of April, Harare audiences watched a staged reading of the pilot episode which is the first of a dozen planned episodes. I wanted to do a staged reading with Almasi for a couple of reasons: it offered us an opportunity to experiment with casting and staging, and it also lets us gauge audience response to the script.
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Two years ago I had the privilege of conducting a playwriting workshop with the students from Churchill Boys High School and this year I had the same privilege but this time with students from the University of Zimbabwe. The workshop was a three-day workshop and we discussed the elements that make up a story. What I enjoyed the most was the process of using things that surround us to come up with story ideas. The students came up with some creative concepts from things like stones, empty coke cans and chewed ballpoint pens.
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The way my year started should have been a sign of things to come. To mark the beginning of 2018 I went mountain climbing (it was my first time and I instantly got hooked); My hike early on the morning of January 1st, 2018 took me up the Jenya mountain range in Mutasa district. It had everything; fear, anxiety, the adrenaline rush, and ultimately pure exhilaration. When I got to the top of the mountain I wanted to stay there forever.
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In February of 2017, I was informed I had been selected as one of the ten fellows of the inaugural Georgetown Lab of Politics and Performance. This lab is comprised of ten fellows from all over the world: Cambodia, Palestine, Syria, Colombia, USA, UK, and Zimbabwe. The vision of the lab is to support us fellow in our work and help us find ways to collaborate amongst ourselves in the realm of politics and performance.
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I took part in the previous Almasi African Playwrights Conference as an actor, so I knew there would be sleepless nights of rewrites. Nonetheless, after having gone through the playwrights conference as a playwright, I can safely conclude that knowing something and experiencing something are worlds apart.
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In February of 2017, I was informed I had been selected as one of the ten fellows of the inaugural Georgetown Lab of Politics and Performance. This lab is comprised of ten fellows from all over the world: Cambodia, Palestine, Syria, Colombia, USA, UK, and Zimbabwe. The vision of the lab is to support us fellow in our work and help us find ways to collaborate amongst ourselves in the realm of politics and performance.
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Directing the staged reading of Widows was a satisfactory process for me. My understanding of the play grew the more time I spent in the rehearsal room, seeing the play in the actors’ eyes as they engaged with the theme and issues dealt with in the play.
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The story of Mbare dreams began two years ago when Robert Egan came to Zimbabwe to conduct the first ever Almasi African Playwrights Festival (AAPF). Little did I know that two years later I would be performing my original play in Albuquerque New Mexico at the Revolutions festival.
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It was a privilege to work on the staged reading of Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks. This feeling comes from the realization that the person on whom the play is based is a prominent figure whose life story shaped important discourses on slavery, sexism, cultural appropriation and racism.
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Plays are some of the most underrated forces of change in the world. When you have to read a number of plays a week, this realization kicks in as you are taken from one world to the next, being immersed in different cultures and different voices. I am constantly trying to tap into that which makes a play still speak to me even though it is seemingly distant from me in culture, language, and so many things.
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Ama would have loved this interpretation of her play”, remarked a happy member of the audience during the post-performance discussion, after revealing that she was Ghanaian and a personal friend of the Ghanaian playwright Ama Ata Aidoo.
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Since I started taking part in the Almasi staged reading series, I have realized the kinds of stories I am interested in working on. These are stories of struggle, whether physical or metaphorical, which really depict the human condition and prompt us to think beyond the surface of our everyday.
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Reading “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage for the first time, was like a slap on the face. A slap I probably needed. The play, with its powerful yet flawed characters, shook me out of my complacency and shocked me with its brutal portrayal of the effects of war on women and society as a whole.
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