RENOWNED arts education ensemble CHIPAWO is set to launch a full-time professional youth theatre company, with the debut play scheduled to premier this Wednesday at Theatre in the Park.
The organisation will also unveil its involvement in the international CUSP project (Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace). CUSP is an international programme hosted by the University of Glasgow in Scotland. It aims to explore ways of resolving conflicts and initiating reconciliation and transformation through the arts.
Based in Harare, New Horizon Youth Theatre’s debut play, Rudo neRunyararo, is adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by Peter Churu and Robert Mshengu Kavanagh. The play will run from March 22 to April 1, 2023.
CHIPAWO Director Chipo Basopo Chindungwe told EnterSportNews that only a few take up theatre as a full-time profession.
“Just like any other job, this is to give the young people a foundation to start and see that they can survive through theatre and make a living if they take it seriously hence the need to start a full-time professional theatre,” she said.
New Horizon Youth Theatre Company has existed since 2003, with performances in several venues in Harare, including the Reps Theatre, and in cities and towns all over Zimbabwe.
Set in a small town in Zimbabwe and acted in Shona, Rudo neRunyararo features the feuds and animosities between the mayor and a local bus company owner. It spreads to their families as well as their domestic conflicts. This leads to the inevitable tragedy. The tragedy opens their eyes and those of the community to the futility of their hostility and the need for reconciliation.
Chindungwe hinted that the preparations were progressing well, and the actors were ready to perform.
“New Horizon, Youth Theatre Company, creates and performs shows, trains as well in directing, technical and grooming of young theatre makers,” she added.
“Its objective is to nurture and create the art of professionalism in theatre.
“We aim to groom young theatre practitioners who will take over directing, writing and acting leadership.”
New Horizon Youth Theatre Company’s major plays include Vicious (2003), S.J. Chifunyise’s masterpiece about middle-class poverty; Soul Sister Comes to Africa (2004), also by Chifunyise; The Little Man of Murewa (2005), adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s story and the ‘Little Claus and Big Claus’, that premiered at the Harare International Festival of the Arts and in Denmark.
“New Horizon fall under the wings of CHIPAWO for it is a CHIPAWO child with young people who have been in CHIPAWO taking part,”
Chindungwe added.
“It has also extended its doors to aspiring young theatre makers who have never been in CHIPAWO.
“Since 2003, New Horizon Youth Theatre Company has not been functioning well due to lack of funding hence its revival.”
“Another challenge has been spaces to perform, which is still a challenge, but we still just have to find a way.”
“We expect this company to be among the leading professional theatre companies nurturing young people, touring around Zimbabwe and the world.”
The other plays are A Journey to Yourself, adapted from Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, play Peer Gynt, which premiered at the Harare International Festival of the Arts; a dramatisation of Charles Mungoshi’s classic novel, Waiting for the Rain; Rabindranath Tagore’s The Post Office [2010]; The Most Wonderful Thing of All, based on Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House [2010], premiered at the in Lusaka, and later performed at the International Ibsen Conference in Norway; with a theatre group, Zambuko/Izibuko, The Gaza Monologues [2011] with Ashtar Theatre in Palestine; Calderon della Barca’s The Dream of Life, translated in Shona as Mutambo Wepanyika; and more recently Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q [2019], which ran for a week at the Jason Mbepu Theatre in Harare.
