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Reading through the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe’s (NACZ) National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) list in this newspaper’s sister publication, the Zimbabwe Independent of 26 February, saddened me.
The first of the local arts awards celebrated totally ignored theatre. Perhaps the NACZ feels theatre is irrelevant. This confirms my belief that the once thriving community theatre movement has died.
What happened to the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre?
What has happened to Daves Guzha and Theatre in the Park? This used to be an excellent venue for locally written plays, specially playwrights. Why are the considerable achievements of Harare Repertory Players never considered for NAMA? Need I remind the NACZ and NAMA boards and Committees that Reps is celebrating the Golden 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Reps Theatre building this year? Do members of the NACZ and NAMA Boards or officers ever go to Reps to watch any of the excellent productions of all sorts and types of theatre? I think not. I know Reps used to set aside complimentary tickets for NACZ members, but these were never taken up. So that was stopped.
Congratulations to the NAMA winners in the music, dance, visual arts and literature categories. Please would NACZ and NAMA strive to make next year’s awards representative of all the Arts in Zimbabwe. Only then can they be called an Arts in Truth.
That takes care of my gripes this week. Fortunately, I have four occasions for joyfulness to celebrate. I will tell you of two in today’s column and keep you informed of the other two from next week.
The first piece of excellent news is the National Institute of Allied Arts (NIAA) is still surviving and the first of their four annual festivals, The Vocal and Instrumental Festival starts tomorrow, Monday 8 March running through to 27 March which is, incidentally, UNESCO’s World Theatre Day!
The festival will take place at the Music Centre at Prince Edward School and at The Performing Arts Theatre at the Harare International School which will also host the Final Concert and Prize Giving on 27 March.
Entries closed on 12 February and the letter I received with the syllabus booklet from festival director Kathy Norman informs me the NIAA has managed to keep going thanks to generous sponsorship from a large local company and several smaller ones and the festival has more entries than last year.
The daily sessions are open to the public on payment of a small entrance fee. The general public are encouraged to come and listen to entrants from Harare’s schools and there are categories for adults to compete in as well. Entrants benefit from adjudications by a local Musicologist whose name was still to be confirmed at time of going to press and Richard Barsby LRAM from England. A retired music teacher, choral director and organist, Barsby’s visit is sponsored by the British Council.
For more information on this and NIAA’s other festivals, contact them at their office which is open from 9am to 12.30 pm on Wednesday at Flat 5A, Northern Heights, Cnr J Tongogara Ave and Harare Street.
Telephone: 04 702989, Fax 04 250921 or via e-mails
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The second piece of joyful news is the winners’ list of the twenty-four awards of excellence which was held at Harare’s Reps Theatre last night.
A glittering, black tie celebration, the following recipients received their trophies and certificates covering most of the 2009 Reps productions, more than making up for the lack of theatre awards at NAMA.
Some of the winners are Mike Southall, Erin Cooper, Jason Linforth, Sue Bolt, Kevin Hanssen, Cameron McCosh, George Gukuta, Richard Sticklen, Mary Miles, Debbie Fleming, Sue McLaren, Eve Stranix, Teri Grimmel and Adrian Bonney.
BY SUSAN HAINS
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