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Presentation 1.
By Herbert Mushangwe Topic: A critical survey of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe.
DATE OF PRESENTATION : 02 April 2004DATE OF SUBMISSION : 30 April 2004 1.0) INTRODUCTION Stage design which means the creative process of manipulating space in terms of its visual, auditory and all its sensual aspects in order to transform the text (playwright's thought), as well as the director's and fellow artists' thought into an audible and visible expression for the audience, is a complex phenomenon at the University of Zimbabwe. I have called it a phenomenon because stage design is an immediate object of perception in the theatre. Stage design is important in any theatrical production because it provides the locale of the play (in terms of time and space), it provides the physical needs of the performance, it helps to express the inhabitants of a given scene, it also arouses emotional responses from the audience as well as reinforcing the theme of the performance. 1.1) DEFINITION OF THE TOPIC This paper is a critical survey of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe. This means that it is an attempt to examine, in a censorious manner, the conditions and facts that form the boundaries, size, position, shape and value of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe. Therefore this paper will introduce some of the difficulties, constrains, challenges, as well as successes and failures that stage designers at the University of Zimbabwe display. It is important to note that any critical analysis of something involves measuring the extent of excellence in order to establish its quality, of which quality is expressed in terms of value, size, position and boundaries in relation to other contemporaries. There is no way one can say something is good or better, without indicating how better it is and or better than what. Therefore, in order to establish the value, quality, and degree of excellence attained by stage designers at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), several measuring "sticks" will be used like theories of design, comparative analysis as well as assessment of historical changes and shifts. 1.2) THE FIRST PHASE OF STAGE DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE (1985-1992) The history of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe is as old as theatre at this institution and it lies into two broad periods:- The first phase which I shall call the "embryo" stage or "shadow" theatre arts, lies between 1985 and 1992. This is a period when theatre arts was still a course under other established subjects like English, Ndebele and Shona. During this period, it was a drama course but there was no stagecraft course. Personally I view this as a disadvantage to stage design. The stagecraft course has an advantage of complementing the practical knowledge. This means that stage designers ought to know the theoretical aspects of design for them to be able to improve their practical knowledge of stage design. a) NATURE OF PERFORMANCE AND ITS IMPACT ON STAGE DESIGN As indicated by Preben Kaarsholm in Politics and Performance: Theatre, poetry and song in South Africa (Gunner 1994:23), most of the plays produced between 1985 and 1988 were more of community-based theatre. For instance, Mavambo was heavily didactic and just a celebration of the African communist ideology. The play I will marry when I want (1985), Seri kwesasa (1985) and katshaa! (1986) are also not exceptions. Kaarsholm quoting Chifunyise in Gunner (ibid) asserted that during this period there was need to enable the audience to identify immediately and consistently with the communist ideology that was being advertised by the government. Kaarsholm (ibid) described the play Katshaa! as was far too much an illustration of points. In most community-based theatre as the case with these plays, stage design is not equally important to the words said by the characters. In most cases, open spaces are used and the idea of the production is mostly communicated verbally. Therefore, this implies that stage design was as essential as the dialogue itself. In other words, more emphasis was on verbal communication at the expense of visual communication, hence a production technique produced became one of minimalist representation of life. Zano Bore in his 2003 dissertation quoting O .Seda (interview) said that early University plays like Mavambo, Katshaa!, and many others used minimum scenery as a production technique which is African in nature. This is true in Mavambo where the opening scene is a Sekuru's narration, an imitation of the traditional evening narrations. This shows that most of these early plays were still implementing the traditional approach that does not need elaborate stage design as is the case in most productions of the second phase of the history of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe. This production technique (the minimalist approach) is problematic in the sense that it forgoes the benefits of elaborate stage design. The limitation of this style can be calculated on the basis of opportunity cost. For example, in terms of aesthetics, which is the basic element of entertainment in the theatre, elaborate stage design is more sensual (that is if done well) than minimalist stage design. However, other theatre theorists like Grotowski would support this issue of minimalist stage design, as he argues that, it is the body only which is important on stage otherwise the rest are supplementary if not impediments. b) LIGHTING DESIGN It is important to note that early university productions used little artificial light. This was not only due to lack of ability to use it, but due to prevailing conditions. The fact that most of the productions were being done as part of the University's outreach programme reduced the need for artificial lighting. Most of the plays, especially Mavambo were performed in most of Harare high-density suburbs. As to the words of Dr McLaren (in an interview), there was no need to use artificial lighting since most of the times the performances were done in open spaces as the case with traditional African performances where the natural light is used mainly for visibility. It is therefore safe to argue that there was little use of creative lighting. Once again I would like to argue that the major limitation of using natural lighting is the opportunity cost. This means that they forego the benefits that could have been enjoyed from creative lighting through the use of artificial lights. c) COSTUME DESIGN In terms of costume there is little evidence for any costuming in these early university productions. For instance, as indicated by Dr McLaren in an interview, the actor who acted the role of Alexio in the production of Mavambo, had to use his usual clothes. Therefore, it would be safe argue that this was dressing-up rather than costuming. In his words (Dr McLaren [ibid]), in most plays, the issue of costume was not a major concern. However, there is an exception of the 1987 production called Kremlin Chimes. The play which was a classic socialist realistic play written by a Russian Nikolai Pogo din, was made to be more appealing by borrowing costume from the REPS theatre (Kaarsholm in Gunner eds.(ibid)). Kaarsholm argued that the play was more appealing than any other plays before. However, whilst I would accept that costume problems can be solved by borrowing from other established theatre groups, I would like to argue that to some extent this can be described as dressing-up rather than costuming. In this sense dressing-up means ensuring that the actors get something to wear, as opposed to costuming which refers to careful planning of what each character has to wear. Apart from this view, this practice of borrowing costume has been long rejected by Dorothy. L.Sayer, preface to Lambourne (1953:7): Dressing the play. In her proverbial statement she said that: Thou shalt not borrow thy neighbor's brushes, thou shalt not borrow thy neighbor's knife, or his scissors, or his compasses, or his foot rule, or his protractor, or anything that is his. This proverb in theatre means that any Theatre group must attempt by all means to be self-contained, self-sufficient and independent for it to produce excellent productions time and again. For the University of Zimbabwe theatre group excellence was achieved in this production but it was not permanent since the borrowed costume were for that production only, not for the subsequent productions. d) SOUND DESIGN Sound design as the case in most African community centered theatre was spontaneously incorporated through singing and drumming. In African productions theatrical performances extensively use music, song and drumming so as to enhance the theme as well as beautifying the production itself. Likewise, University of Zimbabwe productions naturally incorporated some if not all of these elements of African theatre. For instance, in Mavambo the song "Nyika yedu yeZimbabwe" was sung by the performers themselves on stage, the music was not pre-recorded, it was meant to arouse the need for unity and indeed the audiences were forced to respond since the song was rooted in the African mode of expression. In most cases the sounds incorporated in the productions were not alienating to the audience for there was no use of artificial sound effects. Whilst one can argue that these early University productions were foregoing the benefits of pre-recorded sound effects, it is important to note that natural sound helps to ease comprehension of contents of any production. e) EVALUATION OF STAGE DESIGN DONE DURING THE FIRST PHASE AS COMMUNITY THEATRE According to Kavanagh .M. (1997:3), community theatre as a general rule uses little lighting, sound effects and has no access (at times) to adequate budgets for costumes, sets, props and musical instruments. In his further analysis, the major reason why community theatre uses little props and all the mentioned above is its mobile character, little knowledge about it as well as the conditions of the performance venues were facilities are usually poor. Therefore, since most of the plays which were being produced during the first phase were more of community based theatre (community based, in the sense that most productions were done in the community than at the University of Zimbabwe), it is easy to project that what was important was to communicate through words rather than through stage manipulation (design) due to constrains mentioned above. If this is the case, one can safely argue that stage design's position in the productions was at the periphery as the case in the Street Theatre productions as in Magariro where stage design is not equally important as the comic frowning and voice of Kapfupi. It is important to note that the above assessment is for the University of Zimbabwe productions done in the community. The university acted as a rehearsal center preparing for the actual performance in the community; therefore it is not surprising that some performances done at the university (in the Beithall) were designed differently from those performances in the community. However, the researcher concentrated much on the outreach performances, than on the Beithall performances mainly because this is the major difference between the first phase performances and the second phase performances, where the first phase is characterized by performances in the community whilst in the second phase most if not all performances are done at the university. 1.3) THE SECOND PHASE OF STAGE DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE (1992---) Reconstructing artifacts is always problematic, so let us turn to the second phase of the history of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe where we can get living examples. Therefore, the following analysis will concentrate much on what has been observed between 2002 and 2003. The second phase started in 1992 and proceeds up to the present. A fully-fledged Theatre Arts department was now established, which was independent and self-sufficient. This phase saw the introduction of Stagecraft course, which to my opinion is an attempt to consciously achieve stage design. Theoretical concepts of stage design were now examined and practically executed by the students doing the stagecraft course. This condition has increased the probability of a more professional approach to the manipulation of the stage as compared to the early productions, where there was no intention to train stage designers. This is because the university at the present acts as the, '' brewery of professional stage designers'', to quote the words of my colleague Florence Mukanga in her description of the current state of stage design at the university (contributions to the presentation). Stage design at the University of Zimbabwe, at the present is so complex and difficult to draw any conclusions. This is because of the various conditions and facts that surround the way it is done. These various conditions and facts have become the major characteristics of what could be termed "University of Zimbabwe stage design culture". University of Zimbabwe stage design can therefore, be described as ephemeral, inconsistent, amateurish, literary, production specific and time and resource depended. a) ASSESSMENT OF THE CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT STAGE DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE University of Zimbabwe stage designers are ephemeral, because they are short lived, that is they do not last for long. The main reason is that there are no permanent stage designers at the University of Zimbabwe. For example, a costume designer is just a costume designer of a specific production, once the designer has completed his/ her project it's over. In most commercial theatre groups, there will be individuals who specialize in specific areas of stage design. For example, at Reps Theatre Lillian Ndovorwi is the wardrobe manager/costume designer; George Mbiza on the other hand is the set designer and so forth. These designers specialize in their respective areas time and again and as a result they gain experience as they repeatedly design for different productions. The fact that UZ designers are for one play after which they turn to other areas of study reduces the great potential that would be attained from accumulated experience through practice. It needs a lot of time and practice to realize how theoretical concepts learned, can be turned into real tangible thing. Therefore one can safely argue that stage design at UZ has remained at its infancy level since it is continuously done by amateurs as shown above. The fact that each and every year designers are those doing the stagecraft course at the same level as those of the year before would mean that there is no actual growth in terms of individual craft. Here, it is important to differentiate advanced productions for part three honours students from other productions. Whilst part three honours students would have acquired experience in their part two courses, part two students (both general and honours students) are amateurs in the field of stage design. One can argue that amateurs would bring new insights and techniques; however, an amateur is an amateur for he/she would lack the much-needed practical experience. UZ stage design is a one-day practical experience and as a result most of the production pieces evidently show lack of experience in terms of design. A very good example of such design can be deduced from the 2002 part one productions in which BA2 students were the designers. For instance, "Shacks" costume designer came and suggested costume color and type but she never did any follow up to ensure that every actor has the required costume. The actors went on to use what they were able to get. This was the same in set design in other groups where the designers were just assigning the actors to bring props and the actors brought props they were able to get. In one extreme case, the actors went on to use a paper in place of a gown since they had failed to get a real gown that they were assigned to acquire. Therefore, what I can say is that, University of Zimbabwe stage design is more literary than practical. In most cases, the designer would go on to write up papers on how they suggested what was supposed to be done without indicating what was actually done. Therefore, literary University of Zimbabwe stage designers know very well what is supposed to be done, but practically it has proven to be difficult, maybe it is due to lack of resources, but how come that other few dedicated designers produce excellently designed productions. My argument here, though it is difficult to illustrate using examples is that, an inexperienced designer may have the idea of what is supposed to be done but without the ability to achieve it. Amateurs usually propose sophisticated things that they will fail to put into action afterwards due to the fact that they do not know how difficulty it is to implement in practice. Stage design at UZ is characterized by the shortage of resources. The chairman of the department of Theater Arts (Mr. O, Seda) has described the problem of costume at UZ as, "--- a perennial problem [and] a political one---". This means that the problem has a long history and is due to forces that are beyond the ability of the department as a whole. Therefore, resource shortage has become a major characteristic of the University of Zimbabwe stage design. In most cases, this has led to stock costuming and what I would term "stock scenic design". For example, the police uniform is frequently used without considering how its texture, color and general appearance would affect the emotional environment of the play and the theme. In 2003 part one productions, two groups used the policemen uniform; to portray a policeman just because it was available in the storeroom used the police uniform. However, instead of portraying a genuine policeman, the uniform portrayed a comic policeman- this was an unintended effect for the play was a serious play. The uniform was comic because it was dirty and oversize. In scenic design, there is a tendency of using a table and a chair whenever students think of acting. This is more of imitative design in which designers always think of how other groups of actors used to do it. This is contrary to my definition of stage design that emphasizes on the creative use of space. However, whilst stage design is constrained by shortage of resources, this very shortage of resources has become a major driving force behind excellent designs in various other productions. This means that shortage of resources has now become a stimulus to the designers; in other words, it forces the designers to think creatively and utilize the available resources. At the University of Zimbabwe, in some productions resource problems are concealed by the utilization of locally available resources to produce the maximum possible visual communication of the stage, for example; logs, soil, grass, bottles, green leaves, vegetables, stones, and many other natural things are functional in stage design. In the play Mwambene which was presented by BA part two and three students in November 2003 a realistic environment was created by using the natural resources that were locally available. For instance, a farm was recreated by using grass that was collected from the grounds. This is the same in most other plays; the available resources are the real producers of the natural environment that is necessary for the production at hand. In one other production presented by Part one student in which part two students were the designers, I remember a gunshot that was well executed by the designer who used two sticks to hit a plank. Despite the fact that there are no sound effects instruments at the University, the sound was well achieved here. All these instances are a manifestation of greater imagination and creativity found in some cases of University productions. Therefore, I would conclude that University of Zimbabwe stage design seems to be designer specific. The fact is, there is no way excellence can be maintained since stage design is depended on individual creativity and imagination. Stage design at the University of Zimbabwe is project specific. This means that when students are being examined on a specific area of study, they tend to put little emphasis on ways of manipulating space. As a result, when students are being examined on stage design, they tend to try by all means to creatively synchronize the elements and principles of design with the performance. For example, the production of the play Dilemma of the Ghost by part three honours students in 2003 was well done. For instance, appropriate costume was well selected for the various characters and the background was made to comment on the play by painting it with black and white so as to satirize Atoo's confusion, Atoo is a black person but a white person in his inner life. When students are being examined on other areas of study, other than stage design they tend to put little emphasis on creative manipulation of stage. This is the reason why dance productions are usually not elaborately designed, rather dancers would resort to bare stages and even dressing-ups because what will be important will be to know the dance movements not stage design. This is the same when students are doing Theatre in Education and Theatre for Development projects; Students specialize on what they think will make their productions typical of what they learnt about participatory theatre. In other words they put little emphasis on aspects of stage manipulation as would be done by those who will be doing stage craft course. For example, BA2 students in their 2003 Theatre for Development practical project used bare stage despite the fact that the dramatic scenario which they incorporated, like student's rooms would have been much reflected if they were represented by real objects. For instance, they could have used rough papers, and other things to show an unhealthy environment; rather they decided to use psychological properties in which the performers were just talking about a dirty environment. 1.4) CONCLUSION In a nutshell, it is important to note that it is difficult to establish a clear trend of stage design at the University of Zimbabwe, rather what is available is a combination of common characteristics formed by the surrounding conditions. Productions at the university of Zimbabwe tend to vary from level to level, from designer to designer and as a result the degree of excellence varies from year to year.
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Presentation 2.
By Prosper Gundura Topic :Sound Design: Siyaya as a case study
PRESENTED ON 01 APRIL 2004INTRODUCTION The study is an investigation into the use of music and sound effects in community and professional theatre. It focuses on the exploitation of the aforesaid elements of stage design, to see how their use affect the total design concept and quality. However, this project shall rely much on the works of SIYAYA ARTS Productions Theatre Company based in Bulawayo. This company undertakes both community and professional theatre. For this project, community theatre has been defined as a theatre from the community, by the community and for the community. It contains the cultural attributes of the community in question, echoes and foreshadows the social vices of the community in question, its interests send aspirations. On the other hand, professional theatre has been defined as a theatre form, which is solely undertaken for commercial purposes. This clarification of term has been done to mark the confines of the areas of investigation, to avoid generalizations and also to make the project easier to handle. The project will try to identify if they are some other factors and to access their impact on the use of the above said elements .The data used herein was gathered using personal interviews, questionnaires and electronic mails with the director cum producer of Siyaya Arts and the information publicity officer of the same company. Siyaya arts Productions established itself a traceable record of hiring professional designers to help them execute their design as learnt by the researcher they believe that design is a silent and most effective tool that appeals as well as communicate to the emotions and feelings of the audience if properly done, as they have to say, it draws the audience souls from the auditorium into the imaginative world of the play, to experience and to share the suffering and joys with the actors. However, one needs to point out that for their community productions, the productions are less specialized and artificialised in terms of sound design. These only come in where dialogue would have failed to break the barriers of communication. The most popular sound effect in such productions is that of an African drum and music and song being the spice of every production. Its function is to comment and renounce some actions by the performers. In fact, music comes in as a voice of the playwright, and it commences on the whole plot and supports the major theme of the play. In professional productions. i.e. Romeo and Juliet, the sounds employed at Siyaya are specialized as well as production specific. For some productions some pre-recordings have to be done on 78 rpm disks prior to the show so that the disks will played during the production. Apart from that, sound reinforcement instruments such as the Panatrope, gramophone, to mention just but a few, are used. These give the specialized effects such as sound of wind, thunder, aeroplanes, rain etceteras. In trying to give some concrete evidence to back-up the findings, the researcher shall constantly refer to the video clip entitled Kokoba Town, completely owned and produced by Siyaya Arts Productions, which is available from the thertre arts department for viewing, and also the siaya arts production margazine entitled Emangweni world tour 2003- 2004 is donated by the researcher to the theatre arts departmental library. GENERAL INFO-ABOUT SIYAYA SIYAYA ARTS PRODUCTION, formally known as Nostalgic Actors and Singer's Alliance, was formed in 1989 under the late Mike Sobiko. It changed its name to Siyaya on 10th September 1999 during the 10th anniversary of the founding of NASA, now under the new production director Saimon Maubazo Phiri. They are based at Stanley Hall in Makokoba Township. The group boasts of 12 plays and 2 musical CDs on their shelves, since its formation. They have performed on over 150 Internationally recognized festivals, the greatest one being the Edinburgh International Fringe (Scotland). Trough the Emangweni tour, the group was able to visit countries such as Poland, Wales, Scotland, United States of America, Canada, Flemsburg, Germany, Indonesia, India, England, England, Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Namibia, Liverpool England and Zimbabwe as a whole. During this tour, (which is still in progress), the group managed to catch the attention of media houses i.e. "The Scotland Ediubugh International Fringe Festival Review 1998", "Moto Magazine Zimbabwe", The Sunday post Scotland, Mamelodi News, South Africa, "The BBC and CNN". The group is also known for its striking contracts with internationally acclaimed Directors, Designers and stage managers. One of their best moments was with Caroline clegg, - a designer, director as well as choreographer for Feelgood Theatre Productions in the UK. Some of their counteract patners are. a) Providence film and sound - specialists in videography and sound reinforcements as well as PS studios for their recordings.b) Black arts Theatre and Cultural Collective (UK)
c) S.M.P Sabela music projects
d) Amazula Arts Consultants
e) Arts Oasis
f) Ctm UK
g) Future Events (UK)
h) Feelgood Theatre Productions (UK)
Lithocraft Industries
African Awareness Community Theatre
Venna Wynter
The Zimbabwe Print media
Bronisky and Associates
Theatre Centafall
National arts Council
Manchester Airport
British Council. In their shelf, they have plays such as:
"Zwelethu" (Our Land)
Makhinte
My friend Rio.
No Difference
Siyaphi
Romeo and Juliet
Mhlola - The Cry
Sakhubona
Dlala MaAfrica
Khokoba Town
Live Sinjonjo
Theresa
13) Thatha
Among this plays, "Zwelethu", "Khokoba Town", "Mhlola" and "Romeo and Juliet" have some brilliant music and sound effectswhich were used in their plots. RESOURCES AND APPROACHES TO SOUND DESIGN Besides using the African drummer, their sound effects, their professional productions i.e. Romeo and Juliet, rely on hired electric equipment, sound reinforcement machines and pre-recording on lacquer discs. In fact, they themselves do not have a professional designer and so a hired designer hired from providence film and sound does their sound design. In some cases, they do hire some accomplished individual professional sound designers, e.g. Ross markan (Harare), who was the designer in the production of Romeo and Juliet. It was also very fortunate that the researcher was lucky to meet with one of the sound designers, Lorraine tshuma, from providence film and sound. In designing sound effects as she said, It was very difficult because the process is governed by so many factors some of them being economic constraints, the material of sound effect design is very expensive and the lower level of theatre goers in the country. However, she was very quick to point out that everything is done on professional standards. According to Miss Tshuma, sound effects at Siyaya Arts are used to portray the mood of the play or performance, to evoke emotions and to provide an emotional stimulus. Most of these sounds are created using a computer, a panatrope, a gramophone and some sounds reinforcement machines such as the rain machine rain drum and wind machine. Out of excessive demand, some sound may need to be recorded on either audio tapes, lacquer discs or 78rpm discs, like in the case of Kokoba Town , where the later was used, and theses discs will then be played on stage during the productions to produce the intended effects. It has also been learnt that some amplified speakers and microphone are installed on the stage apron so as to reinforce the sound of the feet, falling things and moved properties. To illustrate this, a play called Kokoba Town has been made available for viewing. At Siyaya Arts, they also make music to be a strong tool of communication. It appeals to the deeper person, the soul. It tries to win the emotions and feelings of the audience .in fact, they do believe that sometimes dialogue may or is restricted in terms of putting across some sensitive appealing and arousing the audience's emotions and feelings if its carefully executed. For example a song called Senzelina, which accompanied a play entitled Kokoba Town, paved a pessimistic and gloomy atmosphere. it compelled the audience to empathize as well as sympathize with the victims of circumstances in the afore mentioned play. Music also plays a major role in demarcating the ending and beginning new episodes. At some point, it is used to purge the emotions and hence enlighten the atmosphere; thereby preparing the audience for the ensuing tragic happening which will be more serious in magnitude and complication. Apart from that, this kind of music also serves to comment on the action of the play. It is small voice the mirror through which the playwright can cast some armchair critics to the complexities of life. It also affords the audience a mirror, not only into the thoughts of the playwright, but also the world of the play. To see and comprehend its didactic nature. MAGAZINE: - see a copy of the Emangweni, world tour magazine in the departmental library, and the production guide of the play Romeo and Juliet as Directed by Caroline Clegg, also available for you in the Departmental Library. It is also very important to visit these guys on the website www.siyaya-arts.com so that you can drink from the well for yourself. "USE OF SOUND EFFECTS" SIYAYA ARTS PRODUCTIONS: -
they depend upon PROVIDENCE FILM AND SOUND (an independent film and sound reinforcement company in Bulawayo), for their installations and sound reinforcement. Most of their equipment especially for professional productions such as Romeo and Juliet is hired. Loreine Tshuma, who happens to be a professional designer at PROVIDENCE, argues that "sound effects" at SIYAYA ARTS are used to portray the mood of the play, to evoke emotions and to provide an emotional stimulus. Most of their "sound effects" are created using a computer, a panatope, and some sound reinforcement machine such as a rain-machine, rain drum and wind machine. If necessity arises, some "sound effects" have to be recorded on lacquer discs, and then be played during the performance. It has been learnt that some amplified speakers and microphones are installed on the stage apron so as to reinforce the sound of feet, falling things and properties. This is prevalent in a play called Romeo and Juliet, but it is very unfortunate that I failed to bring this play with me, but in its place, a play called KOKOBA TOWN shall be used. In most of their plays, the striking feature is that the African drum is used to give "sound effects". According to Mr. S Maubazo Phiri, they use the drum in most productions because it is a symbol of culture and so can be used to remind the people of their roots. In fact, they argue that community theatre is a theatre from the community, by the community and for the community, and hence the need to reinforce the idea of identity and culture. USE OF MUSIC Music is regarded as a vital tool of communication at Siyaya Arts. The group (whole) through workshops composes this music, and the aim is to compose music that is very relevant to the production. The type of music will depend on the type of production being dealt with. I.e. other productions will require digital recordings (special recordings of intermixed tunes as related to the scene's objectives), while others call for plain voices backed by the drum. Stage music design is required to support the plot and the comment on the general action of the play. In fact Mr. Thulani Sibanda argues that music adds power to the message that is passed through scripts and actions because it is capable of appealing to one's emotions. Some of the songs and tunes are at times pre-recorded on audiotapes for use on stage, a good example being Khokoba Town where there are voice-overs. This type of music has to correspond with the theme of the play and hence the message is focused. DATA ANAYSIS Sound is done as a way of trying to create mood for the play. It compels the audience to empathize or to castigate the action of the protagonist or antagonist, villain or flatterer. Sound effects are the most effective tools in theatre; in as far as playing with the emotions of the audience is concerned. They also function to lighten the emotions and to highlight a point of conflict. That exacts point where the characters come to loggerheads, especially the protagonist and autogonist. In some instances however, conflict may be psychological. This has become as specific feature of African Movies (screen plays) where sound serves to invoke emotions and to provide an emotional stimulus for the play to be playable. To illustrate this, the researcher should have made available video clip of Romeo and Juliet, but it is very unfortunate that plans to do so did not come to fruition. but a solution to such a predicament may be to contact Loreine Tshuma on personal capacity on her e-mail address. The researcher also came to realize that sound effect must not be spread all over the play or production, because the whole production may become monotonous and hence loose meaning, instead, there must be some good management and informal decisions, especially by the stage manager, during his first three weeks of creating a manuscript (master script used for rehearsals), on which part of he script needs sound reinforcement, as for the rest of the script, the quality will be improved by the micro-speakers and micro-phones installed on the stage apron as outlined earlier in this chapter. However, it is very imperative that these sound effects be released and improved in every rehearsal, and the changes made therein must be noted down. The sound discs used for the stage sound effects have to be new and must produce perfect sounds. But one weakness that the researcher was able to observe at Siyaya Arts Productions is that still relies on the old model 78rpm discs and lacquer discs. This has to a certain extent compromised the quality of their sounds. However, it was also realized that this is done to firstly, contain the economic constraints that come with purchasing of new discs, and secondly, the discs are reliable in terms of sound storage. It is on the aforesaid discs that they do record some voice-overs or other unique sounds, which will be used, cheat the audience into perceiving reality on stage. For example the recording of the news (ZBC) drum on Kokoba Town, was very striking in creating stage realism, supporting both the theme and plot of the play. When it comes to music, Siyaya arts Productions employ it in every production and its function is to comment, support. Echoes the theme as well as communicate some powerful messages to the audience. It mostly comes in at a point where dialogue would have failed to reach to the psychology and emotions of the audience. As mentioned before, we shall constantly refer to Kokoba Town, as our example. As the play, opens there is the song called Senzenina. this song paves the pessimistic and gloomy atmosphere for the whole play. It foreshadows a people bereaved, who are suffering psychologically and spiritually low. It epitomizes a world with little hope and where life had seized to be interesting. a life for the people of Kokoba Town. Its function is to support the theme and the plot, to propel the action forward and to provide an exposition. In the later part of the video clip, there is a song called Emakokoba. This song serves to narrate the life of Kokoba Town, and to support the theme. It gives the storyline of the play and affords the audience a window into the real world of the story. The song is followed by some silent tunes played in what is presumed to be a sheben. The function of such intermixed tunes is to depict the atmosphere found in such drinking places. It tries to create reality, to make the audience feel attached to the whole story. Are also saves as an initiation of conflict, in the play by providing the over excitement through evoking emotions, hence preparing the ground fertile enough for a full-fledged conflict? Music is also used to demarcate the ending and beginning of new episodes. That is to say, after some music, a new episode begins. It also provides some sub-plots that feed into the main plot. In the aforementioned play, one of the subplots is that of a son who works in "Egoli" South Africa, and works under harsh conditions. The audience only comes to know of this through musical voice-overs that are overhead under the dialogue on stage. The researcher also realized that music is used to comment on the general action of the play. It is the playwright's voice through which he castigates renounces, and praises as well as envisaging for reform and harmony. It also helps the audience to realize the didactic nature of the play, and above all to learn something as they leave the theatre everyday. Music is a powerful tool for communication. It may be used to emotionally appeal to the audience in such instances as where dialogue fail to do so. But at Siyaya, one weakness is that it tends to be overdone even on points where dialogue is capable of sustaining the communication super objective
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Presentation 3:
Florence Mukanga. Topic : The necessity of male partners:Desgn in Tumbuka dances.
1 BRIEF GENERAL INTRODUCTIONTumbuka Dance Company is located in Avondale. It was formed at the national ballet of Zimbabwe in 1992 under the inspirational leadership of Neville Campbell. It is a professional dance company which tour around the world. Today the company has senior and junior dancers where the juniors are dance students and the 9 senior dancers are the professional dancers. Tumbuka is a Shona word which means to bloom and this blooming idea is illustrated by the locks which the dancers have. According to Smith and Parker [1974:19] design includes planning the quality and intensity of lights that reveal a performance, selection and styling of furniture and set, dressing and careful consideration of the actor s costume. So from this one can add the fact that it also includes the planning of sound that accompanies a dance. On the other hand the term male partners in dance include costume design, lighting design, sound design , props and the manipulation of elements of design such as line, colour, mass measure texture and principles of composition such as unity, harmony, variation rhythm and balance. Just as a woman cannot do without a husband, so is dance and its male partners. At the company design is as old as the company it self. it started in 1992 when the British government funded both dance and design lessons the dancers are still being taught design along with dance. The company does not have a specific designer. Usually the design is done by the choreographer and the designers take a professional approach towards design. Design varies with performances depending on the theme of the dance, nature of movements and the reason for which the dance is done. For instance when the company is invited to perform at an A.I.D.S. campaign by organisations like ZAPSO the organisations can suggest the costume and provide it to the dancers. 2 COSTUME DESIGN In most Tumbuka dances costume is used to reinforce the theme of the dance. By definition costume is carefully planned attire which is put on by perfumers to serve different functions in the performance. In most cases the company uses its large stocks of costume for performance. However in some cases, like in the case when the company produced a piece called disclosure, the people who would have requested for a dance piece provide the costume. By merely looking at the costume, the audience can pick up the implication of the dance. For instance in a piece called Hear me lord the costume which comprises of red trousers and white tops communicated something about the dance. The white tops symbolised peace while the red trousers symbolised bloodshed and together the colours communicate that many people present themselves as pure and holy yet deep down their hearts they are evil. Contrast in this case is effectively used to reinforce the idea that what people show to the world is completely different for what they are in real life and by balancing the costume the assumption that this behavior is associated with everybody is clearly emphasised. The same idea can be illustrated using the dance piece called Disclosure in which the dancers wore T shirts written in block letters that people must talk openly about AIDS [NGATITAUREI NEZVE AIDS]. By merely reading the words written on the T shirts the audience can get the meaning of the dance piece. Costume also facilitates movement or it helps in the execution of movements. In most cases Tumbuka dancers wear costumes with tails and these tails enhance the flowing movements which are associated with ballet in that they exaggerate movements. This improves the aesthetic value of the dance in that, when a dancer starts to move, costume float in the air and it flows following the dancer. For example in the pieces called Help me lord and Tarisiro where the dancers wore costume of light materials which really float in the air. The picture on fig 1 illustrates this idea of flowing. Costume also communicates the setting of the dance. When the dancers create a dance piece they usually try to depict the culture which the dance will be portraying or from which the movements are taken. For instance in the African images piece where the dancers wore African attire which included nhembe, ngundu, leg rattles and other. These costume pieces are typical of the African environment and by merely looking at them one can see that the dance has got something to do with the African culture. Moreover costume also protects the body of the dancers most dance pieces produced by the dancers involve lifting up of legs and lying down with legs wide apart and in cases where such movements are done, dancers need costume to protect their private parts. Such an idea can be illustrated using apiece called hochekoche where the female dancer wore black pants to protect herself since the dress she wore had a very long slit at the front.
3 SOUND DESIGN
The company also makes use of sound design. Sound ranges from music and lyrics with which the dance is performed up to shouts, yells, and cries that are made by dancers when dancing. In most cases the company uses composed music as basis for movements or their dances are choreographed to music which will be already existing. So without music there may not be creation of dance pieces. The dances use electronically recorded music which is placed on the background of the stage for example, in hochekoche where the choreographer Julius used music from South Africa Steve Dyner which had been specifically prepared for this dance piece to evolve movements. The music comprised of the soulful sounds drawn from Dyner s range of wind instruments recorded on discs. The same was done for the piece called Survival which was performed in Denmark in February 2004, where the people who had requested for the dance provided the music to which the dance was choreographed. . In another piece called Help me lord the choreographer Samson adopted Oliver Mtukudzi s song called Help me lord and choreographed a dance to it. The same approach was used for Chenura where the movements where created to the American William Albright s song called Take that and the Dane Per Noerguard s Iching. The main advantage of electronically recorded sound is that some music is difficult to play live on stage like dyner s music played on Hochekoche. Sound also evokes the mood of the dance. According to Gillette J.M [1992:113] mood is the dominant emotional quality of the dance. Some sounds like screaming triggered by fear just evoke certain feelings in people for example in Chenura where the music evokes tragic mood in that the beats of the music are usually associated with images which inspire fear. Usually when one hears a certain sound there is a tendency to create images which are associated with such a sound. Sound also communicates the theme of the dance. For instance, if one listens to the lyrics of the music played on help me lord he can get the idea that the situation being portrayed is in vain. The situation is out of hand and there is need for God s intervention. The dance exposes that the situation in Zimbabwe is characterised by a lot of bloodshed due to clashes of political parties yet people who attend international conferences present the state as full of peace. So in this case music reinforces the theme. Sound also enhances the tempo of the dance as well as linking movements. In facilitating rhythm, sound acts as cue to dancers whenever there is need to vary tempo. When music is playing at a slow tempo dancers dance slowly but when it changes the dancers start to dance vigorously. This can be illustated using the piece called Hochekoche where at first, when the music is slow the dancers dance slowly using less energy but when the music changes, the dancers dance vigorously. Sound also makes dance to be more entertaining because it involves two senses, that is hearing and sight. Science has proved that hearing seems to have a direct link to audience's subconscious and so when the audience is seeing while at the same time hearing, they became more fully engaged. Still on sound, music tends to appeal to the emotions of people. It therefore inspires the dances to dance. In most cases, some people cannot help dancing whenever they hear a piece of music. So music inspires the dancers and helps the choreographer in motivation, inspiring and mobilising the dancers. 4 LIGTING DESIGN The company also makes use of lighting design to complement its dance pieces. Generally, lighting is used to mark the performance area and to light the dancers. Most of the performances are done during the evening and therefore lights are used to light the performance area so that dancers can be seen. Audiences are kept in darkness so that lights demarcate the performance. Lighting is also used to evoke the mood of a dance. This is done through mixing of different colours of lights like red, yellow, black. For example, in help me lord, the lights were coloured in red to evoke the mood of bloodshed. The same was done for the piece called Chenura where lights ere manipulated to created shadows. From an interview with the choreographer Julius Mathius, the researcher got the information that the dancers do not know how shadows were created since they are not the people who did the lighting. However, the researcher thinks that shadows might have been created through the use of profile spots hidden beneath the boards of the raked rostrum which was used as background for the set. When lit the lights case hard edged beams through holes out in the boards upwards and this resulted in the creation of shadows when the dancers moved on the stage. So that the bodies and their shadows slowly revolved together. The shadows evoked a tragic mood of the dance piece in which the dancers tried to portray life after death. In some dance pieces like Tarisiro, lights were used to reinforce the theme of the dance that hopes of people vary with places and time. Design enhances the usual requirements of the script and transforms the written words of the playwright into visible and audible expression of the author's ideas. In the piece called Tansiro, a lot of colours such as orange, amber, red, purple, peach, green were mixed and this made the costume colors to change from red to yellow, green and white whenever the dancers moved from one position to another within the same performance area. In this case, gels were used for each light and the colour changes reinforced the theme that expectations of dance changed from place to place. colour changes also thriller audiences hence this beautify the dance. However the concept of semiotics makes design to culture bound. By definition semiotics is the use of symbols and signs in theatre to signify certain meanings. It makes design to be culture specific and to vary even in one culture, for example, the colour red in Zimbabwe can mean either love or bloodshed and these meanings can be different from Chinese meanings of the same colour. So the design of this company has to be understood from a Zimbabwean cultural perspective. CONCLUSION Generally the Company has got nearly sufficient costume to meet the demands of its performances more costume is still being acquired using money which is got through costume hire, that is after supplying other companies with costume and making them to pay for using the costumes. As for Lighting, it is greatly affected by the venue of the performance since most of the performances are done in areas that are detached from the company premises. Some venues like the REPS theatre do facilitate the use of creative lighting to achieve various effects such as establishing the mood of the dance. However in some cases the performances are done outdoors and this does not allow the use of complicated lighting systems. On sound design it has to be noted that the use of electronically recorded sounds calls for a lot of care and alertness in order to make sure that the sound is clear and readily available for the performance. There is always more equipment for such design in order to avoid disappointment caused by the failure of equipment to function well. Considering the importance of design one can safely say that male partners in Tumbuka dances are part and parcel of every dance and without them there may not be performances.
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Presentation 4:
By Isaac ChidauraCreativity and imagination in staging. A general survey of Zimbabwean theatre.
PRESENTED ON 26 MARCH 2004
INTRODUCTION
This paper serves to examine the general condition of creativity and imagination in staging in Zimbabwean Theatre. As a result, Zimbabwean theatre shall be defined as any theatrical activity whose existential and historical origin is within or alien to Zimbabwean boarders, but performed by Zimbabweans. From this definition there seems to be two major types of Zimbabwean theatre, which are, Zimbabwean traditional theatre and the Zimbabwean modern theatre. Under the former category falls traditional adult and children's theatre. Zimbabwean modern theatre can also be sub-divided into adult and children's modern theatre. On the other hand, Kavanagh. K. (1997:104) asserts that, staging is the arrangement of an action of performance in space. That is the acting areas, as well as the area used to accommodate an audience. Apart from that, the physical relation of the actors to the audience, how the latter actually sees and feels the action, in addition to the kind of buildings and the seating of the audience all relates to staging. Moreover, creativity is the ability to invent new things/techniques in staging, be it in theatre buildings or in non theatre buildings. Furthermore, imagination is the ability to use the mental picture of what one intends to simulate during staging.
ZIMBABWEAN TRADITIONAL CHILDREN'S THEATRE
"Mahumbwe" (playing house) is one of the traditional children's games in which dramatic elements such as; plot, character, dialogue, and audience among many others are found. Among the Shangani people of Chief Gudo's area in Chiredzi South, the "playing house" is known as "Zvihlango Zvevana". According to elders of this area, in assimilating roles they would assume when they grow up, children of the age below nine find a bare space adjacent to the village homesteads, perhaps in harvested fields as their setting (interview). There is an element of inventiveness in choosing a suitable area, because the children would not use the whole area of the harvested fields at their disposal. Rather, they select a portion which can accommodate the play they would have improvised. After securing a suitable non theatre building space, bigger boys among the children would use broken bricks or tree branches to construct "shanties" they would refer to as houses. These bigger boys are the "fathers" since they perform fatherly roles. Girls of the same age group would also be carrying out their motherly chores on a different part of the cleared area. The same applies to the "smaller" boys and girls in the same age group who would take the roles of "children" in a given family. In such a game, there could not be an obvious audience because all the children involved must have a role to play.
Creativity and imagination in staging by the village youngsters is much pronounced in Mhondoro and Hurungwe (Northern Zimbabwe) where the "playing house" is known as "Mahumbwe" which is an offshoot of "Matakanana". "Matakanana" is performed by children below the age of six, and after they would have graduated from "Matakanana" they then join others in "Mahumbwe" (playing House). Their ages would be in between seven and nine years. Just as is the case among the Shangani people of Southern Zimbabwe, the purpose of the "playing house" is to expose the children to the tasks they would assume when they grow up at tender ages. All aspects of the game are just but the same except that, in Northern areas of Zimbabwe, there would be a sort of an audience during what they call "Nyenda". This is the conclusion of the "Mahumbwe" when mature boys and girls would graduate from children's games into man and womanhood activities such as initiation ceremonies. Parents especially, mothers of the children who are leaving "Mahumbwe" would come to witness how their young ones would be dressed or how they arrange the action of their play apart from the taste of the food the children would have prepared. To impress their parents so that they would be allowed to graduate, children would invent new ways of arranging their so called "homesteads" in relation to their parents who are in this case acting as an audience. Thus, when part of a mere harvested field is converted into a composite set, rather than copying the seating arrangement of storytelling or other children's plays like "Sarura wako" which are performed in a circular configuration, parents are asked to seat on vantage positions in order to have a better view of the proceedings of the game. In this case, should there be male adults (fathers), they would seat near the boys while the mothers would also be near where the girls will be performing their chores, but on the same area. Hence, the traditional theatre in the round is changed by the graduating children to, sort of a multiple staging. The children modify the usual traditional theatrical performance arrangement and a bare space to suit their needs.
By bringing in a new arrangement of an audience and the performers during the "Nyenda", it may be valid to say that, there is creativity and imagination in the staging of "Mahumbwe".
ZIMBABWEAN TRADITIONAL ADULT THEATRE
Under this group, theatrical activities are observed in the form of spirit cult possession, narratives and rituals apart from many other adult games. As for this paper, rituals shall be used to explore creativity and imagination in staging by traditional adult theatre in Masvingo.
Kerr. D. (1995:1) defines rituals as symbolic actions developed by and performed for a community in order to satisfy certain spiritual needs. In Masvingo Province, "Mukwerera" (rain making ceremony) is the most prominent ritual activity. Villagers of Chief Nyajena's area call this ritual "Mutoro". The Kraal head (Sabhuku) of Muremba village, Mr. Boy Muremba, in an interview asserts that, "Mutoro" is performed at the verge of the rain season or during a rainfall crisis (drought). In addition, "Mutoro" is a rain making ceremony during which cloud formation, rainfall and thunder are dramatized through "Mhande" dance. The Shona people, especially the Karanga of Masvingo Province believe that if nature is imitated, it would respond positively. Hence, by imitating the rain-formation process through dance, they think that they would experience enough rains for their agrarian economy.
Furthermore, Mr. Boy Muremba (interview) says that the arrangement of the action of "Mhande" dance is done under a "Muonde" or "Muchakata" tree either in the forest or harvested fields. When "Mhande" dance is used for such a ritual ceremony, it would be sacred. Any changes to the way how this particular ceremony was performed by the villagers' predecessors is a taboo, hence inventiveness and imagination in staging the action of the "Mhande" is limited. Due to its participatory nature, there would never be an audience. Every village member has something to do. Should there be any creativity, this is in a form of the circular shape created by villagers around the three drummers. The whole performance takes place under the shade where this ritual is performed is said to be sacred, no building structures are allowed to be erected near the sacred tree. Thus, during resting phases, men would seat on the available stones, if any, while women seat on the ground. Rituals are performed on a much serious note to such an extent that there is totally nothing to be changed; as a result creativeness among the villagers is limited in staging the "Mhande" dance.
Perhaps, a sense of imagination is witnessed when dancers in a circle dance in a synchronized manner stretching up their hands imitating the formation of the cumulonimbus type of clouds. The sounds of the three drums are analogous to the rumble of thunder apart from the leg rattles, "Magagada", which also imitate the falling of rain drops. Even if this might sound not like part of staging, there is an element of imagination in the manipulation of imaginary space, movement and gestures. By and large, creativity and imagination of Zimbabwean traditional adult theatre when staging is concerned seems to be limited by the conservativeness of ritual performances.
ZIMBABWEAN MODERN CHILDREN'S THEATRE
Modern children's theatre in Zimbabwe includes such groups like CHIPAWO in Harare.
CHIPAWO is an abbreviation which stands for; Children Performing Arts Workshop. CHIPAWO incorporates children from schools in and around Harare. School children of this group are under strong supervision of prominent theatre practitioners like Dr McLaren and others. However, the fact that CHIPAWO theatre group is well funded and usually performs in beautiful theatre buildings does not necessarily mean that they are creative and imaginative in staging their performances. What the group does which is new and unusual to modify the given space be it in a theatre building or a bare space is what creativity and imaginative in staging is all about.
In 2003, CHIPAWO performed a dance opera called DHONGI RASABHUKU MANGWENDE at the Zimbabwe College of Music theatre hall. During this performance, there were not many changes which were done to the proscenium space which the group was using as their performing space. The only new thing to the given space which the CHIPAWO introduced was a well painted cyclorama which acted as a back cloth. The paintings on the cyclorama were a replica of a real kraal head's homestead (Sabhuku) in a rural setting. Had it not been of this cyclorama, the CHIPAWO would not have modified the proscenium space in the hall. Even the Marimba group was occupying the usual space which replaced the orchestra pit.
However, CHIPAWO is usually creative and innovative in staging because they normally perform in non-theatre spaces which they modify and manipulate to accommodate their theatrical performances. They perform in hotels, studios, open spaces, school halls and many other non-theatre spaces. In general it appears CHIPAWO is more creative, innovative and imaginative when they perform in non-theatre spaces.
ZIMBABWEAN COLLEGE THEATRE
This group falls under the broad category of Zimbabwean modern adult theatre. University of Zimbabwe, Theatre Arts Department is a case in point. University of Zimbabwe theatre has potential in creativity and imagination when it comes to staging their plays. This is perhaps because there is usually a fusion of performance techniques. Thus, the Western proscenium and multiple staging with a circular formation of African traditional storytelling is used. In fact, there are performances which have reflected a hybrid trend in terms of staging techniques. This can be interpreted as an element of innovation and creativity.
University of Zimbabwe theatre in most cases uses the Beit Hall, the available acting space is the proscenium arch. However, a thrust or multiple stage is created on this proscenium stage by students to suit their different plays. During the first semester of the 2003 - 2004 academic year, Theatre Arts students who performed the play MWAMBENE, modified the proscenium in the Beit Hall into a multiple stage and traditional circular stage. As an audience, we could feel carried away into the realm of the fantasy by the action of the play. The group converted part of the orchestra pit into a forest by using dry grasses. Even though this part used to be part of the auditorium, on that particular day, it was converted into a virgin forest over which people were scrambling. The fact that the actors used part of the sitting area affected the arrangement in the auditorium. Thus, to guard against sightline problems, the benches on which spectators seat were put immediately after the lower acting area. All this was a sign of inventiveness.
Apart from that, the ground plan also showed levels in the set. These were shown by steps on the ground level. The levels showed that an area is different from another. In the case of MWAMBENE, whereas the lower acting area was used as a virgin forest or partly cultivated field and a graveyard, the upper area was the farm compound where there were workers' houses and the farm owner's office. All this was achieved through the ability of the students to manipulate the usual proscenium space into something else to accommodate the action of the play. The steps on the scene showed the continuation of the created space, from part of the orchestra pit to the proscenium arch.
Over and above that, the distinction between onstage and backstage was made possible by the dark back cloth and flats, apart from the rostra which were used to construct the major scenic elements/properties. Hence, actors who were not on stage were on the backstage. When an actor was out of action he or she was concealed from the audience. In addition, part of the action was assumed to be taking place on the backstage, for example, the fetching of water by Mwambene's wife and the medication of people from yet another farm by Twaibu. Finally those actors who needed to change their costume during the course of the production did it on the backstage. All the above mentioned possible changes which were made on the proscenium stage in the Beit Hall to suit the play MWAMBENE shows that University theatre has elements of creativity and imagination when it comes to the staging of plays.
However, creativity and imagination in University theatre is limited by lack of resources. For example, it seems as though there is too much use of thrust staging in most productions, perhaps because of shortage of rostra and flats.
ZIMBABWEAN MODERN COMMUNITY THEATRE
AMAKHOSI THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
Community theatre may be defined as theatrical activities performed by the community members for example, Amakhosi which was founded by Cont Mhlanga in 1982 (Sibanda 2003:19). Amakhosi theatre production is found in the oldest township of Makokoba in Bulawayo. Among the eleven categories of activities which Amakhosi offers are: the performing arts and social theatre programmes. It is these two categories which take theatre to the people. There seems to be a lot of creativity and imagination by the Amakhosi performing arts group, given the fact that they perform anywhere.
Plays have been staged in schools , rural areas, townships and even beer halls. Because of the group's ability to manipulate whatever space is at its disposal to meet the staging requirements of their plays, the Amakhosi performing arts group have been in a position to perform theatre not in theatre buildings only, but everywhere as long as there could be an audience. This is a sign of inventiveness on the part of the group when it comes to staging.
KOKOBA TOWN is one of the plays which the Amakhosi performing arts group have staged in different places, especially in Bulawayo (Sibanda ibid). KOKOBA TOWN as a play is a fusion of music, dance and mime. The play highlights problems encountered in the township of Kokoba. The group can stage this play even in a street, however limited the space may be. Even if most of the scenic properties are mimed by the performers, an element of creativity and the ability to use the power of the mind to imagine things which are not there in staging remains. If a place which is designed to be a highway or beer-hall is turned into a house of a certain family, then a lot inventiveness would have been used.
Apart from KOKOBA TOWN, the Amakhosi performing arts group have also been staging the play CLASS OF FIVE everywhere. The setting of this play is a classroom where youthful school boys of puberty age are portrayed experimenting with girls and finally prostitutes (Sibanda. Ibid). To justify the creativeness of this community theatre group in staging, beer-halls, townships or even villages spaces were manipulated in such a way that they finally appeared like a classroom. The ability to manipulate any given space to accommodate their plays without much difficult can be seen as an ability to imagine creatively and innovatively in terms of staging.
It might be their creativity and imagination which have influenced Amakhosi theatre performing group to tour even the rural areas in Zimbabwe. Around the year 2000 Amakhosi toured such rural districts like Bulilima Mangwe where they staged their plays in rural villages and townships.
CONCLUSION
Innovation and creativity in staging seem to have nothing to do with modernity or the availability of resources. The ability to manipulate any given space at a given time to meet the staging requirements of a group is what creativeness and imagination is all about. By and large, groups who are performing in non-theatre buildings have proven to have faced a lot of problems in staging, hence they end up changing and adjusting to the given space. Usually, they do not have to conform to any given space. Rather, they are free to make changes on a given space which suit their plays. As a result, they appear to be more creative in staging.
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