Let’s develop the theories of African theatre practice.
Most of the published theatre theory is written by theatre artists and academics in Europe and North America. There is no practice without theatre – even if those practising it have never conceptualised or written it down. It is time that African theatre practitioners begin to develop theatre based on the work they do and have it published. The emphasis on this page is on theatre based on practice and theatre theory which theatre practitioners can understand, relate to and find useful in their work.
Let’s develop African theatre criticism.
Most criticism of African theatre has been done by non-Africans. Now is the time to develop an African theatre criticism tradition, constructive criticism, a criticism that builds the artist and does not destroy. See accompanying article ‘Building each other through criticism’ [click]
Let’s use research into Africa performance to make our theatre even better.
At least this is an area where African scholars are busy documenting and finding out things about our theatre. This is a platform for researchers to share their work, make it better known to African theatre artists and other researchers.
Let’s find ways to make our work, our experience and out ideas accessible to each other.
Let there be a constructive synergy of theory and practice.
Theatre Theory
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By Robert Mshengu Kavanagh Despite a fairly active acting experience in my early years, it was a long time before I began to think of directing. In fact, during most …
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By Richard Pankhurst Menghestu Lemma, who died in Addis Ababa at the end of July 1988 aged sixty-five, was a scholar, poet, playwright and wit who may be considered the …
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First published in the Zimbabwe Daily Gazette [6th October, 1992] ‘Masakhaneni’ means ‘let us build each other’ — and that is the thrust and intention of this theatre column. We …