Investigating the ‘politics of design’ in community theatre circles: the case of Intuba Arts Development (Durban) and Bambelela Arts Ensemble (Bulawayo)

Abstract

Community theatre has for a long time been considered as an ‘alternate’ to the main stream, a practice on the margins. Scholarly attention to the practice of scenography within community theatre performance practice occupies the periphery of a discipline that is already on the fringe. Through the use of two practice-as-research case studies in two cities in Zimbabwe and South Africa, this paper identifies varied ‘politics’ that influences the practice of scenography. The interrogation of these politics highlights the creativity, versatility and lay bare the challenges and need for personnel development with specialised interest to the technical needs of community theatre practice.

Keywords:

• Politics
• community
• theatre
• scenography

Notes

1. See Ravengai (2011).

2. The NTO is considered an organisation for the whites due to the fact that they are the majority members. Although it had influential black members such as Cont Mhlanga and Davies Guzha, its reliance on the Eurocentric models, processes and approaches to performance and administration locate it as ‘unZimbabwean’ and a residual of the colonial period (see Chifunyise and McLaren 1986, 1988).

3. It is important to highlight that these schools have predominantly white students. Although these students do music, drama and performing arts, they are not as qualified as the self-taught committed theatre technicians, who have spent their whole life working in the theatre industry and at festivals such as HIFA, Intwasa and Inxusa. In most cases, they have a big Christmas carol performance once every year where they get to use the Bulawayo Theatre.