Dingani Publishers Take Tomorrow’s People And Other Plays On Nationwide Workshops

Arts Views With Thabani H Moyo

IN a rare development Dingani Publishers has decided to team up with the author of ‘Tomorrow’s People and other plays’, Raisedon Baya in conducting nationwide workshops. Tomorrow’s People and other plays has been selected as an ‘A’ Level text for Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council Literature in English.

The nationwide tour started on Friday 21 May with Masvingo Province. It was held at Victoria High School where more than 60 teachers gathered to listen the Veteran playwright. Some teachers travelled as far as Harare for the opportunity to interact with the author.

The whole project is aimed at creating an opportunity for teachers to interact with the author and get the background information about the four plays in the text.

Speaking to the teachers, Baya highlighted that the plays were written for Zimbabwean audience and the stories are familiar with everyone who has lived in Zimbabwe from the turn of the century.

“The stories mirror the Zimbabwean story as we all know it. They cover the period between 2000 and 2005. We all know what was happening then,” said Baya.  

The other interesting element is that it was the first time for most of the teachers to see and touch the publication. They were hungry to know why Baya wrote the plays and what was covered in the four plays.

“I ama playwright and a theatre practitioner. I believe that plays were never meant to be read but to be performed. A written script is incomplete if it is not performed. The plays were written to be performed for audiences in Zimbabwe. It is for this reason that you will find that the plays are short. They were designed for performances that are an hour long or less,” explained Baya.

“The plays touch on a number of themes, there is the theme of love which is explored in various ways. There is also the theme of tribalism and politics. It is not a secret in Zimbabwe that tribalism is still an issue and there is a lot of intolerance around political issues. The other issue that keeps recurring in these plays is that of economic melt and the corruption that goes with it. These are issues that we experience on a daily basis,” expounded Baya.  

Baya also took time to explain to the eager teachers how theatre worked. He also explained that his plays fell under the Agitational propaganda theatre genre and demanded a minimalistic approach because his style belonged to the ‘poor men’s theatre’. A lot of imagination must be used when reading and watching the plays on stage.

Witness Dingani was a happy man after the workshop.

“The whole idea worked. It is something new which I will continue to do so as to contribute fully to the education sector,” beamed the publisher.

As for teachers, they were grateful for the preliminary workshop and expressed a strong desire to have more of such workshops in the future.

“I think this is the best book. The plays are so interesting. They are very relevant. The classroom will be more interesting when studying this text,” ascertained one happy teacher.

The good thing about the whole project is that it takes the product and the author to the clients.