Eti! East Africa Speaks!

SPRING 2008 progams

Eti! East africa Speaks!
Monday, July 21 & Tuesday July 22, 2008

In July 2008, a group of eleven theatre artists from East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda) will come to Dartmouth College and NYC for a three and a half week residency. The first two weeks of the residency (June 30 to July 14) will occur at Dartmouth, to facilitate artistic exchanges and dialogue among and between the artists and Dartmouth theatre students. After Dartmouth, the artists will continue the developmental residency in NYC with the support and assistance of 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange. The ten days will culminate in a series of work-in-progress presentations of their work at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center CUNY, July 21 and 22. By the end of the residency, our hope is that the East African artists will have developed concrete and useful relationships that can be translated into practical opportunities to build further connections between the U.S. and East Africa.

The Segal Center will present performances and discussions with East African theatre artists: Robert Ajwang' (Tanzania); Deborah Asiimwe (Uganda); Hope Azeda (Rwanda); Mumbi Kaigwa (Kenya); Mrisho Mpoto (Tanzania); Charles Mulekwa (Uganda); Mgunga Mwa Mnyenyelwa (Tanzania); Eva David Nyambe (Tanzania); Okello Kelo Sam (Uganda); George Bwanika Seremba (Uganda) and Andrea Kalima Zawose (Tanzania). Discussion with the artists will be joined by leading African and African-American theatre artists and scholars. Project Designers include; Laura Edmondson, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Charles Mulekwa, playwright, Uganda (Brown University); Roberta Levitow, Theatre Without Borders, Santa Monica, CA; and Liesl Tommy, Director, South Africa-NYC. Consortium partners include: Dartmouth College, Peter Hackett, Chair, Department of Drama; 651 ARTS, and Georgiana Pickett, Executive Director and Anna Glass, Managing Director.

This project was made possible by a generous grant from The Ford Foundation USA and East Africa Office. (www.fordfound.org)

3:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Monday, July 21 & Tuesday July 22, 2008, Martin E. Segal Theatre. Free!

Eti! East Africa Speaks! The Projects

Come Good Rain, a play written and performed by George Bwanika Seremba, is an autobiographical account of Seremba's terrifying experiences in 1970s Uganda. In a solo performance that integrates Ugandan song, folklore, and live percussion, he takes the audience on his journey from bare survival to triumph over the oppressive political regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

Forged in Fire is a collaborative performance piece by Okello Kelo Sam, Robert Ajwang’ and Laura Edmondson that integrates dance, music, and testimony to explore Okello’s wrenching experiences of the civil war in northern Uganda. Performed by Okello and Ajwang’.

They Call Me Wanjiku is a solo piece by Mumbi Kaigwa with music by Andrea Kalima Zawose that explores the complexites of what it means to be a woman in Kenya today, focusing on the struggle to reclaim and rearticulate lost names and identities.

Mtumishi wa Umma/Public Servant draws upon Parapanda’s unique style of Swahili-language ensemble theatre that fuses improvisation, dance, music, and drama. It features poet/performer Mrisho Mpoto in a piece exploring contemporary corruption in medical practice.

Eti! East Africa Speaks! The PArtners

Theatre Without Borders is a group of individual artists around the world who are interested in supporting international theatre exchange, advocating for theatre artists, as well as citizens of their respective nations and cultures, working through aninformational website, as well as through public forums to explore and encourage the exchange of international theatre projects and artists. www.theatrewithoutborders.com

Founded in 1769 and a member of the Ivy League, Dartmouth College includes an undergraduate arts and sciences program and four graduate schools. Eti! East African Speaks! is supported by the Leslie Humanities Center, the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, and the Department of Theater. www.dartmouth.edu

Since its founding in 1988, 651 ARTS mission has been to develop, produce and present arts and cultural programming grounded in the African Diaspora, with a primary focus on contemporary performing arts. 651 ARTS created the Africa Exchange program in 1995 to develop a centralized mechanism for strengthening and sustaining U.S.-based collaborations with performing artists from Africa. www.651arts.org

Eti! East Africa Speaks! The Artists

Deborah Asiimwe is a playwright and performer from Uganda. Her recent plays, including Appointment with gOD and Cooking Oil, were both read at the California Institute of the Arts. Her plays Lagoma is Searching, You are that Man, and My Secret had productions at the Uganda National Cultural Centre/National Theatre.		Deborah Asiimwe Photo courtesy of the artist
Hope Azeda Photo courtesy of the artist	Hope Azeda is the director and choreographer of Mashirika Creative and Performing Arts, in Kigali, Rwanda. Under her direction, the group created Rwanda My Hope, which was performed in Kigali at the 10th anniversary commemoration of the genocide, and also at the G8 World Summit in Edinburgh in 2005.
Mumbi Kaigwa is an actor, producer, and writer, as well as manager of the day-to-day affairs of The Theatre Company in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2003 Mumbi was awarded “Woman of the Year for Music and the Arts” by Eve Magazine, and she was President of Women Playwrights International from 2003-2005.		Mumbi Kaigwa Photo courtesy of the artist
Mgunga Mwa Mnyenyelwa Photo courtesy of the artist	Mgunga Mwa Mnyenyelwa is a co-founder of Parapanda Theatre Arts, one of Tanzania’s leading theatre companies. Under his leadership, Parapanda has become known for its fusion of Swahili storytelling, poetry, music, and dance, touring throughout East Africa, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Mrisho Mpoto is one of Tanzania’s most promising poets. He is also an actor, theatre director, and storyteller, working with Parapanda Theatre Lab. He has performed widely at festivals throughout Africa, Europe and East Asia. He is a founding member of the new company, BONGO DSM (Dar es Salaam.)		Mrisho Mpoto Photo courtesy of the artist
Charles Mulekwa Photo courtesy of the artist	Charles Mulekwa is one of Uganda’s most successful playwrights. In 2003 he earned a Ford Foundation International Fellowship and joined Brown University, Providence, RI where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies working on his dissertation, “Performing the Legacy of War in Uganda”.
Eva David Nyambe, an actor and storyteller, is a key member of Parapanda Theatre Arts in Tanzania. She was one of four Parapanda members featured in collaboration with S.O.P (Sounds of Progress) in Scotland. Most recently, she performed in Bongo Mtoni, which was performed at the Russian Tanzanian Cultural Center in Dar es Salaam last May.		Eva David Nyambe Photo courtesy of the artist
Andrea Kalima Zawose Photo courtesy of the artist	Andrea Kalima Zawose is a Tanzanian musician who collaborated with Mumbi Kaigwa and Eric Wainaina on KigeziNdoto. Recent performances include appearing in the Visa 2 Dance Festival at the Russian Cultural Center in Dar es Salaam. He is currently a student at the Bagamoyo College of Arts in Tanzania.
George Bwanika Seremba is a playwright and actor from Uganda. His play Come Good Rain debuted at Toronto's Factory Theatre Studio Cafe and has also played in Ottawa, Montreal, Los Angeles, London, Jerusalem and elsewhere; the play also won a Dora Award for “Most Outstanding New Play” in Toronto.		George Bwanika Seremba Photo courtesy of the artist
Okello Kelo Sam and Robert Ajwang’ Photo courtesy of the artist	Okello Kelo Sam is the creative director of the Ndere Troupe, an internationallyknown dance troupe in Uganda. He has given workshops throughout Europe and the US on Ugandan dance and music. His play Forged in Fire has been performed in Tallahassee, FL and Los Angeles, CA. Robert Ajwang’ is a musician, dancer, and choreographer from northern Tanzania. He has performed and taught workshops throughout the US. He has taught as guest lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda, and his choreographed version of Malivata was performed at the National Theatre of Uganda in 2004.

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