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Kundai Marunya Arts Correspondent
International Theatre Festival Harare kicks off this morning with symposiums, presentations, workshops, discussions and performances lined up for the day at Harare Garden’s Theatre in The Park.

A joint celebration of World Theatre Day,which is today, and TITP’s third anniversary, the three-day festival features a mind-blowing line-up of local and regional plays.

Besides hosting players from the local theatre industry including organisations such as Savannah Trust, the festival invited players from South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. They are convening to discuss theatre and its ability to be an agent of social change and development.

TITP creative director Peter Churu said there will have over 10 productions.

“With about ten theatre productions, six of them coming from Zimbabwe and four coming from the SADC region – which includes Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania — this promises to be a real feast of theatre for those who love theatre.

“Besides the theatre productions we also have a really exciting programme of symposia where industry players from Zimbabwe will interact with their international industry counterparts to discuss issues that matter in this industry.

“For so long now we have been talking about a viable theatre industry in Zimbabwe. The conversations that come out of this symposia should lead us to the realization of that dream,” he said.

Theatre is an important contributor to the arts, and at a time when Zimbabwe is going through economic and political challenges, the festival aims to address whether art has played its unifying and pacifying role.

Theatre in The Park is the only venue in Harare’s CBD with regular plays. It scouts for plays across the country bringing them to the city centre.