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Brenda Phiri Entertainment Reporter
Two outstanding local scriptwriters will this year represent the country at South Africa’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstwon from end of June to July 11. Renowned writer Leonard Mutsa and Rudo Mutangadura, who were shortlisted early this year, will take part at the festival where they will undergo training on adapting novels into plays together with writers from South Africa, Mozambique and Netherlands.
Speaking on his participation at the prestigious annual event, Mutsa said the initiative was a welcome move for local arts sector.

“This is a great opportunity for the local arts industry as it will help give a new lease of life to the brilliant literary work of writers. Making plays from novels will also help create interest in the books of legendary writers like Charles Mungoshi and Tsitsi Dangarembga among others,” he said.

Mutsa added that while there was not much investment in the practice at the moment more effort was being put in educational and not entertainment theatre.

“There have been writers who have adapted their novels into stage plays. While they have done a brilliant job at it this does little to curb the problem of writers being protective of certain aspects in their work. When other writers come in they give interesting takes and angles,” he said.

The duo will also be travelling with Savanna Trust director Daniel Maposa whose theatre company is the local training partner in the project.
“This initiative is a platform to develop the capacity of writers who are at master class level in their countries. They get training from highly skilled personnel from South Africa. Skilled writers are the first port of call in theatre productions. Better scripts translate to better plays,” he said.

The National Arts Festival is an important event on the South African cultural calendar, and is amongst the biggest annual celebrations of the arts in Africa.

It is held at the university city of Grahamstown situated in the Eastern Cape. The Festival consists of a Main and Fringe programme both administered by the National Arts Festival Office.

The programme comprises drama, dance, physical theatre, comedy, opera, music, jazz, visual art exhibitions, film, student theatre, street theatre, lectures, craft fair, workshops, tours (of the city and surrounding historic places) and a children’s arts festival.