The second edition of the three-day University of Malawi (Unima) Theatre Festival ended yesterday in Zomba with several creatives heaping praise on the event.
The festival, which this year received support from players such as Standard Bank Plc., had challenges in its debut outing last year.
But this year, the festival which featured a variety of artistic doings from music, poetry, theatre, comedy, traditional dances and workshops on among others, acting and script writing was a success.
National Theatre Association of Malawi (Ntam) leader Maxwell Chiphinga popularly known as Max DC, said the festival delivered and that people got the experience.
“It was wonderful, a huge improvement from last year, of course there were some glitches on the first day in terms of time management but come second day this was rectified. Performers also did their best and gave theatre lovers well baked productions,” Chiphinga said.
He said apart from the performances, workshops were also an eye-opener and gave creatives insights on how to make progress with their art.
“As Ntam, it is our desire to see this festival flourish and become big and even host both local and international artists. It is also good to see companies coming out to support and it shows they value art,” the Ntam leader said.
James Thole, who was one of the facilitators from the Department of Arts in the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, also shared Chiphinga’s sentiments saying it was a great improvement from the initial edition last year.
“The organization was good with the youth assigned to different festival areas. Programming was good and planned acts were presented on prescribed times,” Thole, who conducted a traditional dance workshop, said.
Seasoned actor Mphundu Mjumira, who facilitated an acting workshop, also said the festival lived up to its billing.
“The festival was so great. I loved first, the ambience which was very artistic. You could feel the presence of different angles of art. It was well organised. For me it is the best artistic festival that accommodated all aspects of art. The other highlight for me is when I saw schools being invited,” Mjumira said.
He said art needs to be supported because “artists survive from it.”
The festival’s chairperson Zindaba Chisiza said they will continue to perfect the event with an aim of promoting the creative sector.
Some of the renowned artists that performed on the last day of the festival included Temwah and Kell Kay.
0 Comments