A HOME Commission
By Chanje Kunda and Lloyd Nyikadzino
Join HOME in an international panel of experienced theatre makers from the UK and the African continent. Panel hosts Chanje Kunda (UK and international theatre performer, recently a representative on the National Freelancers Task Force) and Lloyd Nyikadzino (An award-winning theatre director and actor, founder of the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy Trust and artistic director for Mitambo International Theatre Festival) team up with an international panel of emerging and experienced artists to scope out what we’ve lost, what we’ve gained, and how to constructively create within the new horizons.
As creatives, we absorb the world around us and deliver performance and art based on our experience and learning. Before the pandemic, we took influence from the art we took part in and witnessed, as well as freely mixing with fellow creatives in organized and casual ways. The worldwide lockdowns have broken this natural confluence of creative networking and development. Has a virtual, zoom-connecting of networks inhibited our creative pathways, or enabled a wider platform of possibility. Who influences you during lockdown?
Live discussion with aspiring artists from Manchester, London, Zimbabwe, and other African countries. Here’s the artists on the panel and you can read their bios below:
- Cadrick Msongelwa
- Lady Tshawe
- Mandla Rae
- Mercy Geno Apachi
- Taiwo Afolabi
- Zorazelda King
Pricing
Tickets are available as ‘Pay What You Can’ – the suggested price for this event is £5 – but there are a range of ticket prices so you can choose what you can afford from the options, including £0 as we want as many people as possible to access our Homemakers commissions.
We’ve also included a higher option for anyone who wants to take the opportunity to make a larger donation to our artists and organisations. How much you choose to pay is completely up to you, and every audience member will receive exactly the same content and experience.
All the money raised from ticket sales for this event will be split evenly with 50% going directly to the artist and 50% to HOME’s response fund to allow HOME to continue to support future artists and commissions.
The artists will donating all the money raised to the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy Trust, who support and train theatre makers in Zimbabwe.
Homemakers Project Overview
Homemakers is a series of new commissions, where we invite our favourite artists and artistic partners to combine to create work at home, for an audience who are also at home.
We’re not pretending that all art can be experienced online just as satisfactorily as in person; but we want to demonstrate the innovation of artists who work all kinds of forms, by inviting them to respond to this very specific context. We want to bring contemporary new performance to audiences all over the world, in all its form-flexing, mind-expanding, surprising subversive brilliance.
Access
We are ensuring that all the Homemakers commissions are accessible as possible for everyone so if you need to access this project in a different format please email access@homemcr.org
About Chanje
Chanje Kunda is a poet, playwright and performance artist. Her work explores 21st century life, and aims to use art as a tool to transform lives, shift consciousness and also bring joy to an otherwise serious and stressful modern existence. She predominately works as a solo artist in performance, across the literary, theatrical and live art sectors.
UK performance highlights include features at The Royal Albert Hall, the Southbank and the Royal Exchange, in addition to touring arts centres and festivals throughout the country. Internationally she has performed at the Calabash Literature Festival, Jamaica. As an artist-in-residence in the Netherlands, she has performed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen. She has also toured work to Zimbabwe and South Africa. Other international representation includes selection by the British Council for IETM conferences in Romania and Croatia.
In addition to her live performance work, Chanje has produced audio visual performance for digital media. During lockdown in 2020, Chanje has had creative commissions from DadaFest International Festival, Manchester International Festival and the Imperial War Museum.
Instagram @chanje.kunda
Twitter: @Chanjekunda
FB: @chanjekunda
About LLoyd
Lloyd Nyikadzino is a multi-award winning theatre professional with over 10years of experience. He continues to work extensively as an educator, director, arts manager, performer and arts consultant, locally and internationally.
A graduate of Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and University of Zimbabwe; serving as school director for the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy and artistic director for Mitambo International Theatre Festival. Lloyd is a fellow at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts-USA, Theatertreffen Fellow – Germany, Magnet Theatre –South Africa and The Lab – Georgetown University-USA.
He has been involved with a number of Zimbabwe communities in creating and presenting performances for social transformation, targeting the politically, socially and economically marginalized populations. He has also worked as a guest mentor at the University of Zimbabwe –Theatre Arts Department, theatre guest lecturer at the Midlands State University and a drama teacher at Girls High School, Harare in Zimbabwe. He also serves as a worldwide coordinator of the International Theatre Institute’s – Network of Emerging Arts Professionals (NEAP), which is committed to the professional development of the next generation of global cultural leaders.
Cadrick Msongelwa
Cadrick, well known as Khekhe, is an award winning theatre actor and a professionally trained clown. He is a 2019 National Arts Merit Awards nominee and the Co-founder of Infinity Arts Trust. Have received his theatre training from different institutions Dell’Arte International School of Physical theatre, USA (DAI) 2019-20, Zimbabwe Theatre Academy (ZTA) 2018-19, Center for Talent Development (CTD) 2013-2018 and Schools Playwrights and Actors Academy (SPAA) 2013-16 and Gifford High School. He has been involved in quite a number of productions to name a few Zandezi 2018 (RoilBAA Award winning show), Sons of Men 2020, Breathing Graves (ZTA), Witch Hunters (CTD) and Flat dwellers (SPAA).
Instagram: @cadrickkhekhe
Twitter: @khekhe2017
Facebook: Cadrick Khekhe Msongelwa
Lady Tshawe
Lady Tshawe is an award winning, multi-talented artist. Her artistic style, expression and image embody her abilities, aspirations and achievements. She is a force whose convictions and views about equal opportunities for self-expression influence her writing, theatrical roles, music and conversations.
She advocates for expressing herself as a person, which is far from the need to be afforded privileges because she is a woman. She aspires to influence the performing, entertainment and research sectors globally.
She has performed in numerous theatre productions in and outside the country such as Zambezi Express, Tellers: The Musical and Blood Tongue which saw her win best theatre actress in 2018 at Bulawayo Arts Awards (BAA) just to name but a few. In 2019 she wrote and directed her first theatre production called 6.55 which saw her win the 2020 Bulawayo Arts Awards (BAA) best Theatre Production.
Lady Tshawe is a holder of a BA in Drama and Ethnomusicology from Rhodes University and is currently studying towards her MBA.
Instagram: @Ladytshawe
Twitter: @Ladytshawe
Facebook: Ladytshawe
Mandla Rae
Mandla Rae is a Black, Zimbabwean, agender and queer writer and performer. Obsessed with archives and storytelling, they make work that draws from their personal experiences and heritage, to prove that they exist and create connections with their audiences. Mandla has performed their work at Contact, the Royal Exchange, HOME and Leeds Playhouse. They are also an Associate Artist with Outbox Theatre.
Instagram: @mandlarae
Twitter: @mandla_rae
FB: Mandla Rae
Mercy Geno Apachi
Mercy Geno Apachi started out with a journalism career in Senior six vacation at a local community radio station in Kitgum district known as Mighty Fire FM where she co-hosted a weekend show and later became their youngest English News Anchor.
She then joined Uganda Christian University where she joined the Inter Universities journalism competitions organised by Media Challenge Initiative and won her first award as Best Business reporter in 2015, second runner up best English news anchor in 2016, and was selected among the best 20 students to look out for in Journalism to join the first ever Media Challenge fellowship program in 2018.
In 2017 she participated in the East African Students Film Festival held at Daystar University in Nairobi where she was first runner up in the Documentaries category for her story on Nodding Syndrome in Northern Uganda.
She was also a contributing writer to her class end of year film project and eventually later she acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism on 2018.
In an initiative with Konrad Adeneur Stiftung, Uganda and Media Challenge she was picked as a student to go for a media trip in Berlin, Germany in 2019 of which she returned to be a part of a theatre fellowship with Tebere Emerging Artists lab where she wrote her first play “Ojwiny” a true story about journalism yet to be published.
She has been a part of the African Writers Trust publishing process Residency programme in 2020 and Emerging Artists Theatre Lab residency workshop in 2019.
In 2021 Mercy has been a poetry judge for Voluntary Support Organisation where poetry was subimitted by youth to promote understanding and peaceful co-existence during and after elections.
Twitter: @genoapachi
Facebook: Mercy Geno Apachi
Taiwo Afolabi
Taiwo Afolabi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Regina, Canada. He is an applied theatre practitioner working across a variety of creative and community contexts. He is the founding artistic director of Theatre Emissary International, Nigeria and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has worked in over fifteen countries across four continents. He is also: Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Research Affiliate, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, London; Research Affiliate, African Research Group/Kaldor Centre’s Emerging Scholars Network, University of New South Wales, Australia; Fellow at the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, Canada; Co-president, the Network of Emerging Artist Professional, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Theatre Institute (ITI), Executive Committee Member, International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR); Director and Co-initiator of Onion Theatre Project, Canada. He served as a member of the Human Research Ethics Board, University of Victoria, and editorial board member, West Africa Theatre and Performing Arts Journal and board member of Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Twitter: @taiwo_afolabi
Website: taiwoafolabi.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taiwoafolabi
Zorazelda King
Zorazelda King is an Early Career Community Arts Practitioner, Theatre Maker and Facilitator based in the North West and South Yorkshire.
Since graduating the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the summer of 2020 with a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Applied Theatre and Community Drama, she has worked within the industry supporting Early Career Artists and Practitioners (ECAPs). As a representative on the National Freelance Task Force she was sponsored by Contact where she co-wrote ‘A document in support of Early Career Artists and Practitioners‘ which has been signed by leading theatres and organisations across the UK and co-founded the Facebook group, ‘Early Career Artists and Practitioners Network’ which currently holds over 1.3k members. She has been continuing this work with Stage Directions Salford, running consultations with ECAPs across the UK helping to shape their program ‘Its Your Cue’. Additionally, she has been working within the Youth Sector as a project worker and continues to strive making participatory theatre and theatre for social change in and with communities!
Instagram: @zorazelda.king
Twitter: Zorazelda_king
FB: Zorazelda King