Theatre is in a sorry state—Ntam president

On Monday, the National Theatre Association of Malawi (Ntam) announced the establishment of a national theatre competition. Ntam leadership says the competition is one of its initiatives to revive theatre in Malawi which almost went on its knees due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our Staff Reporter BRIAN ITAI caught up with Ntam president Maxwell Chiphinga to reflect on the state of theatre in Malawi. Excerpts:

Q

: What are your thoughts on the state of theatre in Malawi?

A

: It is safe to say it is in a sorry state at the moment. We are not as active as we used to be. There are several factors of course, but the fact remains we are not active.

Q

: What are these factors that you can point at?

A

: The Covid-19 pandemic affected us a lot and there is also the issue of lack of proper venues. These two factors have brought theatre on its knees in recent years.

Q

: As an association what are you doing to revive theatre?

A

: Last year we came up with an initiative only that we failed to raise a budget to finance it. We came up with an idea of hosting an international theatre festival. A number of countries showed interest to participate. We needed K66 million to adequately finance the event, unfortunately we were not able to raise the funds. Maybe because the time was not enough. We have decided to approach the idea with patience and we are still pursuing it little by little. Maybe next year we may go back on the idea. But this year we are coming with a theatre competition to reinvigorate both the industry players and our audiences to alert them that as theatre practitioners we are still here. We are going to have different categories such as drama, traditional dances and stand-up comedy. It will start at the regional level with the grand finale at national level.

Q

: How will this competition help in elevating the state of theatre in Malawi?

A

: We still have a lot of people out there who love theatre and we want to get back this constituency. These people do not know who is doing what and where in terms of theatre performances. We want to reconnect with this audience and through this platform we believe we will do that. We are going to use the online platforms which will allow people to experience theatre from their own homes. We will also involve them in the voting process of the competition.

Q

: Have you already secured funds for this competition?

A

: So far we have funds for the regional rounds. We are still trying to mobilise funds for the national stage. We are expecting to roll out the regional stages in September. We have launched the concept of crowdfunding. We want people to contribute towards the arts.  The contribution can be as little as they can manage. If we can have 15 000 Malawians contribute K1 000 that can help us meet the K15 million budget. There is power in unity. It is wrong to think that people who must support art are only the organisations, government and companies. Even the general public can play its role. There are people who are willing to help but they just do not know how. This platform will allow them to offer their assistance. They will be sending directly to our set accounts which we will make available to the public. We will be giving periodical updates on the progress at least fortnightly on our website.

Q

: You mentioned a lack of proper theatre venues, what do you think needs to be done to address the challenge?

A

: I also happen to be the chairperson of the National Arts and Heritage Bill task force. Through this platform we have been engaging the government on the establishment of the Arts Council. That is a major step we can take as a creative industry in Malawi. Once we can have this council in place we will be assured that there will be funds allocated to help the various creative sectors. Because we lack that legal framework there are no funds that can be channelled towards the industry. The Department of Arts cannot facilitate some things like an Arts Council would do since its mandate is different. The Arts Council will put up projects that are specifically for promotion of arts in the country. We have the Blantyre Cultural Centre which is no longer functioning. If we can have that venue back, that is where we can start from. We are fighting for this and the ministry has indicated that it will fight until it is done. The contractor has promised that at least by October the facility will be functional. That gives us hope.