My Conference Experience

Harare, April 19th 2019 | Virginia Jekanyika

My experience with the Almasi Playwrights Conference is one I will never forget. The play had started off as an aftermath of an albinism awareness campaign that I had been part of. The stories of my interviewees were still fresh in my heart. Their faces, their struggles – all culminating into voices and characters in my head. I had toyed with the idea of writing the play for weeks but hadn’t quite gotten around to it.

When the call from Almasi came, there were a hundred and one reasons why I couldn’t do it; living out of town at a time when fuel was scarce – how would I get there? Having a child in school beginning of a new term, being a freelance writer with prior commitments and here’s my favorite: I still hadn’t written the play. But I knew that this was my opportunity, this was the process that would see the play to life. Impossible was nothing, I had to be a part of the conference. So I wrote the play, three days non-stop.

Stepping into the workshop and hearing the play read out for the first time was daunting and unnerving. Alice Tuan, Gideon Wabvuta and Zaza Muchemwa however, helped me settle into the process and brought me a lot more calm. One of my greatest challenges had been receiving so much feedback at a time when I felt I was still finding the story myself. At times I felt pressured to incorporate an idea because the actors were passionate about it or had discussed it for a long time. But during the dramaturgy session with Alice and Gideon, I learned how to sift through the contributions and find what would help the play grow yet remaining true to my story. I also learned how to explore different possibilities for each character, going deep into backstories that may not necessarily appear in the play but explain and influence the trajectory of the storyline. The play being a vehicle to carry a serious message, I learned how to strike a balance between creating drama and addressing the communication objectives.

Interacting with the other playwrights was greatly enriching, we got to share ideas on our plays and we discussed how to survive as writers in these economic tempests. They made the space fun-filled, safe and conducive for developing the play. The actors too played a very important role. A lot of them being young resonated with the younger characters in my play and helped create an African but millennial-culture appropriate love story. They also helped to clearly define each character.

Working with Eyahra, the play director, was very interesting. I enjoyed the games and exercises she had for the actors, all of which were designed to help them connect with the characters and challenged them to do over and above what the script required of them.

The day of the reading made it all worthwhile for me. The delivery from the actors was nothing short of a stellar performance, I was left in tears. Hearing the comments from the audience, especially from people working in, living with or affected by albinism was such a big moment for me. I was proud and felt we had done justice to their plight.

I feel very privileged to have been part of this process and I leave the conference excited about this play and more equipped to take on other plays I may write in the future.