Start The New Year With Us!

The 2018 Almasi African Playwrights Conference to be held from January 3-13th.

We at Almasi are pleased to announce our second Almasi African Playwright’s Conference will take place from January 3rd to 13th 2018 in Harare, Zimbabwe. We have three exciting new Zimbabwean voices on deck to have their new plays developed under the facilitation of visiting American playwright Alice Tuan. Our 2017 Walter Muparutsa Fellow Gideon Wabvuta will return to Zimbabwe to work as the resident dramaturg. It is thrilling to have Gideon, who, just two years ago was an aspiring playwright in our last conference and is now pursuing his MFA in writing at the University of Southern California, return to Zimbabwe to plow back into the next crop of young Zimbabwean writers. The conference will hold staged readings of the new plays, free to the public, from January 12th to 13th. Learn more about our visiting artist Alice Tuan and our three playwrights: Rudo Mutangadura, Farai Mabeza and Patrick Miller below. And if you are in Harare, definitely make a plan to attend our staged readings and hear these new Zimbabwean plays presented to the world for the first time. We are excited to conduct another fruitful collaborative exchange between American and Zimbabwean artists and facilitate the potential of new African talent.

Alice Tuan is a U.S. playwright, teacher, and performer. Tuan has had over a dozen works produced, including Last of the Suns, Ajax (por nobody), Coastline, The Roaring Girle, and BATCH, one-act plays Some Asians and Manilova, 9 short plays and a self-scribed hypertext performance as part of En Garde Arts’ final production, the site-specific Secret History of the Lower East Side. Tuan has facilitated playwright workshops at all levels throughout the United States, including MFA candidates at both the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Austin, and the California Institute of the Arts. Before becoming a playwright, Tuan taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in China and Los Angeles.

Rudo Mutangadura is a writer who lives in Harare, Zimbabwe. She writes political and social commentary with a comic twist. She has written plays that have been read in Sweden and performed at Intwasa Festival, Harare Festival of the Arts (HIFA) and The National Arts Festival in South Africa. Rudo enjoys retro movies mainly from the 1960's, watching tutorials on youtube and she hopes to one day soon learn to ride a motorcycle so she can ride it across the length and breadth of Africa.

Farai Mabeza is a journalist working out of Harare, in his other life. He has a keen interest in blogging but theatre is his primary interest and passion. All the above feed into each other anyway. His heart, mind and soul are always attracted to a good work of art and he likes spending his time on the road travelling even for no apparent reason.

Patrick Miller (Millz) who's a Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumnus, Writer, and Artist is passionate about telling stories and creating imaginative content. Ever since his first performance as Joseph in a nativity play when he was five, Millz’ fascination with the arts has grown. Over two decades later, he is now a playwright, artist and an “activist on a sabbatical”. In April, he started the monthly Writers Meet-Up that is steadily growing in numbers and momentum. He is working on establishing the Writers’ Café to house not only the Writers Meet-Up but also other literary arts initiatives.

Bring in the New Year by Sponsoring An African artist!

Cultural Exchange Program Artist Grant
Through the Almasi Cultural Exchange Artist Grant, Almasi provides opportunities for exceptional African Dramatic Arts students and professionals to travel abroad for educational or professional purposes. The artist must have already received admittance to an American institution, have an arrangement with an artistic institution for an artistic exchange, or the purpose of travel must be to audition for American institutions that do not otherwise admit artists for study. This grant is also awarded to supplement scholarships already received or to facilitate artistic, cultural exchanges between the African artist and an American artistic institution.

Cultural Exchange Program Facilitator Grant
This grant is awarded to American artists traveling to Zimbabwe to facilitate educational and professional programs in collaboration with African artists. Alice Tuan and Gideon Wabvuta, the facilitators of 2018’s AAPF, are the latest recipients of the grant through Almasi Arts Alliance.

Almasi Walter Muparutsa Fellowship Artist of Excellence Grant
This fellowship allows exceptional African artists to take advantage of an educational opportunity abroad. Named in honor of a founding father of Zimbabwean dramatic arts, this fellowship currently allows Almasi’s 2016/17 Walter Muparutsa Fellow, Gideon Wabvuta to pursue a degree at the University of Southern California’s Dramatic Writing program. Almasi’s 2015 fellowship recipient, Tafbob Mutumbi, recently graduated with his MFA at the Dell’Arte International School for Physical Theatre thanks to the fellowship.

Artistic Training Exchange
These exchange programs are at the core of Almasi’s pillar of collaboration and principle of education. We wish to bring experts in various areas of the dramatic arts from the United States to educate and collaborate with our African dramatic artists. The goal with this exchange is to give African artists the knowledge necessary to further professionalize the Zimbabwean dramatic arts sector and to create fruitful collaboration and artistic relationships.

Almasi Staged Readings
Almasi’s staged readings series gives African actors, playwrights and directors the opportunity to collaborate, expand their knowledge of dramatic literature, and hone their skills while rehearsing for live staged readings of world-renowned plays. Our goal is to expose artists to great dramatic literature and facilitate excellent new African works that can compete on a global level and nurture African’s own legacy of dramatic literature.