Faculty member, Janessa Johnsrude, recently spent two weeks teaching workshops at the Zimbabwe Theater Academy (ZTA) in Harare, Zimbabwe. The training program was founded by Dell’Arte International alumni, Lloyd Nyikadzino and Teddy Mangawa and is near completion of its inaugural year. ZTA is a full time, one-year professional program launched this September in partnership with Dell’Arte International and the Pamberi Trust. The program is based in the principles of the Dell’Arte training.
During her time, Janessa taught classes in mask and movement to ZTA students as well as physical theatre classes to participants of the South African Development Communities Theatre Camp (SADC) which includes professional theatre arts practitioners from Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe in partnership with Savanna Trust. Janessa was also asked to present work on Dell’Arte’s Pelican Bay Prison Project to SADC participants and ZTA students which resulted in a roundtable on the various justice systems and integration of the arts from respective countries represented.
In addition, students from Griffon High School joined the ZTA students in a culminating mask performance lab and did a showing of their own work as part of the lab.
Zimbabwean artists Tafadzwa Bob Mutumbi, Nyarie Nhongonhema, and Chipo Chikara are also Dell’Arte alumni and collaborators in this pioneering the program at ZTA, whose mission is to train, inspire and empower the next generation of Zimbabwean theatre makers.