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Men who have refused to bury theatre
Theatre actors on the stage
What you need to know:
- Theatre. Phillip Luswata, just like John Segawa and Abby Mukiibi, are the men who have refused theatre to die. At a time when theatre is almost dead, they are still going strong, penning plays and innovating ways to attract new audiences and call on their traditional ones.
“A thankless struggle, fruitless challenge and perilous duty. Who else has thought that of theatre? We could form an association to continue with our melancholy,” actor and academic, Phillip Luswata somewhat sarcastically joked in a Facebook post of April last year.
In a rather lengthy post this January, he announced that he would be staging a play every week in what is clearly a leap of faith, or as he put it; taking a plunge. He is ready to learn and argues that what drives social media is the unending flow of new content. What drove sketch comedy when Theatre Factory began, 20 years ago, was the promise of fresh two-hour content every week.
“We are now launching into a new experiment. Will audiences positively react to the commitment of a completely new full-length theatre play every weekend, throughout the 52 weekends of 2024? Is it even doable? How is it achievable? Who will watch all the new 52 plays?” he ponders.
So far, he has staged 14 new full-length plays under the Playwrights’ Playhouse and will close the year with some 52 or so plays. All titles are available, and each play is uploaded on YouTube after the staging as accountability for this intervention.
Luswata, just like John Segawa and Abby Mukiibi, are the men who have refused theatre to die. At a time when theatre is almost dead, they are still going strong, penning plays and devising innovative ways to attract new audiences and call on their traditional ones.
Mukiibi is currently staging a play titled Akajampuni that is headlined by Afri-talent but featuring local musicians, perhaps a way in which he is sure to attract a unique or different audience.
Today, unlike in the past, theatre or staged plays, as a form of entertainment, have to compete with which begs the questions, what is that keeps the theatre practitioners still at it.
Segawa explains, “What keeps me going is what theatre has given me as a person. I came to theatre as a young man of 22 and theatre has given another life and family and I owe everything to theatre. And most importantly my kids are born of theatre., so I am indebted to it and making sure I sustain it for the future generation.”
Luswata argues that theatre is not dead per se but theatre leadership is. “Theatre to function well demands clear hierarchy (in my experience). The incoming theatre maker needs to aspire to something to be able to competitively participate, while the established needs to mentor to have collaborators and remain relevant,” he states.
That needs to happen within a paradigm of respected hierarchies; from leadership, to performance spaces, to individual artists. Luswata observes that at the moment, there is a well observed hierarchy at the top with new artists having nothing to aspire to and the established have neither the artists to mentor nor the channels through which to connect with them.
He adds that current choices being made at the top are not helping either. While they look to aspire to perform at the top, when the National Theatre starts heavily advertising exclusively free tickets for a leading thespian, there is nothing to look up to.
The playwright says that in absence of nothing to look up to, they also offer free tickets to command relevance in their immediate communities and thus become relevant on the way to the possible top.
Segawa says that theatre is facing challenges and a topic that could take a day to discuss. “It is not viable as a business but viable as a form of art which must be sustained and theatre practitioners should target foreign funding because the government of Uganda is so polarized making it a hostile ground for serious theatre; that is why many are using simple forms of art like comedy to survive or sustain the trade. Local investment is difficult because of the perception of theatre by local investors. Many don’t understand the art,” Segawa elaborates.
Theatre, just like most art, thrives best within a benevolent environment. Luswata observes that what they do, generally, is a key community function to archive and extend community conversations.
Luswata is a keen believer in the idea that the public will recognize effort, so he keeps at it regardless of the challenges. Beyond stage production, he is tapping into new media platforms YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Segawa is pondering retirement though, saying theatre is too expensive a venture to sustain. Theatre is about actors coming together for a project, but todays would-be-good actors are preoccupied with creating personal content for their social media.
On his wish list, is putting up a complete theatre and film village in the form of a museum. Then, a school of sorts, state of the art auditorium, a health club and amphitheatre.
Luswata wishes for a restoration of hierarchy in the business so that an emerging thespian knows themselves as such and aspires to contribute within a well-structured paradigm. He wishes for a trade where mentors are recognized as such and compete between themselves at that level, to the benefit of those following in their footsteps.
He would also like to witness a symbiotic relationship between government and the craft – so that leadership appreciates that within theatre, lies the voice of the people, and thus see theatre as deserving of state benevolence (right now it is only taxation).
“I wish for the expansion of theatrical activities outside the city, so that the performer in Karamoja, can aspire to have their theatre piece consumed at Wava Theatre in Kyengera, as the Playwrights’ Playhouse production in showing in Moroto – simply because the spaces exist – before showing at the National Theater,” he discloses, adding that theatre needs better resourcing of the Theatre Schools so that they are able to produce theatre practitioners that are equipped to compete in the technologically advancing world, and not create those who retreat to social media as alternatives to theatre.
There is a lot of space for theatre done right and with creative honesty. Creatives still have a lot to say through just dialogue and acting, but through dance, poetry, music, painting, mime and puppetry.
