Theatre makers should be professional

In Uganda, the day was celebrated at the Uganda National Cultural Centre, organised by the International Theatre Institute. The Ugandan celebrations were mainly a number of keynote speeches and performances by up and coming theatermakers.

There was a panel discussion that brought together Dr. Mercy Ntangare, Dr. James Isabirye, Cathy Bagaya, and Mariam Ndagire.

The panel mainly discussed the importance of professionalising theatre if it is to adapt to changing times. All the speakers agreed that if theatre is to be reignited, a lot has to change, from those that are making theatre to those that are consuming the art.

Bagaya, one of the founding members of Fun Factory, said that between people who run theatre companies and those that work for them, there should be transparency.

“Some of you will get out of school, work for a company, and in your mind, the show is selling out, yet in the actual sense, there is no money being made,” she says while urging students to have more than a single plan.

Ndagire recounted the time she joined theatre as a teenager and has been learning many things along the way. Over the years, she has gone from being an actor to a writer, producer, and entrepreneur.

She says that in theatre, especially in a country like Uganda, no one opens doors for new talent, they simply make their own doors and open them for themselves; “the moment you start making waves, people will show up to work with you.”

“Before I was schooled, I thought the most important thing was waking up to act. I however learned that there were many departments, and all these needed the right people for theatre to function,” she says.

But before the panel discussion, Alex Mukulu delivered a keynote speech where he decried bad theatre practices that have left the art in a  dire position.

He says some of these things were created by thespians while others came from Uganda and Ugandans as a society.

For instance, Mukulu says Ugandans love gossip and thus have stopped taking any non gossip material serious, “Even for concerts, people wish to attend those where singers are shouting at them, even without saying anything sensible, yet theatre is a place people should come to think.”

He also notes that many thespians have been responsible for theatre’s unlikely position today, he says most of them started missing the reason why they put on shows.

“We don’t have responsibility as artists, and neither do we have integrity; for instance, many producers were given over Shs700 million to produce the play Cease Fire, and up until now, there has been no play to show,” he says.

He also decried the lack of discipline, especially among the celebrated artists, many of whom he said never read the script or showed up for rehearsals.

Alex Mukulu’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet premiered at the National Theatre on Good Friday, and the shows are absolutely free.