An Investigation into the Practice of Directing and Theatre Making in Post-Independence Zimbabwe up to 1990: Some Urban Theatre Directors and/or Theatre Makers as Case Studies

Abstract

This article examines the theatre making and directing styles inherent in urban Zimbabwean theatre in the first ten years after independence. It does so by scrutinising the works of selected urban theatre makers and/or directors in order to access the general modifications that they have made to the theatre of the period. The objective is to appreciate the characteristics of such theatre for purposes of delineating the theatrical style of the period. In addition, the article also discusses the manner in which the socio-historical environment influenced a whole array of the creative processes involved in a production. The article further argues that the theatrical style of the period both collaborated with and resisted Western illusionistic theatre aesthetics as practised by the historically dominant white mainstream theatre.