Eveline High tops schools theatre productions

EVELINE High School is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in school theatre productions as their first spot in high schools drama competitions organised by Intwasa Festival and Plan international held recently attest to that effect.

When they came second in last year's National High School Heads finals in Gweru courtesy of an error by the adjudicators which robbed them of 30 points, people thought their position was only but a fluke but to Eveline High it marked the end of their dry spell and announced the beginning of their dominance in Zimbabwe's schools theatre.

So splendid was the Eveline's performance during the Intwasa Festival such that they bagged the top spot.

Their production was titled "Before Our Eyes". It tackled topical social issues affecting especially girl children such as domestic violence, poverty and greed. When B-Metro spoke to Thabani Moyo, Eveline's Teacher Director for drama club, he said the level of competition was high among Bulawayo's high schools hence they have also raised their standards.

"The level of Bulawayo's schools' drama is now pitched at a higher level unlike the yester-year which was only a sketch.

"Through participation in various workshops we now use scripts to guide the play unlike improvisation which used to be done in the years gone by.

"When we participated in Masvingo Youth Festival people were shocked and started asking questions whether the Eveline actors were school pupils or actors from a theatre institution, that says a lot about our level of acting as compared to the rest of the country," said Moyo.

The school also faces a challenge of maintaining standards as with the passing of each year they lose pupils to tertiary education and other high schools.

"Our challenge now is to maintain standard every year. We lose actors as upper sixes will be furthering their education at tertiary level while those in form four opt for other schools for their A level," he said.

He also took the opportunity to demystify misconceptions rife within parents about acting. "There is a notion that school kids who like drama are not gifted academically. With my cast its different as most of them are in upper six and those in form four are actually in the first classes, besides it takes an intelligent pupil to master the script and that memorisa¬tion spills to other activities and subjects in class. I think slowly we are correcting that dangerous misconception," he said.

Under the tutelage of Moyo Eveline has won several awards which include Isiphiwo Sami which afforded them an opportunity to go to Swaziland with their actresses Bathabile Dlamini and Lindiwe Nyathi winning top accolades.

They have represented Bulawayo on more than three occasions and next week on Friday they represent Bulawayo at the national finals of the Nash drama competitions to be held in Bindura. They carry the city's hopes alongside Gifford and Nketa High School.