Entertainment / Arts
Rooftop Promotions to take part in this year's Intwasa Festival 2015
18 Sep 2015 at 10:11hrs | Views
Rooftop Promotions will this year be taking part at the Intwasa Festival 2015 to be held at the end of this month in Bulawayo.
After we successfully ran our two plays the hilarious Juju Soccer and the emotional The Past is For the Future with some of Zimbabwe's finest and most sort after actors and actresses, Rooftop Promotions is combining the cast from both plays into one production.
The cast will battle it out in the production Taking A Spirit Home.
The intriguing script was written by the renowned writer Stephen Chifunyise and will be directed and produced by theatre guru Daves Guzha.
Eunice Tava and Lisa Gutu who were the cast in The Past is For the Future with Daves Guzha and Mandla Moyo in Juju Soccer will be joined by Dereck Nziyakwi.
Tava who successfully directed The Past is For the Future will be the assistant director of the play.
Rooftop Promotions Producer Daves Guzha said theatre patrons should come to this year's Intwasa Festival and watch award winning performances by the Taking the Spirit Home cast.
"By just reading the names of the cast that has been put together one can tell what is expected on the day as these are natural actors and actresses and blending them together will give the cast a chance to share and show how they react naturally to imagined circumstances."
Writer Stephen Chifunyise said the issue of taking the spirit home concerns many Zimbabweans whose relatives die outside the country. Some insist on the body being brought home to ensure that the kurova guva rites will be performed especially if the dead are men with families at home.
"The message in this play is how Zimbabwean respect their culture, their spiritual values and how they will struggle to ensure that they follow their spiritual and other traditions. Many Zimbabweans belief that ancestors who die live as spirits must be brought home to become guardians of the remaining members of the family and whose names must be inherited and never be forgotten as they are passed on from one generation to another.
"This belief explains why Zimbabweans go into huge expensive bring home the bodies of their dead relatives for burial in their rural homes.
"The bringing the spirit home is a much cheaper method of ensuring that the dead are brought home."
Story line
Shona man from Chivi working in Johannesburg is killed during the xenophobia disturbances in Johannesburg. The man's South African wife decides to have him buried at her home in Zululand.
Almost a year after the man's death, his parents sends the man's nephew to Zululand to bring the spirit of his uncle home so that a kurova guva rite can be performed to ensure that all inheritance issues are dealt with ,his wife inherited and the man's name inherited by his eldest son.
The nephew travels to Zululand and is allowed to take a stone from the grave of his uncle that becomes the container of his spirit to be taken home.
At Oliver Tambo Airport the nephew meets serious challenges as the airport security cannot allow him to board the Air Zimbabwe plane with the rock which they claim he will use as a weapon to highjack the plane.
The scan machine reveals that a wrapped parcel that a Zimbabwean expatriate, Fungai (Dereck Nziyakwi) working in South Africa, wants to take into the plane is a rock.
The security officer Sibusisiwe (Lisa Gutu) tells Fungai that he cannot take that rock into the plane as it is against aviation security regulations.
A nasty argument erupts between the two as Fungai insist that it is not a rock but the spirit of his relative who had died in the massacre of mine workers at Marikane and wants to give it a decent burial back home in Zimbabwe.
The spat goes on with Tendai (Eunice Tava) a Rhodes University lecturer joining the two, fighting over the belief and security regulations.
As the heated arguments continues they are joined by a charismatic Pentecostal Pastor (Daves Guzha) also from Zimbabwe who makes the situation even worse when he accuses Fungai and Tendai of being possessed with the evil spirit and offers to clean the whole airport of satanic invasion.
Cast profiles
Daves Guzha is an award winning actor, prominent theatre practitioner, director and producer of numerous political and socio-economic creative productions for social change.
Eunice Tava, who will also be the assistant director is an award winning and veteran actress who had roles in productions such as Ganyau express, Heavens Diary, Madam Speaker Sir, and Alone but Together, a feature film Sinners among others.
To date she has directed Colours of dreams, Election Day and most recently the Past is For the Future.
Lisa Gutu, a recent University of Zimbabwe, Bachelor of Arts (Honors in Theatre Arts graduate with a bundle of talent. This will be her second performance under Rooftop Promotions after she even surprise everyone by her award winning performance in The Past is For the Future with her hidden talent she possesses.
The young actress also took part in Tokwe Mukosi the Musical as a singer.
Mandla Moyo multi-award winner whose theatrical exploits have seen him perform in more than 20 countries worldwide. Trained at Amakhosi Theatre Productions, and in Conservative theatre by Theatre for Africa in Cape Town.
He has also done a lot of productions with Rooftop Promotions and Wellworn Theatre Productions based in South Africa.
A recipient of 2007 Nama Award for his role in Tomorrow's People production and was also nominated in 2011 for his role in Rituals and again a 2013 nominee for his role in The Village.
Moyo is currently training physical animal movement theatre.
Dereck Nziyakwi is not new on live performances having worked with Rooftop promotions on numerous productions that toured the country such as Dependants, Wedding Day and the radio production of Waiting For The Constitution. Some of the production he has played some roles include I Have Sinned, in the feature film, Two Villages Apart, Playing Warriors and television series, The Team Zimbabwe, New Dawn,-PFuma and Ghetto Fellas among a host of other radio, television and film productions.
Producer and Director. Daves Guzha
Assistant Director. Eunice Tava
Written by. Stephen Chifunyise
After we successfully ran our two plays the hilarious Juju Soccer and the emotional The Past is For the Future with some of Zimbabwe's finest and most sort after actors and actresses, Rooftop Promotions is combining the cast from both plays into one production.
The cast will battle it out in the production Taking A Spirit Home.
The intriguing script was written by the renowned writer Stephen Chifunyise and will be directed and produced by theatre guru Daves Guzha.
Eunice Tava and Lisa Gutu who were the cast in The Past is For the Future with Daves Guzha and Mandla Moyo in Juju Soccer will be joined by Dereck Nziyakwi.
Tava who successfully directed The Past is For the Future will be the assistant director of the play.
Rooftop Promotions Producer Daves Guzha said theatre patrons should come to this year's Intwasa Festival and watch award winning performances by the Taking the Spirit Home cast.
"By just reading the names of the cast that has been put together one can tell what is expected on the day as these are natural actors and actresses and blending them together will give the cast a chance to share and show how they react naturally to imagined circumstances."
Writer Stephen Chifunyise said the issue of taking the spirit home concerns many Zimbabweans whose relatives die outside the country. Some insist on the body being brought home to ensure that the kurova guva rites will be performed especially if the dead are men with families at home.
"The message in this play is how Zimbabwean respect their culture, their spiritual values and how they will struggle to ensure that they follow their spiritual and other traditions. Many Zimbabweans belief that ancestors who die live as spirits must be brought home to become guardians of the remaining members of the family and whose names must be inherited and never be forgotten as they are passed on from one generation to another.
"This belief explains why Zimbabweans go into huge expensive bring home the bodies of their dead relatives for burial in their rural homes.
"The bringing the spirit home is a much cheaper method of ensuring that the dead are brought home."
Story line
Shona man from Chivi working in Johannesburg is killed during the xenophobia disturbances in Johannesburg. The man's South African wife decides to have him buried at her home in Zululand.
Almost a year after the man's death, his parents sends the man's nephew to Zululand to bring the spirit of his uncle home so that a kurova guva rite can be performed to ensure that all inheritance issues are dealt with ,his wife inherited and the man's name inherited by his eldest son.
The nephew travels to Zululand and is allowed to take a stone from the grave of his uncle that becomes the container of his spirit to be taken home.
At Oliver Tambo Airport the nephew meets serious challenges as the airport security cannot allow him to board the Air Zimbabwe plane with the rock which they claim he will use as a weapon to highjack the plane.
The scan machine reveals that a wrapped parcel that a Zimbabwean expatriate, Fungai (Dereck Nziyakwi) working in South Africa, wants to take into the plane is a rock.
The security officer Sibusisiwe (Lisa Gutu) tells Fungai that he cannot take that rock into the plane as it is against aviation security regulations.
A nasty argument erupts between the two as Fungai insist that it is not a rock but the spirit of his relative who had died in the massacre of mine workers at Marikane and wants to give it a decent burial back home in Zimbabwe.
The spat goes on with Tendai (Eunice Tava) a Rhodes University lecturer joining the two, fighting over the belief and security regulations.
As the heated arguments continues they are joined by a charismatic Pentecostal Pastor (Daves Guzha) also from Zimbabwe who makes the situation even worse when he accuses Fungai and Tendai of being possessed with the evil spirit and offers to clean the whole airport of satanic invasion.
Cast profiles
Daves Guzha is an award winning actor, prominent theatre practitioner, director and producer of numerous political and socio-economic creative productions for social change.
Eunice Tava, who will also be the assistant director is an award winning and veteran actress who had roles in productions such as Ganyau express, Heavens Diary, Madam Speaker Sir, and Alone but Together, a feature film Sinners among others.
To date she has directed Colours of dreams, Election Day and most recently the Past is For the Future.
Lisa Gutu, a recent University of Zimbabwe, Bachelor of Arts (Honors in Theatre Arts graduate with a bundle of talent. This will be her second performance under Rooftop Promotions after she even surprise everyone by her award winning performance in The Past is For the Future with her hidden talent she possesses.
The young actress also took part in Tokwe Mukosi the Musical as a singer.
Mandla Moyo multi-award winner whose theatrical exploits have seen him perform in more than 20 countries worldwide. Trained at Amakhosi Theatre Productions, and in Conservative theatre by Theatre for Africa in Cape Town.
He has also done a lot of productions with Rooftop Promotions and Wellworn Theatre Productions based in South Africa.
A recipient of 2007 Nama Award for his role in Tomorrow's People production and was also nominated in 2011 for his role in Rituals and again a 2013 nominee for his role in The Village.
Moyo is currently training physical animal movement theatre.
Dereck Nziyakwi is not new on live performances having worked with Rooftop promotions on numerous productions that toured the country such as Dependants, Wedding Day and the radio production of Waiting For The Constitution. Some of the production he has played some roles include I Have Sinned, in the feature film, Two Villages Apart, Playing Warriors and television series, The Team Zimbabwe, New Dawn,-PFuma and Ghetto Fellas among a host of other radio, television and film productions.
Producer and Director. Daves Guzha
Assistant Director. Eunice Tava
Written by. Stephen Chifunyise
Source - Robert Tapfumaneyi
