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Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages
Podcast
Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages
by Fumbani Innot Phiri, Vitu Gwambaike Zgambo
17 January 2023
Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
Podcast
Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
by Fumbani Innot Phiri, Thomas Chibambo
9 January 2023
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
by Fumbani Innot Phiri, Bright Africa Makina, Evelyn Kaipa, Prince Kazembe, Deborah Butao, Ngwenyama Nkhata
4 January 2023
Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages
Podcast

Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages

17 January 2023

Theatre for development, which uses theatre to foster civic dialogue in communities, is quite popular in Malawi. Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. sits down with theatre for development practitioner Vitu Gwambaike Zgambo find out what commercial theatremakers in Malawi’s cities and towns can learn from the community-based practitioners creating theatre in villages around the country.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
Podcast

Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival

9 January 2023

When filmmaker Thomas Chibambo founded the Blantyre Arts Festival in 2009, it was Malawi’s first multi-disciplinary arts festival. He joins host Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to discuss the Blantyre Arts Festival’s current plans to better support theatrical performance and his own work to establish an Arts Council in Malawi.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast

How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment

4 January 2023

YDC Theatre has been producing theatre consistently in Malawi, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They join Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to trace the connections between the company’s consistent work centering Malawian perspectives, their efforts to build an audience, and the political and funding climate that they must navigate.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Making Theatre as a Multi-Hyphenate in Malawi
Podcast

Making Theatre as a Multi-Hyphenate in Malawi

21 December 2022

Pleasant Theodore Banda led Rise Arts to its first international performance in Zimbabwe. In this interview, he discusses his path into artistic direction as an actor and playwright with a background in accounting.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Developing Genuine Malawian Theatre on Stage and on the Radio
Podcast

Developing Genuine Malawian Theatre on Stage and on the Radio

14 December 2022

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. interviews playwright and director Inno Katz about his career and his efforts to redefining Malawian theatre by focusing on local stories in both English and Chichewa.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation
Podcast

Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation

7 December 2022

Jack Msumba, creative director of Youth Developers Collaboration Theatre, has big ideas for the future of Malawian theatre. In this interview, he shares his plans to eventually build Malawi’s first theatre house by producing work consistently in schools, communities, and commercial settings.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education
Podcast

Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education

30 November 2022

Lydia Deborah Banda infuses theatre into community initiatives that work toward gender equality, educate girls about menstruation, and provide leadership and support opportunities in schools and prisons. In this interview, she shares her experiences conducting these initiatives in Malawi and touring internationally to Germany.

Teaser image for Season 1, Episode 5 of Critical Stages In Malawian Contemporary Theatre featuring the headshot of Bright Phumayo Chayachaya.
Building an Audience for Malawian Political Theatre
Podcast

Building an Audience for Malawian Political Theatre

22 November 2022

Bright Phumayo Chayachaya’s Umunthu Theatre pulls together political theatre, poor theatre, theatre for development, and educational theatre to create productions that centralize Malawian narratives. In this interview, he discusses the company’s genesis and the need to bring audiences back to theatre.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Melding Spoken Word Poetry and Theatre in Malawi
Podcast

Melding Spoken Word Poetry and Theatre in Malawi

16 November 2022

What does the voice of this millennium sound like? In this interview, Khumbolane Chavula provides one answer to that question by splicing together theatre, poetry, and entrepreneurship as the founder of Millesimal Poetry.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Development of Malawian Theatre
Podcast

Development of Malawian Theatre

A Conversation with Maxwell Chiphinga

9 November 2022

Maxwell Ciphinga, better known as Max DC, has weathered massive changes in the audience, form, and funding of Malawian theatre throughout his four-decade career. In this interview, he shares his perspective on the industry and discusses his policy and producorial work as the president of Malawi’s new National Theatre Association.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre Academics
Podcast

Theatre Academics

A Conversation with Roselyn Madalo Dzanja

2 November 2022

As a scholar, educator, and practitioner of theatre, Roselyn Madalo Dzanja knows Malawi’s theatrical landscape well. In this interview, she discusses challenges Malawian women face when pursuing an acting career, the need for artistic independence from international donors, possibilities for Chichewa-language drama, and more.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Dance for Change
Podcast

Dance for Change

A Conversation with Robert Magasa

26 October 2022

Robert Magasa is an experienced dancer, choreographer, and actor who trained in Zimbabwe and now runs UjeNi Dance Ensemble Theatre in Malawi. In this interview, Magasa discusses his career, the economics of producing theatre in Malawi, and his current work to bring a combination of traditional and Afro contemporary dance to schoolchildren in Malawi.

Six black actors on stage under multicolored lights.
Audience Behavior in the West and Africa
Essay

Audience Behavior in the West and Africa

3 February 2022

While performing across the West and in Africa, Misheck Mzumara noticed stark differences in typical audience behavior. He discusses those differences, their cultural contexts, and their impact on theatremakers’ experiences in cross-cultural theatre productions.

Image of group of people marching in streets in Malawi
What Is the Way Forward for Theatre in Malawi, During and After the Pandemic?
Essay

What Is the Way Forward for Theatre in Malawi, During and After the Pandemic?

4 May 2021

Misheck Mzumara looks at the way the COVID-19 pandemic has affected theatre in Malawi and thinks through what comes next.

An image of six actors forming a semi circle around and actor standing on actors block , The actor on the block, is lifting food to their mouth with pained expression.
The Classical Theatre of the Oppressed
Essay

The Classical Theatre of the Oppressed

Adapting The Vagina Monologues in Malawi

13 April 2021

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. details the creative process of the production of The Vagina Monologues that took place during 16 Days of Activism in Malawi and offers his thoughts, as an audience member, on the show’s big impact.

watercolor background with text zamumtima sizawekha
Zamumtima Sizawekha (Malawi)
Video

Zamumtima Sizawekha (Malawi)

Bringing together artists from Malawi and around the world to open the conversation about mental health and stigma

Wednesday 23 September 2020
Malawi

Art & Global Health Center Africa (ArtGlo) presented the panel Zamumtima Sizawekha on mental health and stigma livestreamed from Malawi on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 23 September 2020 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 6 p.m. CAT (Lilongwe, UTC +9).

an audience
Are Malawi Theatre Groups Underpricing Their Shows to Extinction?
Essay

Are Malawi Theatre Groups Underpricing Their Shows to Extinction?

10 August 2020

Isaac Mafuel shares a recent debate had amongst theatremakers in Malawi about how to best price shows, considering both that low prices are a way of coping with the circumstances of their economy and that art should claim its value.

a group of performers outside
Theatre for Development in Malawi
Essay

Theatre for Development in Malawi

5 November 2019

Isaac Mafuel talks about Malawi’s most prevalent form of theatre, its history, and its impact and challenges.

three actors onstage
Theatre and Politics in Malawi
Essay

Theatre and Politics in Malawi

2 April 2019

Mischeck Mzumara looks at the fearful realities of political involvement in Malawian theatre throughout history.

group of actors playing an improvisation game
Creating a Varied and Exciting Theatre Culture in Malawi
Essay

Creating a Varied and Exciting Theatre Culture in Malawi

26 February 2019

Isaac Mafuel looks at the dominant performance style in Malawian theatre and speaks to local theatremakers and enthusiasts about how to create a more varied and exciting landscape.

photo collage of Malawi actresses
The Changing Theatre Landscape for Women Artists in Malawi
Essay

The Changing Theatre Landscape for Women Artists in Malawi

4 October 2018

Isaac Mafuel examines the role women have played in the theatre industry in Malawi, from its birth in the late 1960s until now.

Introducing the World Theatre Map Ambassadors
Essay

Introducing the World Theatre Map Ambassadors

14 July 2017

The World Theatre Map beta project has engaged its first cohort of twenty-eight World Theatre Map Ambassadors from twenty-four countries to direct community organizing, outreach, and feedback gathering.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre
Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre
Series

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre

In Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre, Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. interviews established theatre artists from all backgrounds to explore the precarious journey of theatre in a modern world, define its problems, and find better solutions to sustain performing arts in a generation of motion pictures. Fumbani leads discussions with established performers, directors, and writers who are exploring ways to greet these challenges while their works inspires their communities.