Jeremiah Ndjoze
In a society where the pursuit of arts and culture is increasingly becoming an elusive goal, one of Namibia’s premier theatre advocates, Keamogetsi Joseph Molapong, remains adamant that his art form is still relevant, not only as a form of entertainment but also as a way to cultivate a culture in a rapidly growing uncultured generation.
The theatre producer has it that while many will imagine an evening at the theatre, as an entertaining night out, spent relaxing and watching a story unfold while being taken away from reality for a few hours, theatre has in fact come to represent a unique, immersive learning experience for audiences of any age. To this end, through his company, Township Productions, Molapong intends to hit the ground running this year as far as theatre initiatives are concerned with the unveiling of the Collaborative Theatre Project’s monthly theatre shows.
“This project is a collaboration between Township Productions and the College of the Arts (COTA) Theatre School. During the pilot phase in 2017, the Collaborative Theatre Project successfully staged five theatre productions over a period of four months,” Molapong said revealing that the first production for 2018 is scheduled for the end of February.
February will also see the 2018 launch of Township Productions’ bi-monthly Poetry Sessions, another collaborative effort with the Goethe Institute. This partnership, according to Molapong started in 2017 and has proven to be a worthy cause with the unveiling of poems that mirrored the past, present and future of the Namibian society and the world at large. Molapong further revealed that his outfit is looking forward to a year of productive and creative outputs across the board.
“We will be publishing a series of books during the course of 2018. Also, both established and upcoming writers have submitted manuscripts and we are currently working on five of them for production in the first half of this year,” Molapong said enthusiastically.