BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
Currently, people at various age brackets, academic and professional background have been familiar with theatre. As such they spend their leisure time attending staged theatres,said Adafre Bizuneh, Team Leader and Coordinator of Big Projects at the Ethiopian National Theatre.
As to him,most attendants are within the age bracket 20 and 25. Some belong to 40 to 50.They spend their time in theatre houses. But attendees above 50 are very few.
Their professional background reveals some of them are traders, while others mechanics and drivers. People coming from several States for various purposes such as medical treatment and trade also attend theatre.
However as to Adafre, the number of theatre attendees from civil servants’ side is declining from time to time due to unknown reasons.
The Ethiopian theatre has faced various challenges during the three succussive regimes from emperor Hailesilasie up to the EPRDF. Still theatre halls are owned and run by the government that allots budget to them. Such a situation has its own merits and demerits.
In the formative years of EPRDF,Laureate Tsegaye Gebremedhin’s theatre known as“Hahu woyim Pepu” faced challenges and political cadres barred the staging of the theatre . Such kind of phenomena was common both in the )Dergue and imperial era.
As to Adafre, the freedom of staging theatre depends on the political development of the country and the characteristics of the owner of a given theatre hall. In countries where repressive regimes are dominant theatres are used for propaganda purpose. In such countries,theatres written and directed by independent professionals have very little chance to get astage to show their works and mostly they are subjected to censorship.
In the Ethiopian context, many theatres suffered suspension by cadres and security persons. In 1997 EC, a theatre named as “woy Addis Ababa” was prepared by the Ethiopian National Theatre. Professionals have devoted their time, energy, money and their intellectual assets. It was ready to be performed in the post -election period but with no reason the program was cancelled by cadres and barred from being staged.
Dictator regimes assume theatre as a chimera and find themselves at loggerhead with writers, musicians, painters.
Nevertheless, as to Adafre,being a public -owned institution has its own merits to employees. During the outbreak of COVID19 when the number of theatre viewers declined,with no interruption the government paid salary to the employee.
On the other hand, as their salary is hand-to -mouth other schemes helpful to raise their income must be devised and implemented. The living cost in the capital is alarmingly increasing from time to time. Years ago, the government provided an incentive for health professionals to work at night in the hospitals and which enabled them to raise their income. Similar to this, an incentive schedule must be implemented to make artists financially secured.
Side by side with this, maintaining and rebuilding government owned theatre halls is vital. Because it boosts the artists’ moral. The reconstruction of Ras theatre began 20 years ago. But it still not completed and artists stayed idle to date.
On the other hand, the allocation of more than 1.5 billion Birr for the reconstruction of National Theatre by the government is encouraging but due to failure by contractor the construction has screeched to a halt. Unofficial reports indicate that, the contract license from the former was revoked due to delay and given to the new contractor.
Currently, due to the prevalence of COVID 19, most artists including the senior ones did face uncertainties. Though they have marketable knowledge and skills due to inconvenience to stage their work, they have found themselves in a precarious situation.
Government and other stakeholders should understand the situation and tap resources to redress the plight of artists.
Instead of begging money from donors, professional associations and renowned artists better plan their own strategy to bring long-lasting solutions to alleviate artists’ multi-dimensional problems.
The other thing which threatens the development of theatrical art is the overwhelming Information Communication Technology utilizes in social media that easily disseminates unqualified and illegible films and drams to the public irrespective of the society’s cultural norms.
In fact, technological apparatus among others Facebook, Instagram and utube can play a positive role in socializing by imparting knowledge, skills and scientific ideas helpful for the socio-economic development. But currently the utilization of the apparatus is inclined towards irrelevant engagement which harms the existing social fabrics. The call for violence by these media is totally against humanity, the promotion of which theatre stands for. It is also apparent that,while the culture of critical thinking and reading has nosedived, unethical social media users impose the western culture through the production cheap arts.
Currently, due to the pandemic,theatre halls have reduced their audience- accommodating capacity from 1200 to 300 attendees. Many satisfy their drama and film thirst by viewing cheap art products through social media.
As to Adafre, the involvement of none professionals in acting and directing of films has been pervasive and the products are bellow standard.Only for the sake of gaining money, some simply mobilize resources for film production unprofessionally.
As to him, 15 years ago the film which named “wosane” illegally translated from Indian film irrespective of the possible copy right complaint of the owner the film was presented to the audience. That time, attracted,more viewers repeatedly watched the film. Of course, the producer could easily amass hundreds of thousands birr but as the producer was not a professional artist,gave up his engagement on films and invested his money on other areas. It should be understood that such practices never add value for the development of art rather negatively shapes the society towards get rich quicklymentality.
That time people with no art background were involving in film production by selling their cars and other assets only targetingat profit. While some got a lot others experienced their bankruptcy.
As to Adafre,as a nation, tourism and film industries need conducive policies. In the Ethiopian National Theatre,before a theatre is presented, unlike censorship, it passes through professional evaluation in terms of its message and aesthetic value and in such manner protecting the standard of theatre could be preserved. But currently a person can produce a music or a comedy drama and simply disseminates it to the audience by disregarding its artistic value. This is a challenge to the world.
The Ethiopian Herald April 14/2021
