Thursday, 22 November 2012

Zimbabwe: Muparutsa to Be Honoured




Rooftop Promotions and Theatre in the Park are set to honour the late theatre guru, Walter Muparutsa who died in April this year after a long fight against non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. The ceremony is slated for November 27 at Theatre in the Park.
The Harare City Council Mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda will officiate at the ceremony which will be attended by Government officials, artists, members of the diplomatic corps and Muparutsa's family.
Daves Guzha, a long-time friend and colleague of the late Muparutsa, the brains behind the honour said:
"As a way of paying homage and immortalising our own excelling theatre artists, we have seen it fit, after extensive consultations, to create a Path of Fame with Walter's bust being the first to grace the surroundings"
Walter began his acting career way back in the late 1960s when he founded the Chiedza Drama Club in the then Harare (now Mbare) High Density suburb.
Around the same period, he also founded and chaired the Anglican Young Peoples' Association at St Michaels in Mbare, which staged religious plays. Walter adapted plays from Shona novels and wrote scripts, rehearsed, directed and toured plays around greater Harare.
Born on March 23 1941, Walter did his education at St. Augustine's Mission Penhalonga, Ranch House and Luveve Technical College.
From 1963 - 1973 he worked for the Rhodesia Literature Bureaus (Literature Bureau) where he rose from Editorial Officer to Head Editorial Officer (Shona Section). He was also responsible for conducting writers' workshops, seminars, reading and selecting publishable Shona & English manuscripts and writing book reviews in Shona and English. He was also a presenter for the radio educational programme
"Learning does not end/Kudzidza Hakuperi/ Ukufunda Akupheli". In 2008 he founded the Zimbabwe Theatre Association (ZiTA) and registered it with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe.

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