AWPN-Warwick artist-in-residence 2022 will be GETRUDE VIMBAYI MUNHAMO-PFUMAYARAMBA from Zimbabwe who will be with us for 8-10 weeks to develop her new work, SIZWE (NATION), which is looking at ethnic hatred that has led to genocide in various nations. She seeks to answer the question, ‘what now?’

She is a performance artist, translator, radio dramatist, copywriter, theatre and script writer and dramaturge who in the past was Treasurer for the Board of Arterial Network Zimbabwe. Getrude has just been appointed as the first female chair to sit on the Zimbabwe Theatre Association Board (ZITA)! She is also the Development Officer for the Board of the International Theatre Institute in Zimbabwe.

Getrude has been widely acknowledged for her contribution to the Arts: In 2013, she was nominated for the National Arts Merit Award of Best Actress (Film). In 2019 she founded Dendere Arts Trust, where she is now its artistic Director, which offers theatrical, radio, television production, promotion, distribution, advocacy and training. In 2021 the Zimbabwe Theatre Academy honoured her commitment and investment towards the development of theatre in Zimbabwe; and she was also awarded the Artistic Coach of the Year 2021 by the International Coaching and Mentoring Foundation.

Getrude has performed extensively in local theatre and television and written 6 plays between 2010-2021. In 2021, she worked on the ‘Here, There, Now’ collaborative storytelling project with Nhimbe Trust and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London; and produced ‘Withered’, ‘Muripo’, and ‘Through The Eyes of Zimbabwe’, a storytelling video series project by Dendere Arts Trust, in the tradition of African storytelling, particularly with and for children.

Using her arts for activism, Getrude has participated and facilitated in programmes by international organisations including UNICEF, International Organisation for Migration, International Monetary Fund, Doctors Without Borders and Population Services International (Zimbabwe), in community-based projects through roadshows, focus group discussions for various initiatives, and documentaries. She has also worked with children’s homes and the prisons and correctional services in interventions using the arts for healing and restoration. In 2021 Getrude was invited to perform her theatre piece ‘Withered’ on the subject of climate change, at the UN SDG Summit Festival, in Manila, Philippines. She is currently studying multi-media production and sign language at the University of Zimbabwe as she has a passion for inclusivity, especially when it comes to the Deaf and people living with various disabilities.

Getrude will work with SCAPVC staff while she is at Warwick: she is being hosted by Yvette Hutchison and mentored by award-winning writers and theatre makers Silvija Jestrovic and Anna Harpin (Idiot Child). We very much look forward to having Getrude with us in the near future.