Almasi Blog
Almasi PROJECTS
Almasi FELLOWSHIPS
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FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
Almasi Alliance Fellowships and Grants are designed to facilitate the cultural exchange between Dramatic Artists in Zimbabwe and Dramatic Artists in the United States of America. These grants will provide substantial support for the artists and the cultural exchanges allowing the artists to develop both professionally and artistically. By providing opportunities for professional development and by best meeting the artists’ needs, these fellowships and grants aim to give the artist an opportunity to hone their craft, to focus on their art form and to release their unique artistic voice into the larger global community with skill.
TRAINING EXCHANGES
Almasi Arts Alliance facilitates a number of exchanges per year that creates African and American artistic collaboration and gives African artists educational and professional opportunities in their craft. The Artistic Training Exchange is at the core of Almasi’s pillar of collaboration and principle of education. We wish to bring experts in various components of the dramatic arts from the United States to train, mentor and educate our Zimbabwean dramatic artists. Our goal is to professionalize the Zimbabwean dramatic arts sector and bring deeply needed and desired education to talented but untrained Zimbabwean artists.
Micro – Reflections
“I’m grateful for the lessons I learned. Which are: Have a plan; Be time conscious; Research; Be articulate in communication; Let creativity flow; Read; Don’t over process things; Allow the talent to give input towards the vision; Don’t be rigid in thinking; Humility is not a weakness; Focus your mind on the work and nothing else; You will meet all types of personalities so you plan has to be adaptable; Pick your cast wisely look at talent, if they can take direction and how they interact with others; Do exercises that will assist in bonding and bringing out the vision; It’s easy for emotions and tempers to flare so a good neutral stage manager or assistant director is of importance; Learn your cast so you know how to prime them; Be fair and be realistic; Over / under working an actor , over researching / under researching an actor is not a good thing; Enjoy the process and rehearse well that way you are guaranteed a great show and; Listen to what’s not being said, have an open mind, try many things. All in all the experience was great and I look forward to the next stage of this exciting journey !! Thank you, Almasi!!! I appreciate your investment and development of our local arts industry. Thank you, Zaza for your patience, sharing of knowledge and understanding throughout the process.”
- Eyahra Mathazia
“A huge thank you to Almasi Collaborative Arts for giving me this opportunity to be a mentored on being a (theatre) director. The most valuable lesson I have taken with me from this experience is that a production is always a collaboration between the director and her actors- there is need for clear cut communication, sharing of ideas and learning from each other; and in absence of that collaboration- many things can fall apart.”
- Chelsy Maumbe
“Thank you for the opportunity to learn and grow that you afforded me as an artist and woman in this industry. I appreciate and don’t take it for granted. I personally think it was a powerful tool to run the scheduled mentoring program as a master class for me because I learned better and pushed myself more under pressure. It was intense and got me thinking, researching, creation of great ideas were also born through that period. It was indeed benefiting for me. I am looking forward to directing a lot. Firstly under seasoned directors so that I learned more and then try to do my own also with help from my mentor.”
- Gertrude Munhamo
“As a creator, I have always wanted to see art-works being justly executed and the MICRO director mentorship experience equipped me with a very strong insight and the fundamentals of directing. Particularly the knowledge that a director directs actions instead of thought which seemed like a major flaw before the process. Being able to be in the same space with other directors with different perspectives and approaches also enabled me to expand my perception of directing. Thank you to Almasi Collaborative Arts for the opportunity to learn and apply the knowledge and thanks to Elizabeth Zaza Muchemwa for unique mentorship and for maintaining an emotional equilibrium in dealing with creatives.”
- Brighton Ndlovu
