Nelson Mapako
A versatile Playwright/ Director, Performance artist, Theatre Trainer and Arts Administrator who strives on exploring the limits of creativity, Nelson Mapako has been practicing professional theatre arts since 1992. He was born in Zimbabwe in 1972 where he kicked off his artistic career with Tikwele Drama Group in Hwange. Later on he formed Ezemvelo Creative Artists. He has also worked for the Zimbabwe Association of Community Theatre as a field officer for the Matabeleland region, Amazulu Arts Consultants as Programs Officer, Theatre and Development Initiative as Artistic Director and Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo as the inaugural Festival Administrator.
Mapako has also worked for 6 years in Swaziland (Seconded by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo province.) where apart from being the Programs and Training consultant for Swaziland Theatre for Children and Young People he was running individual theatre projects. While in Swaziland he established the Iphi ‘Africa Project. Of late 2011/ 2012 he has conducted Acting workshops for Intwasa Arts Festival ko Bulawayo in Zimbabwe as well as ParticNelson Mapako is a prolific artist who received training in Community Theatre between 1994 and 1998 through the mentorship of the late international acclaimed artist Ngugi wa Mirri. He is a holder of a Training of Trainers Certificate in Community Theatre, A General Certificate in Intellectual property from WIPO, A Diploma in Program Management and Monitoring. He has written/directed several stage & television productions including Television puppetry productions in Swaziland (Mantentekazane Swazi Television) and Zimbabwe (Khuluza ZTV) and has also featured as an actor both on stage and television. He is a recipient of the Zimbabwe’s prestigious National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Theatrical Production (OUTCAST) in 2004. He was also a nominee for the NAMA award in 2003 for his production (SIX ALL OUT) Mapako’s other works have been performed at international arts festivals such as HIFA (Social Hanger 2003) in Zimbabwe, Matiwane Manana Arts Festival in Swaziland and Out the Box in Cape Town, South Africa. Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo,Ibumba Arts Festival in Zimbabwe as well as the SASOL Schools Arts Festival (A project for Grahamstown Arts festival)in Witbank South Africa. ipatory Theatre Workshops for PLAN Zimbabwe/Intwasa Arts Festival.
His international collaborations include working with Yingmei Duan – a performance artist from Germany as well as Laway arts South Africa/Netherlands. Nelson’s works are pregnant with artistic, social, developmental and political issues that affect the existence of humanity. His latest work is “A drop in the Land” done in collaboration with Laway Arts South Africa/Netherlands.