Tsotsi actor, Presley Chweneyagae will grace the stage alongside Tefo Paya and Mophato Dance Theatre at this year’s Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC) theatre, on August 29.
Presley is a South African actor best known for his starring role in the 2005 film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th academy awards. Although he had acted before in plays and community theatre projects, Tsotsi was his first feature film. Chweneyagae has performed in a number of productions for North West Arts, now known as the Mmabana Arts Foundation and appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Puck) and in the play Cards at the Grahamstown Arts Festival. He made his TV acting debut in 2000 in Orlando for SABC TV. He was cast as The Poet in the 2006 mini-series When We Were Black.
Last year, Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC) included Theatre in their programme of events. The event which is in its 4th year now has grown in leaps and bounds, and was recently listed amongst the top ten events to attend in Africa.
The top three plays that were selected to partake at the theatre night included Blue, Black and White a play by Donald Molosi, a romantic love story of the interracial marriage of former President Seretse Khama and Lady Ruth Khama; A Woman of Many Firsts by Moduduetso Lecoge which tells the story of Dr Gaositwe Chiepe as well as Morwa by Tefo Paya which depicts the struggles of growing up in Botswana from as far back as 1966 when the country gained independence and the challenges faced by men growing up in Africa.
Other events for the GIMC include Jazz, Poetry, Comedy, the music festival and the champagne picnic among others. The event will bring performers from far and wide, including Nigeria’s Mr Ibu as well as Kirk Whalum from the US and Jonathan Butler (SA). Other artists billed for the event include Mafikizolo and Cassper Nyovest.
