The Kenya International Theatre Festival (KITF) is back. The 2018 Edition will run November 6-11 and include a themed conference, performances, and a workshop. The theme of this year’s event is “Paradoxes of State Aid in the Growth of Theatre in Kenya.”

The workshop will cover puppetry, dance, acting, directing and production design. The facilitators will be from Kenya, USA, Canada, Sweden, South Africa, Uganda, and Egypt.

The theatre conference–to be held at the Kenya National Theatre from Wednesday, November 7 to Thursday, November 8, 2018–is looking “to initiate a conversation between government and theatre artists on theatre policies and legislation; explore ways of increasing audience participation in theatrical performances; promote artist unity and theatre professional bodies; and to explore the relationship between theatre and other marketing institutions such as the media.”

According to the Festival Director, Kevin Kimani Kahuro: “The KITF theatre conference is a platform of intellectual and professional networking, organized under the auspices of the Kenya International Theatre Festival now in its third year of bringing together theatre artists, theatre academicians, journalists, government agencies and theatre enthusiasts in a pedestal of discussion, critique, and description on realities’, policy frameworks, economic dimensions and space in national dialogues accorded to theatre practice and education in Kenya.”

The papers presented at the conference will be published later, as a special issue in the Theatre Arts Journal.

This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.

This post was written by Alexander Nderitu.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.