Theatre in the Park in fued over venue

The situation is so dire that ZIBF has denied Rooftop Promotions access to the gazebo they have been using for staging plays over the past 17 years. Rooftop has in turn, summoned ZIBF in protest, in order to have a substantial contract in place before they can be allowed to use the venue. ZIBF are the custodians of the four thatched gazebos at Harare Gardens next to the Art Gallery of Zimbabwe that are owned by the Harare City Council.
Rooftop Promotions publicist, Lesley Zibonele Moyo, said the organisations is trying all it can to reach an amicable position with ZIBF over use of the venue in order to save jobs for actors and other supporting crew at Theatre in the Park
“While we acknowledge ZIBF as custodians, we feel that we are being treated unfairly by the current executive board led by Professor Musaemura Zimunya. For the past 17 years we were being made to sign a one year contract but in July this it was shortened to 6 months without any explanations,” said Moyo.
“We have refused to sign the contract as we feel that there are certain clauses we are not in agreement with. For starters we want them to revert to the previous one year lease agreement. It helps us in terms of planning as we run a yearlong theatre calendar and therefore we would want to plan ahead with the assurance that we will still have access to the venue at least for a full year,” he adds.
A contract presented to Rooftop by ZIBF states that the current lease period runs from 9 July 2012 to 31 December 2012. In addition, ZIBF has also increased the maintenance fees and would review the fee on a quarterly basis. Rooftop says it views the current contract as baseless and unfounded and would not sign such a contract.
“Due to dollarisation we are no longer operating in a hyper inflationary environment and it is alarming that they would want to review the maintenance fees quarterly. Strangely we are all arts institutions which should be collaborating and helping in each other in building our own industry, yet the Zimunya led board is choking the growth of the theatre industry by threatening to shut down the venue,” said Moyo.
These disruptions, Moyo says,  have affected the livelihoods of over 30 artists and over 60 dependants who depend on theatre for their survival. It has also affected the relationship between Rooftop and their  our clientele whom they say, “have lost confidence in us as we have been sending them away due to cancelled shows.”
“It is shocking that while they have three other gazebos which can be utilised by any other organisation, we feel that we are being personally targeted. There is another gazebo which can be used as a theatre venue yet ZIBF still wants to stifle our programming yet they can easily hire out the other gazebos,” Moyo said.