Mudau polishes acting skills

Langalakhe Mabena
While most artistes are heavily affected by the Covid 19 lockdown, for award-winning actress Charmaine Mudau the lockdown seems to be working to her advantage, as it greatly allows her to work on perfecting her skills on stage.

She revealed to B-Metro that while at home, she is able to master some acting skills and concepts through various exercises including watching television programmes and reading novels.

With the lockdown on stage two, artistes are still banned to stage musical concerts, showcase plays, festivals and exhibitions as they attract gatherings which might lead to the spread of Covid-19.

This has affected artistes such that they can’t fend for themselves as they make a living through income from various shows and exhibitions.

Even though Mudau is negatively affected mostly on group productions, personally she feels the lockdown works to her advantage as she has managed to learn a lot that enhances personal growth as an actress such as character building and analysis.

“Since lockdown, my life has been characterised by reading be it novels or academic related stuff, watching movies, soapie operas, documentaries and importantly spending time with my family.

“I also watch plays I have done in the past looking for all good and weaknesses in my performances for possible character development, this also enables me to avoid repeating a character.”

She encouraged other stage performers to apply Tik Tok exercise in their personal rehearsal routines.

Acting is about assuming a character, make-believe, story telling, discipline, having your script in order, showing creativity and accurate timing, and these are some of the acting strengths that one can get from Tik Tok practice.

“Tik Tok is an application that requires you to create or imitate or remake a particular video mostly trending ones either from television soapies, telenovela and dramas.

“This exercise might seem useless but it strengthens an actor’s stage skills, besides it is also a stress reliever, it takes you off while sharpening your skills,” she said.

After the lockdown, Mudau said stage fanatics should expect, “a Chaimaine who is enhanced with some lessons from lockdown and eager to learn more”.

Mudau has several projects which were cancelled and some postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and they include World Theatre Day and Loziba Festival, an initiative of Bulawayo in solidarity with young women in arts.

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