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Phoenix Theatre Curtain Call
Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,905
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There's no arguing that the Phoenix of earlier days was an expensive elitist affair. Plays / plots were often borrowed from the West and yes the accents, laughing on cue... But it was always an experience if there was one. I saw Ian Mbugua at the helm and for a time many new young faces; he kept to the heritage. I received the infamous 'Help Please, theater can only survive with support' emails! I once walked out of a play at Phoenix. My problem always lay with the lack of adaptation of material to social context, and the sometimes uncomfortable inclusion of themes intimating European lifestyle - homosexuality, multiple affairs etc. And this help please cause, when I couldn't afford it I was never let in free! When I attended a play in December 09, there was a whiff of change in the air. A new young gutsy manager - Millicent Ogutu - fully committed always there, on a cause, and no pity party. But soon after an email announcing temporary closure then the young lady courageously decided to take on the board, calling for change from the top. She's requested an extra-ordinary general meeting on Fri 5th March. I'm on the Phoenix Theatre mailing list, and was once a member, so I've seen the opening, the drama, and perhaps the final curtain call. But it ain't over till the fat lady sings... http://www.businessdaily.../-/12bd19dz/-/index.html
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,905
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Not many theater goers in Wazua?
Out of nowhere, the Oyier brothers and their Sterling Quality were a breadth of fresh air. Leveraging on their Saint Marys roots, their inital plays were cunny remakes of the Saint Marys of yore.
And devour their productions I did from the Sarafina, Lwanda, Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph's Colour Coat etc etc. But as they tried to be more original (not remakes) I did notice a slight variation in the quality - maybe the plot, or music.
Perhaps that's why in Lwanda they used Eric Wainaina - brilliant production. And it led to the Lwanda - Ghetto Story remake by Eric. Unconfirmed, but I heard that they fell out afterwards hence necessitating LWanda being transformed into another name - Mo Faya.
Not much activity from Sterling Q recently either...
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 6/8/2007 Posts: 675
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I have always been a fan of theatre though more like "more talk and less action" so I didnt attend too many plays. However it would be a shame if Phoenix shut down for good. I wonder where the solution lies. I think the competition for plays comes from movies. If so, maybe to create an ambience that kind of gave movie goers a viable alternative would do (popcorn, snacks etc).... I could be wrong. Form is temporary, class is permanent
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 11/4/2008 Posts: 1,289 Location: Nairobi
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@Muganda
I guess there are many theatre goers at Wazua. The thread on MoFaya is a testimony.
It is not true that Pheonix Players only produced European type plays. One of the most successive production by the Late James Falkland was 'Changing Generations'. This play was so successful that it had to be turned into a video and broadcast on KBC. Mbalamwezi players also staged it after curtains drew on it at Pheonix theatre. The play was based on a local theme. Am still waiting to see something like it. Pheonix played to the European Community who filled the gallery whose demographic composition has since changed with time. Tastes even among the young of the Europeans has also changed. Pheonix kept their focus on Clientele that no longer existed.
I also hear that the Professional Centre is undergoing through some adminstrative changes. This might also be posing some further challenges for Pheonix.
Alliance Francias is very popular. Their plays are always packed. There themes are local but mostly comedy. Maybe one day they will bring something based on the Africa Writers Series. These African plays are now featuring in Theatres in London.
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Rank: Member Joined: 11/6/2006 Posts: 276
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so finally i understand how i got 'hooked' to heartstrings... that set understands 'the real' Kenya... from the script...stage... ticket and budget...
let me describe to you how it has been lately... heartstrings has just completed the first showing of 'Kenyan 2010' resolutions....
the script may not be as great as the previous ones... 43rd Kenyan Tribe.... etc. but note all through their plays the name 'Kenya'... as opposed to the remarks noted in the opening post about plays set in towns in Scotland and Ireland...
and the acting and script very much Kenyan... the actors 'free style' in ways that would have been illegal at the drama festivals...
and they replaced curtains... with larry asego... and lately 'jalango'.. larry's commentary on kenyan issues... is intense and quasi-revolutionary... it is correct to state.. no fools leave the theater...
personally for me it helps that he connects with the audience... their continuous serialisation of kenyan affairs... that i can say die phoenix die... you will not be missed.. at least by me..
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 6/8/2007 Posts: 675
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Actually, though I claim to love theatre, I never did watch a phoenix play.... lakini i have done heartstrings, sterling q etc... wonder why... maybe also the location was an issue? Haile Selassie can be a bit out of the way for many guys, esp if you just decide to watch a play bila previous plan.... Form is temporary, class is permanent
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 7/3/2007 Posts: 1,634
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It would be a tragedy if the Phoenix closed. I never was a regular patron but I watched a number of plays there - and yes, changing generations was a true innovation, one that has been imitated many times since. At least someone is thinking of improving things. On the other hand I have been visiting the National theater faithfully for three months, hoping, nay, praying to see even the passing sign of a show, or even a rehearsal. Not a whiff. The Shrine has been turned in a premier league soccer joint and a venue for our resident noise makers to hold press conferences. In six months of waiting, the only things I have seen happening on the theater scene in Kenya are Eric Wainaina, Churchill and poor imitations of American farce on TV. It is enough to make a grown man weep. "The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." (Niels Bohr)
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 7/8/2008 Posts: 947
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@ muganda, I totally disagree with that article. The acting field is too small in kenya and with the death of phoenix it would only make the pool shallower.
In defence of phoenix theatre most of the established and upcoming actors acted in one of the phoenix play so to rubbish all it production without having seein all there productions is benighted.
The only way film and theatre will grow is through competition and oppurtunities in that field. The death of phoenix would be sad and would be dangerous for the acting field.
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,905
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Phoenix must rise from the ashes.
Lastest update is an extraordinary general meeting was held on 05-Mar and they booted out previous nonplussed chairman. The board of the future is led by Mr. Peter Nduati and includes Ms. Lorna Irungu and Ms. Millicent Ogina.
Hail to the young blood. The future is yours...
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,905
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Dear Phoenix Phriends
Our Theatre is open again.
We will send you details in due course of when our first show will be opening and what you as our members and Phriends can do to ensure we keep our doors open for decades to come.
I’m sure you have lots of questions on your memberships etc. I will communicate on this but should you be too eager to wait, feel free to call us on 020 - 2212661 and we will answer any questions you may have.
[latest email]
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 6/23/2014 Posts: 1,652
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These guys totally roasted Dj Creme yesterday.  Hutia Mundu!!
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Rank: Member Joined: 6/17/2010 Posts: 572
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Thought my favorite Sunday hangout was going bust kumbe ni mambo ya kuhutia 'One headache for famous medieval holy people was that someone might murder you to acquire your body parts for the relics trade'
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Rank: Elder Joined: 9/15/2006 Posts: 3,905
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Rent Arrears 3.2m shillings
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Rank: Elder Joined: 11/5/2010 Posts: 2,459
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My all-time favourite troupe is Eliud Abuto's festival of creative arts.
There is a way they adapt their scripts to the audience and the market always responds with full house.
This weekend they present "whose wives are they anyway". An adult's only show at the new UoN theatre.
BTW one of the most successful plays ever staged in Nairobi was titled ;
" when did you last see your trousers ?" They had to rerun it for several weeks.
Therein could be the answer to why Phoenix couldn't survive.
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Rank: User Joined: 8/15/2013 Posts: 13,237 Location: Vacuum
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muganda wrote:Rent Arrears 3.2m shillings
Why can't we fundraise to pay off the rent arrears? If Obiero did it, Who Am I?
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Rank: Elder Joined: 12/9/2009 Posts: 6,592 Location: Nairobi
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I knew it wasn't going to last long after James Falkland died. The quality of plays went down drastically. The management and marketing also faded away. When did you last see an advert for a play in Phoenix either in the dailies, tv or social media? They used to run creative adverts that pulled people to the plays. Anyway, this is another company that failed to keep up with the times. But let us learn from their mistakes in this modern, digital world. Here is the advice I'd have given them as a professional marketer; Firstly, they did not need the building, they needed a strong brand that way it does not matter where they perform because their audience are only interested in the content. Secondly, build strong professional content. Thirdly, market in relevant places. Marketing is not that difficult, when Ian Mbugua was the head, he paid the marketing firms through trade-offs like tickets for artworks and ideas. It was flourishing. Fourth, sponsorship. Phoenix Players were good enough to get corporate sponsorship just like the rugby team and the rest. In the sector of performing arts, they could have easily secured sponsorship with safaricom, KCB, KQ or Airtel.
BBI will solve it :)
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Rank: Member Joined: 8/16/2012 Posts: 660
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Seems the problem is in the management. Can't run an outfit while not able to access the bank account!! FCA have embraced mobile money efficemtly. And there seems to be more drama on stage than on the management team. Phoenix seeems to have more drama in the management than on stage lately from the article.
Theatre lovers must help the Phoenix to rise againbdafrica wrote:The images of auctioneers loading up boxes filled with costumes, props and electronic equipment out in front of Nairobi’s Professional Centre went viral on social media following Mr Nthige’s tweet.
But just as it was easy to assume Mr Nthige had snapped those shots himself (probably on a smart phone), so it was just as likely the well-known actor was sharing a fact when he added “Phoenix Players has shut down.”
In reality, it was Tim King’oo, Phoenix’s acting stage manager, not Mr Nthige, who had taken those shots and posted them on the WhatsApp site ‘Phoenix Rising.’ “Mugambi must have lifted them from there,” notes another Phoenix stalwart and the theatre’s acting administrative officer, Brenda Muthoni, who’s been working for the players since 2015. bdafrica wrote:The auctioneers apparently came down on the theatre over Sh3.8 million rent arrears owed to the landlord, the Association of Professional Societies of East Africa (APSEA ), which owns the Professional Centre.  bdafrica wrote:But neither Ms Muthoni nor Mr King’oo nor the newly constituted board are prepared to concede the demise of Phoenix. Ironically, neither are a myriad of well-wishers who have come out on social media suggesting something had to be done to save Phoenix.
“Yet where were all those well-wishers when we needed them?” asks Anita Ngugi, Phoenix’s previous marketing manager. “We had even hoped Lupita would come to see a show at Phoenix when she came to Kenya some time ago,” Anita adds, recalling as Lupita had tweeted, her [award-winning] career had actually begun with her acting with Phoenix Players. bdafrica wrote:David Opondoe, who was general manager at the time, says he quit Phoenix two years back. Yet he admits he’s still the sole signatory of the Barclays Bank account. bdafrica wrote:“We don’t even know how much is in that account,” says Ms Muthoni.
Apparently, it is only the previous board which appointed Mr Opondoe back in 2013, that can change the signatory.
Yet according to Mr Opondoe, that board no longer exists. The previous board chairman, Nani Njoroge, had resigned as did other board members, including Peter Nduati, Lorna Irungu, Mugambi Nandi and Ronald Kingangi.
With no board of directors, no general manager and no access to Phoenix’s bank account, it was not a surprise to receive an eviction letter from APSEA in November 2016. ..... bdafrica wrote:According to Phoenix Players’ Articles of Association, a new board had to be elected by paid-up members. But as all the previous memberships had elapsed, Mr King’oo and Ms Muthoni had to recruit new members willing to pay the Sh1,000 membership fee.  Live and learn; and don’t forget, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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Rank: Veteran Joined: 9/11/2015 Posts: 1,024
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FundamentAli wrote:@Muganda
I guess there are many theatre goers at Wazua. The thread on MoFaya is a testimony.
It is not true that Pheonix Players only produced European type plays. One of the most successive production by the Late James Falkland was 'Changing Generations'. This play was so successful that it had to be turned into a video and broadcast on KBC. Mbalamwezi players also staged it after curtains drew on it at Pheonix theatre. The play was based on a local theme. Am still waiting to see something like it. Pheonix played to the European Community who filled the gallery whose demographic composition has since changed with time. Tastes even among the young of the Europeans has also changed. Pheonix kept their focus on Clientele that no longer existed.
I also hear that the Professional Centre is undergoing through some adminstrative changes. This might also be posing some further challenges for Pheonix.
Alliance Francias is very popular. Their plays are always packed. There themes are local but mostly comedy. Maybe one day they will bring something based on the Africa Writers Series. These African plays are now featuring in Theatres in London.
My comment might be seven years late, but I think its still valid. Of course we or I love theatre. There are lotsa local African thespians here in Wazua. Alphdoti, to name but one can irritate but better have them here pissin like madmen on folk who then try to salvage their sanity as we laugh at the scene. So yea, theatre um, what was it about theatre again?
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