Hand-Ball! : The Drama Continues

For some no specific reason you are tired. You feel dehydrated, your lower back is sour and your head throbs a little. Yet you have to stay at it since it's now your turn. Or did you? You know you had a number of choices available to you - you could throw your hands in the air, wave them like you just don’t care and walk out. You could choose to go and throw a tantrum because surely people need to learn how to respect other people’s time. You could have been elsewhere- don’t they know?

But you choose to suck it up and stay.

It’s your time to shine- your 5 minutes of fame to really impress the Director. You are going to show them how it’s done! I bet you are going to make a mistake which I'm only going to warn you after you have made it. There! You thought you would be a one-take wonder didn't you? Even worse you thought it was like theatre where you perform to an audience once and you are done and gone. You did the first take and gave it all the energy you have…with oomph and gusto.

Oops, sorry! Now the Director wants you to do it again, exactly the same way. You wonder if you can remember all the gestures and facial expressions you had used. Then he wants you to do it again…. and again and ….again until you can no longer locate your genuine emotion and now you are overacting. You are even worried that you are repeating because the Director is not happy with your performance. Your favorite catch phrase soon becomes ‘again.’ You start hearing it in your head like a particularly bad chorus.

Relax. You passed the audition. The D.O.P has to take an average of 4- 6 shots in one none movement action. He might start with an establishment/wide shot, then a two shot if you are with someone, then medium , then close up , then medium and close up of your fellow actor - Lord, since in this scene you are dialing a specific number and hiding something in your wallet, numerous cut -away shots are needed.

Two hours are now gone and you still wonder when it will start being fun. Now the producer is back and highly concerned that "we are losing light". Indeed the sun is setting and the Director shoots the second scene as hurriedly as he can. They can't get to the third and last scene so they kindly ask you to come back tomorrow. Did you hear someone mention TOMORROW? And you have no guarantee that it will not be a worse routine. You obviously have had one of the most frustrating days in your life. You secretly wonder if this is what you signed up for- did Lupita have to go through this to get an Oscar? And there you were ranting about her skipping Kenya for Uganda!

It is now 7 p.m. Crew complains that they are tired and want to be taken home first even though your house is on the way to theirs. At least you (re)discover how big Nairobi is as you drop people on the other side of town. You finally get to your house at 12.30 a.m. (The rush hour jam didn't help either). Never in your life did you realize that you had the capacity to be this exhausted. You finally manage to leap out of the van and the driver harshly urges you to be ready at 4 a.m. Breathe.

Hand-ball: [In acting: when everything that can possibly go wrong, does in fact go wrong]

Hand-Ball! : A Day In The Life Of A New Actor

Hand-ball: [In soccer]:- touching of the ball with the hand or arm, constituting a foul. (Courtesy of trusty old Google)

I have received a couple of encouraging messages via inbox, text and verbally about this blog. Thank you. (But I wish you could type all these on the Comments tab.)

One such feedback that caught my attention was that of someone who said that the blog articles help her understand things about our (acting) world that she wouldn't as a non-actor have known or bothered to find out about. She realizes how helpful this knowledge is while relating with a friend or family member who is in the acting business. It is this that inspired me to imagine myself as a tour guide for an ‘actor-tourist’ on set.

So this article today is very basic. Assume with me for a moment that you are a new actor going on set for your very first time in an East African country. Congratulations by the way; that is a BIG MOMENT!

Ok; it's just before dawn and your pick- up time is 4a.m. Of course it's your first day so you are either over-excited or plain nervous, having had nightmares that you might be late so you woke up at 2 a.m. A principled actor would have woken up at 3.30 a.m. to be ready by 4 a.m. However an experienced actor who has given into the syndrome would wake up at 4.30 a.m...You will soon gather why.

Your designated driver didn't call you until 5 a.m. and arrived at 5.30 a.m., one and half hours later. You cannot be furious with him for two main reasons. Firstly, he probably went to bed at 3 a.m. since he had to transport people from Westlands to Eastlands, Kibra to Rongai, Athi River to Kikuyu. If his route was on a main road, he must have driven for about 200 km. Or perhaps he had a three hour drive like from Nairobi to Nakuru. Secondly, the dude earns much more than you! The van probably belongs to him and he hires it out to the production team for not less than 10k a day, assuming it's a low-budget production. He also gets not less than 5k as labour, if it's still the same said low-budget production. Be warned in advance that this is a salary that you as an actor will begin to see only in ‘high-budget’ productions.

Finally, you arrive on set. Some dread-locked neat guy or short haired neat guy (They are always neat) comes to you- furious. He is the 1st Assistant Director so try and swallow it up. He has to demonstrate control. His work is to schedule the filming and make sure the schedule is adhered to. Time is (supposed to be) his main concern. Someone else will come with a piece of paper and depending on how kind they are, you might get a copy .Of course the wardrobe and continuity people were too tired to take theirs last night so like a school girl trying to finish her homework in class, they will hurriedly go through it as they have breakfast. That document is the film call sheet and can be your best friend as an actor. We Kenyans as you know suck at verbal communication so you might as well read the program and find out what is supposed to be happening, yourself.

The sun is now up and you look forward to enjoying your first shoot. You are amazed that you have three scenes and you are happy that you will shoot all of them today and go back to your day job in the afternoon. Even though it's now 9 .35 a.m. and you still haven't started probably because:

 A star actor is late and they can't reach him/her through the mobile phone;

 Your fellow actors don't have their lines and are still cramming;

 KPLC is really enjoying the power monotony so you are waiting for someone to bring fuel to start the generator.

Breath.

Just for kicks, let’s flow with one of those assumptions. The actors now have their lines and the director is ready for you. However the camera guys put a circle glass in front of their eyes and look straight at the sun. The director of photography (D.O.P, is what you will hear people call him. Act like you know) has refused to shoot because the shot is 'hot' and has to wait for a cloud to cover the sun.

Finally the weather is favorable and they call you on set. You are still cheerful and optimistic. Your few scenes were supposed to end at 9.30 a.m. but you calculate they will now end at 11.30 a.m. At least it’s still morning, you reason. You go on set and find them prepping for something completely different. You ask the AD about it and they tell you the actress (kumbe) who was late and had refused to pick up finally arrived and they have to finish with her since she has another production that needs her in two hours and she plays a main character. Breathe. It’s never that serious.

Now you have loosened up. You have probably recited the lines to yourself so many times- you hadn't realized there were so many ways of saying it. You have dozed off and woken up a couple of times. You have noticed the ‘behind-camera’ drama. Someone was going out with someone but they just broke up. Someone in the crew has promised to give an attractive extra (back ground actor) a job so he is taking her home tonight. Someone is gossiping about the producer. She has worked with that production company the longest but she is encouraging the relatively new workers to protest on her behalf. Yawa, child, breathe.

The 1st AD is actually a nice guy when he is not yelling orders. He has somehow apologized for the delay and made you see the bigger picture. He has also promised that your scene will be shot immediately after lunch. You can see the director and producer catching up. You want to go over and say hi and introduce yourself but you are too timid. They seem so 'up there' and wouldn't notice you. Well, I wish you had tried anyway as most directors are usually extra friendly to all actors- regardless of your big or small role.

You are finally on set. The camera assistant and editor come running to the director,D.O.P and 1st AD. They discuss for 15 minutes. You do not understand what they are saying. The most repeated word from their whispers is ‘hand-ball’ or slang it up to ‘handee’. The Director is now smoking openly. (He wasn't supposed to do it on set but that's the least of his worries). Another 20 minutes of running around. Tempers flaring. Actors who had left being recalled, then the previous scene is re-taken.

...To be continued.

Female directors on Point – A Look At Ekwa Msangi and Carol Odongo-Boy.

As we continue on this series of East African directors, I compare and contrast two female directors; - Carol Odongo–Boy and Ekwa Msangi. One is a theatre expert who has spread her wings to TV production while the other is an independent film maker who has carved her niche on both the local and international scenes.

i. EKWA MSANGI

Ekwa grew up dreaming of a music career. She left nothing to chance as she took her music lessons in school and even joined the

orchestra at St. Mary’s School, noteworthy for having brought out some of Kenya’s highly recognizable talent in the music scene including stars like Chris Adwar. However one of her family’s hobbies was going to the cinema (how nostalgic drive-ins are!). It was very obvious to Ekwa that the movies were not made for her. The characters were American or European and it was a rare jewel to come across a black actor (who had to die before the movie ended!) All she did was complain throughout the movie as her family tried hard to concentrate. During one cinema-night, her irritation incensed her father, who angrily questioned “Why don’t you make your own movies?” Ekwa took up the challenge and promised that she would.

She however continued with music since as far as she was concerned no East African had ventured into movie-making before. Imagine her surprise when she found out that her uncle, by virtue of being married to her auntie, was involved in film making! Her American uncle was an ex-Black Panther member who for undisclosed reasons had to leave America and moved to Tanzania. It turned out that while at Tanzania he worked for one of the premier production houses to be set-up in East Africa. They produced anti-apartheid campaign materials, educational pieces and radio plays. Her uncle later moved to Nairobi and Ekwa’s dad requested him to mentor her on the Art of Film. Of course, years later many actors (including myself) across East Africa, America and the Caribbean are glad she had protested while the rest of us were happily enjoying the drive-in cinema experience.

I first met Ekwa when I went to audition for a production that had been rumored to be of high budget and that would be the first drama series produced by M-Net in East Africa. There is always one nerve that pumps harder during auditions even though you feel well-prepared. Ekwa operated the auditions very differently. She made me feel like I was not auditioning but rather I was experiencing a practical session. I tried two roles and even insisted that I would like to try another one. She called me for a second round of auditions which was just as engaging as the first one. I was then selected to play a role that was to change my life as far as my acting experience was concerned.

Ekwa is the only film director I worked with who ever called me to rehearse. Her sessions were more like therapy as she made me answer questions as the character I was going to play. She then threw a challenge that I thought was dreadful but that I’ve always used to this day. She asked me to choose a day in which I would spend the whole day as my character interacting with other people. So for the duration of that day I was Drogba, a matatu driver and the Street Kingpin who was dreaded in the whole of Eastlands. Even though this project flopped and only four or five episodes were aired, my performance was recommended everywhere with producers getting praises for my performance from fans outside East Africa. This was all thanks to Ekwa’s insistence on rehearsals and her directing skills on set.

So what made Ekwa such a great actor-director? After high school, Ekwa went to America to pursue a degree in film-making and TV production at the New York University. She did not quite enjoy the first years as she faced the same challenge she had as a young girl watching movies with her family- all the projects to study were occidental and she could not relate to them. It was only in her fourth year that she was introduced to African film makers. She was intrigued but also annoyed that she had to come all the way to America and wait for three years before learning about these great artistes. She decided to enroll for a Masters Degree in African Films. This would mark the beginning of her pursuit of high quality and meaningful films that would inspire and affect people back home. As life continued to unfold, she went from project to project in the USA which automatically became her third home. She is a Tanzanian who grew up in Kenya.

You can therefore only imagine Ekwa’s joy about five years ago when her script The Agency was picked by M-Net Africa as the first locally produced one hour long drama series in East Africa. The scope of the project was big and gave her an opportunity to learn

the Kenyan film industry. She had a memorable experience working with the crew. To her great surprise, she was respected and her being a woman had no impact on her instructions. Unfortunately, this was also her lowest moment as the project which was produced by Sterling Quality Ltd. could not stretch to the last episode of the first season due to production- related difficulties. However, through this experience, game changers like the great Dorothy Ghettuba emerged (yes, I just called Dorothy Great). Dorothy, the award winning producer, worked as a project manager in The Agency and later went on to form Spielworks Media after the flop. Ekwa, not being the kind to cry over spilt milk got over it and steadily built an illustrious career as an independent film maker.

With several award–winning films under her belt including her short film thriller Taharuki (Suspense), a 12-minute prequel to her feature film In development, was picked up for distribution by Shorts International Inc. and is currently in circulation in both North America and Europe. Weakness, a short film she produced, was nominated for a 2010 Kalasha Award and a 2011 African Movie Academy Award (AMAA). She is in the last leg of promoting Soko Sonko (The Market King) which was commissioned by Focus Features Africa First Program. She is currently co-writing and directing a highly engaging and artistic comical web series called All My Friends Are Married.

Ekwa’s approach is very much a reflection of her altruistic personality, as per the typical Tanzanian way. She focuses on getting the actor to be as natural as possible. She believes that actors are not only selected for their ability to act or for having the features the script has stated but that they also carry the personality that a director can best use if the actor is “himself”. She therefore engages the actor’s true nature in relation to the role being played.

Although Ekwa is based in New York, her commitment to East African film is very vivid and she is working on a project that will be shot in the region. She urges all industry players to take their work more seriously. She stresses that our value is not only in terms of how much we get but also by what people get. We inspire, make people cry and laugh and share memorable experiences with their loved ones. If actors realized that their bodies are the platform through which all this art is exhibited and emotions elicited, they would take care of it more by working out, eating right, avoiding drugs and getting spiritual nourishment. Worthy advice for the actors, don’t you agree?

ii. CAROLINE ODONGO –BOY

I joined commercial theatre after three years of working as an amateur at the beginning of 2006. My main frustration was with the directing. I just didn’t understand this ‘blocking’ business and why a director wanted me to “tilt my neck” a little, or to “walk three steps and drop the line” or “to fill/feel the stage”…That plus many other specifics that totally eliminated my intuitive contribution as the actor. I lamented to my friend Lydia Gitachu about it. She had already tested the waters for a few years (and later went on to bag many awards and do several international projects). Lydia talked about a director who didn’t bother you with all that crap. She talked about how this director had the ability to help the cast interpret the script, hence the blockings and the line delivery came freely to the actor so that all she did as Director was to polish and choreograph the specifics. I was partly excited for and partly jealous of Lydia for having the opportunity to work with Carol Odongo-Boy.

Despite my desire to work under this top talent in Kenyan theatre, I never really got to work with Carol until sometime in 2013 when she herself went through baptism by fire by directing 120 episodes in a series as her introduction to TV directing. But I am jumping ahead so let me start from somewhere.

Meeting with Carol at Wasanii (we miss that bar!) was always a pleasurable moment. Her satin, bold and cheerful face made you think she was one of the new actresses looking for an audition at the Kenya National Theatre. As a matter of fact Carol Odongo is one of the most experienced and successful thespians in East Africa. She started acting in 1990 while in university. During this period, theatre was still regarded highly as an intellectual form whose reflections had great impact on the society. Perhaps because the Kamirithu movement tale (where villagers, mostly illiterate women, who had never seen a theatre before built an amphitheatre-like performance space where they performed indigenous plays) was still rife and Ngugi wa Thion’go’s revolutionary theatrical campaigns that saw audiences fill the theatre as early as 5 a.m. just to watch a play were also a near memory.Either way theatre was then still highly regarded and revered in Kenya. This was the scenario that Carol had to contend with and this meant that getting roles was not automatic; she had to prove herself.

She started off as a chorus girl in a musical then graduated to small roles in straight plays after which she bagged major roles in plays up to and including a two-hander and a one-woman show. She did many years of stage management in between acting and then moved into directing one-act plays and eventually full-length plays including musicals. Her entry to directing was not immediate nor was it eventful. The decision was made quietly; in silent and private moments. No one could understand this personal dilemma. In truth, she had no doubt that directing gave her a lot of satisfaction including the ecstasy of creating and the responsibility of moulding people into great actors. On the other hand, she was at her prime in acting and madly in love with the vocation.

Her first challenge was a Theatre For Development model- based project that required a cast of more than twenty performers. It was in 1996 while working at the Phoenix Players where the legendary James Falkland noticed her attention to detail and interpretive skills and took it upon himself to mentor Carol into one of the most sort after directors to date. Of course all Falklandarians have a favorite lesson- hers was how to deal with actors because of their varied temperaments and personalities. Falkland always compared actors to 'race horses'- you must know how to deal with them; know when to use the carrot and when to use the stick! Carol left an admirable record at Phoenix having worked on fifty repertories. Demand for her work however grew and every producer who cared about high quality and dignified production contacted her. This saw her direct numerous plays at the Kenya National Theatre, Alliance Française and theatre companies in Mombasa between 2002 -2004. Around this period many great and successful actors passed through her capable hands, including Kenneth Mason, Annabel Maule, Sam Madoka and Ian Mbugua.

Many actors see Carol as a mentor who took it upon herself to take time to train the actor having been fully aware that there are no successful acting schools in Kenya (And please don’t tell me about the archaic and classical-theory filled theatre and film degree course in the universities). As a matter of fact it is difficult to find a successful Nairobian actor who has been in this game for a while and did not go through Carol!

Why did Carol turn to film directing? Film was never far from Carol’s grasp as her husband Cajetan Boy, one of the most prolific script writers in East Africa, had already made the switch from stage to film.

Carol, as an accomplished script writer herself, helped Cajetan Boy and other TV script writers in conceptualizing and writing scripts. She was however resistant to the idea of leaving theatre as this was her first love and she knew that this was the only suitable space to train actors. However the phenomenal producer, Dorothy Ghettuba was determined to re-make Block–D, which had ended in struggles two years after its first season with KBC. She managed to convince Carol that this was the debut project for her. Having been a cast in the series myself, I can tell you that no one could tell that Carol was doing her fist real TV job. She assembled an outstanding cast and was always dignified when handling any challenges on set. True to her abilities, she successfully head–wrote and directed the one hundred and twenty episode show which was an immediate hit on Africa Magic, with a steady and loyal viewership. This marked the beginning of a now illustrious career. Depending on what you consider to mean latest, she worked on Mama Digital, a TV sitcom with Ebru TV last November just after producing two successful pilot series that were about to go on air. She also directed one hundred and twenty episodes of the drama series Sumu la Penzi with Spielworks Media which currently airs on Maisha Magic Swahili.

Have you worked with either of these ladies? What did you think? What did you learn? I would love to hear….

TOP EAST AFRICA’S DIRECTORS SERIES – GATONYE VS KONSTANTARAS.

A director is the single most important person to an actor as far as character development is concerned. Contrary to the current popular habit of screen directors who only focus on the storyline and type of shot (then what are directors of photography highly paid for?!) and stage directors who only focus on blocking of scenes, a good director is supposed to help the actor get into character from the moment he/she is chosen for the role.

As an actor you should be free to give your opinion to the director but also be humble enough when he/she rejects your idea. Just to clarify, it is better if you share your discoveries with the director than if you make incessant suggestions that make you look like you are directing the show (of course you know that kind of eccentric actor who directs the director as well as fellow actors). . It was amazing to listen to Lupita Nyon’go’s interview on making 12 Years A Slave (the film that won her the Oscar – just in case you are coming back from Jupiter) where she revealed that she discovered that her character Patsey would have loved dolls so she made one and played with it for character development. The director however loved it and decided to have it on the film. In honor of this important position in film and theatre, I will in a series of articles compare various directors within East Africa. But before I continue please note that directing is not a promotion from acting. It is too often that I hear young actors dreaming of being directors simply because they want more money and cheo (higher post). Ok, so let’s begin with two of the most successful Kenyan directors; Victor Gatonye and Alexandros Konstantaras (who by the way is Kenyan by choice and marriage!)

i. Victor Gatonye

The first time I met Gatonye, he was this lean tall teenager in high school whose presence alone on stage drowned the room with female screams. Of course I would watch his play frowning but somewhere along the way I would be so immersed in his theatrics that I

found myself laughing and cheering along as well. Not only did he bag many National Drama Festival awards but he also got big deal commercials that ensured his face was all over the streets on the billboards. All this he had achieved when still attending Highway Secondary School. After high school, this child prodigy went on to star in a couple of high budget TV programs that soon made him a familiar face nationwide. It therefore came as a shock to many and disappointment to his fans (myself included) when Gatonye disappeared from the screens only to re-appear as a director.

Apparently Gatonye had attended an audition for Makutano Junction and failed to get the part. For those who may not recall, David Thump’s series was a well-funded and highly produced edutainment program that was for a while the only stable employer for Kenyan actors and crew people. Gatonye, did not give up and managed to get a way in as a runner mainly serving tea on set. Due to the training program that the Makutano Junction project was offering while filming, the zealous and determined ex-child star managed to get training in lighting and sound engineering. By now he had marveled at the magic of the camera for so long and was convinced that with his experience as an actor, he would make a great actor-director. Soon, together with award winning director Hawa Essuman, he was trained and nurtured as a TV series director. He later went on to become the main director for Makutano Junction in the seasons to follow; of which his episodes won several awards. But this was just the beginning.

As an East African actor you will enjoy working with Gatonye since he is very keen on the nuances of everyday normal life mtaani (in the hood). His approach to directing a scene is simple. If he was watching it as a show or was hidden somewhere in the scene, what would he be interested to follow up? This helps him to ‘hold the thrill’. I think what stands out about Gatonye as a director is that he is one of the first Nairobian actors to successfully transform to a director. On set he always has time to joke around, even join the cast and crew ‘gossip’. This way the actor is really at ease while working with him. The fact that he can give directions in sheng as easily as he can in English makes actors who are more sheng inclined understand him easily and go deeper in their delivery. Gatonye is also a nerd for quality and detail. He will point out something that was very subtle and make it interesting; so you will also have to nod along acting like you had ‘seen’ it.

Gatonye has since then directed innumerable films - both high and low budget. This included M-Net’s highest budget series, Kona. It is in Kona that he teamed up with producer Appie Matere and George Mungai to form Zamaradi Productions. They are among the few companies that were commissioned to produce tens of Kenyan movies that I think will later on make the Kenyan content a good alternative to the Nigerian or South African markets.

ii. Alexandros Konstantaras

Alexandros Konstantaras on the other hand started as an indie as opposed to commissioned work. This trailblazer made way for many other independent producers and (let’s be honest here) gave the lords of Riverwood a run for their money. This all begun after Vivid

Pictures, the company he was working for had basked in the sun of their internationally acclaimed movie ‘100 Days’. Buoyed by this victory and looking to produce films that would be more accessible to the Kenyan viewer, he helped Nick Hughes set up Jitu Films, a department of Vivid Pictures whose objective was to produce a collection of low budget movies and flood the market in such a way that pirates did not have a chance. This model faced its own challenges just like every pioneer initiative would do. However, it was a breath of fresh air into Riverwood which before then only made sales based on indigenous language movies. In typical Kenyan fashion, we complained that the movies were too cheap (my dear Kenyans!). Nevertheless Alex worked tirelessly on this project and soon became the face of the project on all fronts- starring, directing and producing. This is when you realize not all white people are the same and this one was as hardcore as they came.

I remember attending a Producers’ conference organized by Zuku with Alex. The directors insisted that they required local producers to deliver high quality content. Alex shot up and explained to the directors that they needed to understand that the budget they provided was not anywhere near the quality they were demanding. Of course a debate transpired but it was amazing to see this courageous director air out a pivotal challenge in independent production. Alex forged forward with his star-actress wife Liz Njagah-Konstantaras to form Historia Films Kenya. They have delivered productions that have taken the Kenyan market by storm, including ‘Me My Wife and Her Guru’, ‘Return of Lazarus’ and ‘In The Forest With Gerald Langiri.’

It was however their comedy ‘House of Lungula’ (lungula means sex) that finally gave them the national attention they richly

deserved. This was the movie with the most controversial title Kenya had ever produced. It ignited a lot of conversation with self-righteous Kenyans condemning it and in the process making more and more Kenyans want to watch. Alex didn’t let the dust settle and together with his supportive go-getter wife produced ‘Fundimentals’ which was released this year and one of its main actors, Gerald Langiri, nominated to the Nigerian AMVCA Awards (sorry I’m not writing it in full- Google is your friend).
Alex’s approach is based on wrapping grave socio-economic issues with humor. I don’t know how the fully trained film –maker got the Riverwood syndrome but working with Alex actually makes you feel patriotic. Above him there is only you and the film and no other big guy. He discusses the scene, enjoys it with you without further directorial jargon and excitedly discusses how he sees it shot. Actors also feel like his peers and partners when making a film which makes them give it their best shot. They also stick around with him as he gallantly promotes the film to a Kenyan audience.

Both Gatonye and Alex have one thing in common. They are determined to put Kenyan films on the map and hence create a wider platform for our actors!

In the next article I am going to compare and contrast female directors and look at their enormous contribution to the acting fraternity.

In the meantime have you worked with either of the two directors profiled here and what was your experience? Or what did you think of their productions? Also let me know about your favorite director and why?