The Kenya Theatre Awards Secretariat: Chairperson, Systems Initiator
The launch of The Kenya Theatre Awards coincided with my assumption of leadership within the Kenya International Theatre Festival Trust. While I had participated in the conceptualisation of the awards, the opportunity to be the first to lead the program, to initiate the systems and provide leadership that can claim excellence, was something I had not particularly thought through.
Objective
Initiate the systems that would support the various functions that lead to successful nominations and awards.Outcome
A quality program that produces valuable data, identifies top acts, and facilitates the awarding of winners in an annual Kenyan theatre celebration.The year is 2021, the Kenya Theatre Awards is launched amid a post-COVID unsettledness. This situation was worsened by the thick air of resistance from the Kenyan theatre industry - due to the bad reputation towards theatrical award schemes at the time. However, the success of KITFest meant a majority of the industry practitioners were willing to give the Kenya Theatre Awards a chance.
Despite this advantage, a lot of community building and relationship management was required. I had to ensure we made our value clear, and show proof of the difference we guaranteed through the excellence in our process and interaction with stakeholders. Internally, our systems required a combination of human interactions and technological investments, to sustain a continuously dovetailing loop of people and data management.
This solid foundation ensured the industry believed and trusted The Kenya Theatre Awards to be the organ that inspires dedication, investments and development for the economic progress of the Kenyan theatre industry. In only two editions, the KTAs attracted the participation of the greater Kenyan performing arts scene, producers, artists, partners, the media and the government, in an ecosystem that is currently thriving with an invaluable impact to theatre.
After the first two editions, The Kenya Theatre Awards was poised for sustainable success, within an operational framework that will potentially sustain it for a long time to come. As the initiator, I was confident of this reality and knew that was a great time to allow for new leadership. My work was done.
