Tonderai Cosmas Chiyindiko

Zimbabwe

Tonderai Cosmas Chiyindiko holds a BA (Hon) in Theatre Arts from the University of Zimbabwe and is currently doing a Masters in Dramatic Arts at Wits University.

He has worked in various capacities for arts and culture organisations, such as the Harare International Festival of the Arts, as HifAmigos manager, and Alliance Française Harare, as a cultural affairs and communications officer.

Tonderai is also a qualified events co-ordinator, having worked with Zimbabwe Music Awards and the National Arts Merit Awards. He studied Exhibition and Events Management at Damelin College in South Africa.

Tonderai has acted in and directed numerous theatre productions. These include Death of a Salesman where he played Willy Loman and in Stephen Chifunyise’ Muramu. His short- and feature-film credits include Akakodzera Ndiani (2008), The Zimbabwe I know (2009) and Sores of Emmanuel (2009).

Tonderai also featured in the first-ever Zimbabwean soap opera, Studio 263, which was specifically aimed at addressing HIV and AIDS through edu-tainment. He also did a stint as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Zimbabwe while enrolled to do an MA in Drama.

The Zimbabwean lists his passion as a desire “to work with individuals and communities to look beyond their daily challenges through innovative, groundbreaking and engaging methods of performance and theatre-making, and to use film and docu-drama as tools to highlight social concerns”.