Talanta Institute display their talent at drama fete

A student of Talanta Institute presents the winning solo verse Mbona at the Schools and Colleges Drama and Film Festival on Sunday. [George Orido, Standard]

Talanta Institute was this year’s surprise package during the Nairobi edition of the annual Schools and Colleges Drama and Film Festival.

The minions bagged three major wins at the fete held at the National Youth Service (NYS) Craft College on their debut last weekend.

The institute won the narrative, mime and solo verse categories, with individual accolades going to Daniel Shirima, Yvonne Wairimu, Benard Nyanje.

Clare Liambila and Shirima were crowned the most promising female and male artistes respectively.

Despite this, the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication christened The Powerhouse, under the directorship of Wycliffe Amayoka Tsinje, retained their position as the best institution at the fete.

The college won in the stand-up Comedy category and the newly created Spoken Word.

Kenya Utalii College was impressive with the choral verse Dimba directed by Francis Kotieno and written by Washington Oduor.

The verse depicts two teams that are playing Rugby, but whose winnings depend on how much cheering comes from the fans.

To achieve this, the cheering squads are promised heaven, including the construction of a brand new state-of-the-art stadium should their respective teams win.

But when one of the teams wins, the cheering crowds are in for a big surprise. Instead of a stadium, they are rewarded with substandard rugby balls.

In their winning modern creative dance, Utalii presented an increasing concern of graduates who lacked jobs despite exemplary performance. Many of them end up on the wrong side of the law indulging in drug abuse and other crime.

The dance seeks a better curriculum geared towards producing graduates for the job market and for the political establishment and businesses to grow the economy for a decent livelihood for all.

NYS Craft was in a class of their own, with the winning dance Msianii depicting the life of a young man who completes Form Four, but due to economic challenges in his family he is not able to join a technical training institution.

Challenges of staying home idle make him vulnerable to misdemeanor since he cannot find employment.

To address this challenge, the Government intervenes to fund technical institutions to enable the young man to pursue a technical course.

Gloria Muchesia was crowned the best soloist of the fete.

The icing on the cake was Kabete Technical Training Institute’s play depicting a nation plagued with corruption, hindering the much needed growth for a young African nation.

The people given the mandate to manage Amani have done badly with their incompetence, eventually leading to foreigners taking over the management of the nation.

The script was written by Allan Shioso and directed by Omondi Ngota. It featured good acting from Victor as Nahin, Kuira as Samantha and Lusinde as Sultan.

And they took position one, overthrowing perennial winners, KIMC, in a big upset.

Speaking during the inspection of the host venue for the nationals at Kibabii University in Bungoma, yesterday, the Kenya Film Classification Board Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua expressed confidence with the preparation for the fete to be conducted from the first week of April.

“I’m very delighted to see the collective efforts of different players to ensure that the event will be a resounding success,” he said.