{"id":48560,"date":"2021-10-19T20:36:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T18:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=48560"},"modified":"2021-10-19T20:21:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T18:21:53","slug":"zim-born-ruva-chigwedere-21-transforms-us-havard-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-born-ruva-chigwedere-21-transforms-us-havard-theatre","title":{"rendered":"Zim-Born Ruva Chigwedere (21) Transforms US Havard Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Harvard Crimson<\/b> – \u201cTO ME, leadership has always meant service,\u201d said singer, actor, and writer Ruva Chigwedere \u201821. In her four years at Harvard, she honed her craft and created spaces for Black artists on campus.<\/p>\n

Chigwedere immigrated to the United States from Zimbabwe at age four. When she moved from New Jersey to Cambridge for college, she planned to study economics in the hopes of securing a stable job; a career in the arts didn\u2019t guarantee that.<\/p>\n

However, she soon realised that her true passion was acting, and so decided to gain as much experience in Harvard theater productions as possible. Chigwedere eventually chose to concentrate jointly in Theatre, Dance, and Media and History and Literature.<\/p>\n

Chigwedere attended the Shakespeare Summer School Program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and played Kate in \u201cTaming of the Shrew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in the fall of 2018, Chigwedere auditioned for the Harvard College Opera production of \u201cCendrillon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though initially cast in a featured ensemble role, the directors promoted her to the principal role of Doroth\u00e9e. Chigwedere emphasized how the production allowed her to gain much more experience in a short amount of time.<\/p>\n

Chigwedere also joined the Kuumba Singers, which was founded in 1970 in the midst of the political turmoil of the Civil Rights Movement, two years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were one of the spaces in the Black community that I felt most at home in,\u201d Ruva says. She also stressed the importance of the group\u2019s continuing legacy of Black community organizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spirit of [the Kuumba Singers] really mimics some of the Black community organizations that were fighting for justice during the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chigwedere\u2019s contributions to the Harvard community don\u2019t stop there: She also expanded the reach of the Harvard Black Community & Student Theatre Group, or BlackC.A.S.T., a student-run organization that supports Black student theater artists.<\/p>\n

When Chigwedere arrived at Harvard, the organization had taken a long hiatus, and its reputation was less than stellar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stereotype that BlackC.A.S.T. had in the Harvard theater community at the time was that they couldn\u2019t put together a good show,\u201d Chigwedere says. Hoping to reinvigorate the group, she joined the board, serving as secretary and then co-president.<\/p>\n

One of her goals was addressing the organization\u2019s lack of institutional memory and creating mechanisms for passing down knowledge about theater to younger students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who know how to do things, individual people have their connections to different groups. That has been one of BlackC.A.S.T.\u2019s strengths, but also its greatest fault: that things end with people,\u201d Chigwedere says. \u201cOnce a person graduates, a connection is lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her other accomplishments with BlackC.A.S.T. include solidifying the group\u2019s relationship with other Harvard theater institutions \u2014 such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and the American Repertory Theatre \u2014 and reaffirming its connections with other Black student organizations.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore, Chigwedere directed the Black Playwrights Festival, an annual showcase of student works.<\/p>\n

The 2021 Festival, which took place virtually in March, focused on the theme \u201cSome Kind of Tomorrow,\u201d featuring readings from five student playwrights and a conversation with playwrights Lydia R. Diamond and Michael R. Jackson.<\/p>\n

Chigwedere\u2019s desire to cultivate a space for the Black artistic community at Harvard came out of her appreciation for Black students before her who created safer spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, this is a white supremacist institution. And there\u2019s so many different things that have happened that have been traumatizing, or that have been painful for me to experience as a Black person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m able to take up space and to be seen as [making] valuable contributions on this campus because of those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Chigwedere has long been frustrated by the treatment of Black women in Harvard theater. \u201cIt made me really sad to see \u2026 how Black women were systematically kept out of different places,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And the problem isn\u2019t unique to Harvard. Chigwedere realized while reading her program at a West End production of \u201cDreamgirls\u201d that there is a dearth of roles for Black women in theater. \u201cIn every one of those actors\u2019 resumes, they were either Deena or Effie in \u201cDreamgirls\u201d and they were either Celie or Nettie in \u201cThe Color Purple,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are just two roles out there.\u201d Her desire to change that narrative motivated her to write her senior thesis, a play titled \u201cFor Daughters of Ezili; or, How to be a Black Girl and Find Love and Survive 101.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to need to create something for me in order to be able to work,\u201d Chigwedere says. The result was a celebration of Black women\u2019s complexity and joy. After graduation, Ruva continued to develop her thesis play for production, and is planning to possibly audition for conservatory and write her own music.<\/p>\n

Her advice to current students? Prioritize. \u201cI wish I could shake every single Harvard student,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more you stretch yourself thin, the more you will hate all the things that you actually love doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Harvard Crimson – \u201cTO ME, leadership has always meant service,\u201d said singer, actor, and writer Ruva Chigwedere \u201821. In her four years at Harvard, she honed her craft and created spaces for Black artists on campus. Chigwedere immigrated to the United States from Zimbabwe at age four. When she moved from New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,35,15],"tags":[1493,2189,19],"class_list":["post-48560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nZim-Born Ruva Chigwedere (21) Transforms US Havard Theatre - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harvard Crimson - \u201cTO ME, leadership has always meant service,\u201d said singer, actor, and writer Ruva Chigwedere \u20182 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zim-born-ruva-chigwedere-21-transforms-us-havard-theatre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zim-Born Ruva Chigwedere (21) Transforms US Havard Theatre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harvard Crimson - 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