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Fumbani Innot Phiri

Theatre and Media Practitioner

Fumban InnotPhiri Jnr. is an Award-winning Co-director and two times best playwright for Theatre for young audience. He is a dramatist, journalist, and theatre educator who have produced dramas and workshops for broadcast, stage, community, radio, film, and schools. He is currently working at Story Workshop Education Trust as Scriptwriter, voice actor, He is also a theatre producer, actor, director, writer at YDC Theatre and studied Journalism and media studies at the University of Malawi-The Polytechnic.

Off stage, Innot has worked widely in theatre super vision for community drama and theatre for development. His also Festival Coordinator for the National Schools Youth Arts Festival (NASFEST) and a part-time director of drama; Joyce Banda Foundation, Stella Maris Secondary School and Mary Mount Girls secondary schools in Malawi. On the stage, Innot has worked as an actor, playwright, producer, and director. He has performed about 10 majors plays and writes approximately 20 productions to date. He also has experience in Radio-Plays; he is currently writing two radio series for a community young audience; “Moyo ndi Mpamba” and “Zimachitika” for Story workshop Education Trust.

In May of 2017 and 2018, Fumbani represent Malawi for ASSITEJ International Theatre for Children and Young People, which took place in Cape-town South Africa and Sweden respectively.

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Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages
Podcast

Championing Theatre for Development in Malawian Villages

17 January 2023

Theatre for development, which uses theatre to foster civic dialogue in communities, is quite popular in Malawi. Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. sits down with theatre for development practitioner Vitu Gwambaike Zgambo find out what commercial theatremakers in Malawi’s cities and towns can learn from the community-based practitioners creating theatre in villages around the country.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
Podcast

Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival

9 January 2023

When filmmaker Thomas Chibambo founded the Blantyre Arts Festival in 2009, it was Malawi’s first multi-disciplinary arts festival. He joins host Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to discuss the Blantyre Arts Festival’s current plans to better support theatrical performance and his own work to establish an Arts Council in Malawi.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment
Podcast

How YDC Theatre Leaders Are Navigating Malawi’s Changing Theatre Environment

4 January 2023

YDC Theatre has been producing theatre consistently in Malawi, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They join Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to trace the connections between the company’s consistent work centering Malawian perspectives, their efforts to build an audience, and the political and funding climate that they must navigate.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Making Theatre as a Multi-Hyphenate in Malawi
Podcast

Making Theatre as a Multi-Hyphenate in Malawi

21 December 2022

Pleasant Theodore Banda led Rise Arts to its first international performance in Zimbabwe. In this interview, he discusses his path into artistic direction as an actor and playwright with a background in accounting.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Developing Genuine Malawian Theatre on Stage and on the Radio
Podcast

Developing Genuine Malawian Theatre on Stage and on the Radio

14 December 2022

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. interviews playwright and director Inno Katz about his career and his efforts to redefining Malawian theatre by focusing on local stories in both English and Chichewa.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation
Podcast

Reinventing Malawian Theatre for a New Generation

7 December 2022

Jack Msumba, creative director of Youth Developers Collaboration Theatre, has big ideas for the future of Malawian theatre. In this interview, he shares his plans to eventually build Malawi’s first theatre house by producing work consistently in schools, communities, and commercial settings.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education
Podcast

Theatre as a Tool for Menstrual Hygiene Education

30 November 2022

Lydia Deborah Banda infuses theatre into community initiatives that work toward gender equality, educate girls about menstruation, and provide leadership and support opportunities in schools and prisons. In this interview, she shares her experiences conducting these initiatives in Malawi and touring internationally to Germany.

Teaser image for Season 1, Episode 5 of Critical Stages In Malawian Contemporary Theatre featuring the headshot of Bright Phumayo Chayachaya.
Building an Audience for Malawian Political Theatre
Podcast

Building an Audience for Malawian Political Theatre

22 November 2022

Bright Phumayo Chayachaya’s Umunthu Theatre pulls together political theatre, poor theatre, theatre for development, and educational theatre to create productions that centralize Malawian narratives. In this interview, he discusses the company’s genesis and the need to bring audiences back to theatre.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Melding Spoken Word Poetry and Theatre in Malawi
Podcast

Melding Spoken Word Poetry and Theatre in Malawi

16 November 2022

What does the voice of this millennium sound like? In this interview, Khumbolane Chavula provides one answer to that question by splicing together theatre, poetry, and entrepreneurship as the founder of Millesimal Poetry.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Development of Malawian Theatre
Podcast

Development of Malawian Theatre

A Conversation with Maxwell Chiphinga

9 November 2022

Maxwell Ciphinga, better known as Max DC, has weathered massive changes in the audience, form, and funding of Malawian theatre throughout his four-decade career. In this interview, he shares his perspective on the industry and discusses his policy and producorial work as the president of Malawi’s new National Theatre Association.

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Theatre Academics
Podcast

Theatre Academics

A Conversation with Roselyn Madalo Dzanja

2 November 2022

As a scholar, educator, and practitioner of theatre, Roselyn Madalo Dzanja knows Malawi’s theatrical landscape well. In this interview, she discusses challenges Malawian women face when pursuing an acting career, the need for artistic independence from international donors, possibilities for Chichewa-language drama, and more.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Dance for Change
Podcast

Dance for Change

A Conversation with Robert Magasa

26 October 2022

Robert Magasa is an experienced dancer, choreographer, and actor who trained in Zimbabwe and now runs UjeNi Dance Ensemble Theatre in Malawi. In this interview, Magasa discusses his career, the economics of producing theatre in Malawi, and his current work to bring a combination of traditional and Afro contemporary dance to schoolchildren in Malawi.

Three Actors are reflecting a Demonstrations, shouting toward an actor opposite of them in red.
Resurfacing Political Theatre: Sometimes in July
Essay

Resurfacing Political Theatre: Sometimes in July

25 October 2021

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. speaks with Bright Chayachaya, the founder and director of Umunthu Theatre, about their production of Sometimes in July, a play based on the real-life demonstrations that occurred on July 20, 2011 in Malawi.

An image of six actors forming a semi circle around and actor standing on actors block , The actor on the block, is lifting food to their mouth with pained expression.
The Classical Theatre of the Oppressed
Essay

The Classical Theatre of the Oppressed

Adapting The Vagina Monologues in Malawi

13 April 2021

Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr. details the creative process of the production of The Vagina Monologues that took place during 16 Days of Activism in Malawi and offers his thoughts, as an audience member, on the show’s big impact.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre
Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre
Series

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre

In Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre, Fumbani Innot Phiri Jr.