Award-winning actor and director Zane E Lucas has been appointed Director of Productions for The Repertory Players, the first person to hold this post since the late Adrian Stanley, who undertook the role for more than 40 years.
Zimbabwean-born Mr Lucas obtained a BA honours degree in theatre through Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. On his return to Zimbabwe he started working with the country's first multiracial theatre company, Over The Edge, and between 1999 and 2004 he toured extensively with the company as a performer in productions including Twelfth Night (ART, Boston; Bath Shakespeare Festival; The Sheffield Crucible, UK; Neuss Shakespeare Festival, Germany; Edinburgh Festival, UK; Harvard University and Macalaster University, USA) and the Taming of the Shrew (Edinburgh Festival; Neuss Shakespeare Festival, Germany; Bath Shakespeare Festival, UK).
He was the director of Over The Edge's successful devised piece Born African, which toured for over two years ( Hamburg; Frankfurt; Edinburgh ; Boston; New York; UK; Belfast; Dublin; Cape Town (Baxter Theatre); Grahamstown Festival; Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).
Mr Lucas has also worked as director in several theatres in Zimbabwe, with credits including Artbeat (Official HIFA Opening 2004); Much Ado About Nothing (2006); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2007), Songs for a New World (2008); A Christmas Carol (2008); Blithe Spirit (2009); Cabaret (2009); Striking 12 (2009/10); Hay Fever (2010);Yours Abundantly From Zimbabwe (2010), The Importance of Being Earnest (2010), Noises Off ((2010), Rent (2011); Shirley Valentine (2011)and Boeing Boeing (2011/2012.)
Between 2005 and 2011 he was the Director of Theatre at Theory X, an innovative company dedicated to building the next generation of Zimbabwean artists. He has also been creative co-ordinator of HIFA-DIRECT, the new writing and directing arm of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), in partnership with The British Council.
In 2009 he was selected as Cultural Ambassador for the Young Directors programme at The John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts on behalf of the United States of America State Department. A year later he returned to the United States to speak at a Global Conference for Theatre Without Borders.
Mr Lucas is also the deputy festival director of the annual Schools' Speech and Drama Festival run by the National Institute of Allied Arts and is at present Chairman of the Zimbabwean chapter of The International Theatre Institute.
In his new role for The Repertory Players, he will direct a specified number of productions on both stages at Reps Theatre in Harare, as well as oversee all productions staged by other directors from within the Repertory Players. He is also tasked with providing input in areas such as quality control, training and development and marketing.
"Zane E Lucas is one of the most highly respected personalities in Zimbabwean theatre and has a wealth of talent and experience to offer Reps," said The Repertory Players chairman, Stan Higgins.
"In this role he will be instrumental in facilitating the creative development of Reps and in expanding theatrical activity in Harare in general. We look forward to many years of exciting and innovative theatrical activity under his guidance, further enhancing a dramatic society that has more than 80 years of tradition and history behind it."
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