Wanjiku Mwawuganga is a Kenyan actor, author, and director. She completed her studies of Film and Theatre Arts at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. As an actor, she appeared in several short films and theatre productions, such as in ARE WE HERE YET from Ogutu Muraya and WHO’S YOUR DADDY from Martin Kigondu. Her directorial debut followed in 2015 with WE WON’T FORGET, which was invited to the Kampala International Theatre Festival and the Jalada Literally Mobile Festival in Kenya and was shown in 2017 at the Ubumuntu International Festival in Ruanda. Her most recent work includes the direction of TAKING MY FATHER HOME from the author Sitawa Namwalie. Wanjiku Mwawuganga is alumna of the DAH Theatre International Summer School of the class of 2019 and a residency holder of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel 2020 Watch and Talk.
Roots
written and performed by Wanjiku Mwawuganga
dramaturgy Leila Anderson
ROOTS is an interdisciplinary project which uses physical, oral, and audiovisual storytelling to investigate intersectionality and motherhood. The relationships between mothers and daughters are followed across five generations. The Kenyan actress and directress Wanjiku Mwawuganga conducts interviews with the women who raised her and examines the physical memory in relation to the memory captured in a photograph. ROOTS wants to create an understanding for the complex, reciprocal connections of vulnerability and alienation with regard to the family and an intergenerational memory.
ROOTS is a part of the artistic exchange programme Maabara Exchange Theatre of the author and theatre maker Ogutu Muraya. This project shall offer space for trying things out, in the framework of which one is able to work in a practice oriented as well as an experimental manner.
Production Maabara Exchange Theatre
Co-production SPIELART Theaterfestival I Zürcher Theaterspektakel
Realization in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut
ROOTS recently performed in Figurentheater Festival, Germany & the National Arts Festival, South Africa.
ROOTS is a part of the artistic exchange programme Maabara Exchange Theatre of the author and theatre maker Ogutu Muraya. This project shall offer space for trying things out, in the framework of which one is able to work in a practice oriented as well as an experimental manner.
Production Maabara Exchange Theatre
Co-production SPIELART Theaterfestival I Zürcher Theaterspektakel
Realization in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut
ROOTS recently performed in Figurentheater Festival, Germany & the National Arts Festival, South Africa.
Photography Tobias Zangl [SPIELART Theaterfestival 2021]