The Author: An important South African novelist, playwright, and poet, Zakes Mda spent his early childhood in Soweto, but finished his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile in1963. Nevertheless, Mda writes in English. His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978. By 1984 his plays had been performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns.In the early nineties Mda was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham and a research fellow at Yale University. He returned to South Africa as Visiting Professor at the School of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University.

Blakslap Theatre: A Toledo, OH based theatre company interested in intimate performances of thought provoking, socially relevant theatre works that focus on the diversities and convergences of human life.

Shows Saturday, Feb. 4th at 8pm and Sunday, Feb. 5th at 3pm! Tickets - $12