Biographies

Kevin Hanssen

Zimbabwean born Kevin Hanssen enjoys a wide range of interests in the performing arts industry. As a founding member of Zimbabwe's prestigious Over the Edge theatre company he has performed five times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as tours to Europe, America and around Zimbabwe. He co-wrote and performed in Born African with Over the Edge which received a nomination for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other acting highlights include representing Zimbabwe as part of the three strong team at the World Impro Championships in Germany in 2006. Recent Zimbabwean performaces include Charles in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit at Reps Theatre, Harare, the Lion in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with Theory X productions, and over the last 6 months Kevin has started a successful Harare improvisation show called The Impro Show.

Kevin also works as a Director and Radio Producer. During a two year stint with Strathmore Publishing in London Kevin compiled and co-produced Monty Python's audio autobiography. He worked on various other titles directing British actors like Tim Piggot-Smith, Sian Thomas and Christopher Cazenove in the studio. He has also produced two radio dramas for the Voice of America: The Bridge and a local Zimbabwean soap opera called KwaTaffy's.

Theatrical directing credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in Harare for Reps Theatre (2010), Kalanga! in 2008 - a dance show in colloboration with the Kellogg Foundation and the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA). Kevin also directed another dance show exploring the Easter story called The Last Days, working with the National Ballet, Tumbuka and DFC dancers and top Zimbabwean choreographer Faye Jackson.

He is currently writing a book called Jump Theatre on Drama production for use in Zimbabwean schools and beyond.

Renee Mostert

Never having been dramatically inclined before (other than a nativity school play), Renee Mostert was thrown into the deep end at age 17 in her final year of high school when she had to direct the school play Annie (The Musical). She would have leaned more toward a classical music career as she had completed her music exams but found she had an affinity toward theatre.

After school, during what was supposed to be just a gap year, she works as a pianist and music teacher by day and develops her theatrical experience by night. She has since been in a school production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, a Theory X Production of Jason Robert Brown's Songs For A New World directed by leading Zimbabwean director, Zane E. Lucas. Last year she played Carol in David Mamet's Oleanna directed by top Zimbabwean actor and director, Kevin Hanssen.

Already having an interest in music, she began by leading the pit orchestra in the pantomime Little Red Riding Hood and then musically directed the next pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at Reps Theatre, Harare. She also musically directed and acted in A Christmas Carol with Theory X Productions.

She has directed Shakespeare's As You Like It which showed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) and most recently directed The Tempest representing Zimbabwe in the international Shakespeare Schools Festival under the production company Pumpkin Pie Productions, created with Kevin Hanssen.

This will be the first time the Zimbabwean 20 year old will step onto European soil as she is currently preparing to take Oleanna to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, directed by heeten bhagat.

heeten bhagat

An unclassically/ anarchically trained arts professional with experience in design, dance, film and education. Currently working on creative educative projects that are specifically looking at ways in which culture [present/past/future] and its innate value can be incorporated in a new post-surreal Zimbabwe. Loving the strait-jacket, because resistance builds muscle, and there needs be some [re]building to be done. Wondering if normalcy is really what we want?