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Writer/Director
Mgcini Nyoni
Creative Director, Playwright, Filmmaker & Songwriter
Mgcini Nyoni is an award-winning Zimbabwean playwright, creative director, photographer, filmmaker, and songwriter with over two decades of experience in the creative industries. Formerly an educator, he transitioned into full-time artistic practice in 2005 and has since established himself as a prominent voice in Southern African performance art and cultural archiving.
He serves as A&R at DAB Three Studio in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and is the founder and Creative Director of Poetry Bulawayo.
Key Career Highlights
Key Career Highlights
Theatre & Playwriting: Writer and director of numerous acclaimed stage productions, including Shuffle (premiered 2022; showcased at LitFest Harare 2024), Walk With Me (2017), Musings (2015), The Really Stupid Things Men Say (HIFA, 2013), and The Button Box (2012).
Film & Television: Writer, producer, and director with notable screen projects including The Hudson Road Trip documentary (2024), Day 44, The Zimbabwean Dream, and Bubble Avenue (Noes Strategic Business Engineering, SA). His short film Five Days to Shiloh received a National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) nomination for Outstanding Screen Production.
Music & Audio Production: Primary lyricist and production supervisor for The DAB Band’s debut album, Umthandazo.
Photography & Visual Arts: Three-time winner of Outstanding Arts Photographer at the Bulawayo Arts Awards (2017, 2018, 2019), with curatorial and exhibition showcases across the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo and Harare.
Published Works & Literary Arts: Editor of the Daybreak poetry anthology. His poetry has been published internationally in anthologies including Fire in the Soul (New Internationalist / Amnesty International) and Intwasa Poetry.
Cast member one
Percy Soko
Narrator / Simba / Blessing
Percy Soko is an award-winning Zimbabwean actor, filmmaker and performer (NAMA & Bulawayo Arts Awards — Outstanding Male Actor).
In Bazobuya, he is the Narrator — elder, musician and living archive who binds the monologues — and embodies Simba, a spaza owner with 180 seconds to decide what a life is worth, and Blessing, who refuses to slash his crops.
With 20+ years across stage and screen — Bazukuru (Amazon Prime), Far From Yesterday (DStv / Showmax), HIFA — his work turns precarity into ceremony. Trilingual: English, Ndebele, Shona.
Cast Member two
Mpumelelo Nyoni
Thabani / Bona / Thando
Mpumelelo Thembelani Nyoni is a Bulawayo-based writer, actor and communications specialist (BA Honours English & Communication, Midlands State University).
In Bazobuya, he plays Thabani — a history teacher turned Uber driver counting permit expiry dates — Bona, who carries the silent weight of the Limpopo crossing, and Thando, who returns home with a suitcase lashed with wire that contains not money, but seeds.
A former Features Journalist at The Chronicle and Brand Ambassador for Telecel Zimbabwe, he brings an archivist's precision and a returnee's quiet ache to the stage. Stage: The Play That Went Wrong (Bulawayo). Trilingual: English, Ndebele, Shona.
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