Windhoek — The National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) through its Youth Theatre Development Project (YTDP) will present the first youth theatre festival under the theme "Ada !Hao-re (Let's Gather) on September 8-12 at Immanuel Shifidi Secondary School in Katutura.

Initiated in 1997, The Youth Theatre Development Project (YTDP) targets unemployed youth in the regions and aims at assisting the communities in establishing theatre groups and offers training in various areas of theatre:

acting, scriptwriting, directing-production, stage setting, costume design and marketing. This initiative affords the unemployed youth in the regions to create job opportunities for themselves through theatre (community/popular theatre) and contribute towards the social upliftment of their communities.

The Ada !Hao-re Youth Theatre Festival will be the first of its kind by NTN's Youth Theatre Development Project (YTDP) and will bring together 10 regional theatre groups from Karibib, Gochas, Uis, Oshakati, Otjiwarongo, Usakos, Tsumeb, Lüderitz, Okakarara and Tses. The festival will culminate into a prize-giving ceremony on September 13, as the performances will be judged in various categories such as best actor/actress, best director and best overall play.

Two performances will be presented per evening throughout the festival with the first performance starting at 18h30 and the second performance starting at 20h00.

Theatre lovers can look forward to a week-long theatre entertainment with 10 good plays to choose from.