SA soap star to drill 'Botswood' actors
Gasebalwe Seretse | Thursday December 12, 2013 17:03
According to the founder of Handprint and Botswood Movie, which has produced Beauty and Definitions, Fenny Lekolwane, Ditshwene will be drilling over a hundred new actors in the first workshop they have ever hosted.
“We have held auditions in places like Gaborone, Francistown and Serowe, which were attended by over 400 aspirants. One hundred and twenty-four of those people were chosen to act in five productions.
We will be working on starting from early next year. Ditshwene who has appeared in top SA productions like Generations and Zone 14 will be training these new actors in the areas of characterisation and acting techniques,” Lekolwane said.
Lekolwane further said that although they had wished the programme would take two days, they had to pack everything in a day to allow the actress time to mourn former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
According to the producer, the new actors are going to get both leading and supporting roles in the five new productions Handprint will begin shooting early next year.
The shows are namely, Dangerous Games Women Play, Dangerous Games Men Play, Perfect Love, Lepodisi La Sephiri and Matsale Part 2. “Ever since the airing of the Beauty and Definitions series on Btv, many Batswana actors have wanted to act in our productions. We believe the workshop is going to help hone the talent of many. We also want the new productions to be better than our past works because now we have a better budget,” Lekolwane said, adding that she hopes that Btv is going to purchase the new productions as well.
Although the producer declined to mention how much her company has made from selling her works to Btv, she said that the money has enabled her to hold auditions in different places in the country and that it would also be enough to ensure the smooth production of new works.
“When we were shooting the Beauty series and other productions, we had limited budget and we couldn’t produce the quality we wanted. Now we can assure Batswana that this time around, they must look out for better quality products,” she said.
Lekolwane added that Handprint is going to take five months of uninterrupted shooting of the productions. She also said although most of the works will be shot in locations around Gaborone, some would be shot outside the city. She said that Matsale Part 2 is going to be shot in the tourist town of Kasane and hopes snippets from the comedy would do a lot to promote tourism in the country.
Lepodisi La Sephiri is going to be shot in Mochudi.
Most of Handprint productions such as Beauty, Ya Le Nna Nigeria, Matsale and others are available in Choppies stores nationwide. Lekolwane said that they would be a good buy for festive season.