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UVA Actors Past and Present Collaborate at World AIDS Conference
By Joel Grothe

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine

This past August, through the generous support of the University of Virginia, I was able to attend the World AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, and work on a very special performance of Biro, the stunning one man show written and performed by UVA alum Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine.

Biro tells the story of one man’s incredible struggle. It moves from his days growing up and joining the revolution in Uganda, to being diagnosed with AIDS and coming to North America, to ending up in a Texas jail. The play, based loosely on a relation of Mwine’s and his own family, has played to rave reviews in New York, Los Angeles, London, Seattle, various locations throughout Africa (including the Pan-African Conference), and on several college campuses throughout America. In the Fall of 2005, Mwine brought the show to UVA, where he had completed a bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1989. Ntare and I connected immediately in a mask masterclass he led while here. After seeing his documentary film Beware of Time (about touring his play in Uganda) and his performance of Biro I was most impressed. I offered to make a couple of phone calls and send his script around in Toronto, where I had worked as a theatre producer and Artistic Director before coming to UVA.

Several companies were impressed by the script, but nothing panned out until we realized that the World AIDS conference would be in Toronto August 13th-18th. After much toiling (Ntare and I had been in constant contact since December), the conference accepted us as part of their Cultural Program and funded both our travel and registration. The University of Virginia gave me a special project grant to cover my living expenses. Throughout the course of this planning, Ntare revealed two important things to me: 1) that the character who Biro was based on lived in Toronto and was going to get to see the play for the first time, and 2) that this would be the final performance of the play, which had been consuming his life in its touring for the past several years. An L.A. based T.V. and film actor, Ntare has been getting more and more work (largely as a result of Biro) and decided that he was ready to move on. This was the perfect opportunity to bring the journey of Biro to a close; at the World AIDS Conference before the person it was based on, who has truly turned his life around.

Mwine is the consummate professional. As a person he is patient but resilient, gentle but expectant. He is focused, and an exceptional listener. As a performer, and an artist, he is also all of these things, but his art takes priority. As a performer he becomes bigger and more assertive; as an artist, he is demanding but never unreasonable. The greatest experience of this week in August was the time I had with him preparing for his show. He and I rehearsed alone for two days with his script and the slide projections that he uses to provide a stark and sometimes ironic backdrop to Biro’s story. We spent another day and a half in the theatre we were performing in - The Harbourfront Theatre Centre, a building that used to be an ice factory – adding sound and lighting to the show. All that I have mentioned above about Mwine’s grace and character was on display. It’s unheard of for one man to have created so many different aspects of a show, and to be so objective and patient about it. Those of us who worked with him, including my colleagues Jeremy Hutton and Alasdair James (from the Canopy Theatre Company) and the Harbourfront crew, knew that we were just visitors in this world, helping something very special along. Ntare is a model for all artists; anyone thinking of working in the professional theatre should have the chance to observe and collaborate with him.

Biro

The Harbourfront Centre Theatre – which is appropriately long and deep, like an expanded jail cell – was nearly filled on the single night of the performance. Ntare’s acting was relaxed and moving. As is the norm with this play, he was applauded afterwards in numerous standing ovations. In the aftermath, lots of people wanted to praise Ntare in a way that makes them feel good about themselves, but its very clear that he isn’t interested in the glory, but the integrity and message of his work. And the person whom the story was based on  (very few of us know who he actually is) is deeply awakened and changed after seeing the performance.
           
The Conference itself was somewhat overwhelming. With over 25, 000 delegates and an understaffed organizing committee, it was a daunting challenge. While navigating this, Ntare and I were both able to connect with people who do AIDS- oriented performance work in Africa, as well as take in other aspects of the Cultural Program at the conference. Security was extremely tight, yet during an afternoon of confusion and misplaced name badges I, Joel Grothe, among the whitest people in America, was able to pass myself off as Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine from Uganda.

One of the most popular events at the conference was an African village simulator, provided by World Vision, where you entered a tent and over the course of half an hour you were given the experience of being in an African village. Near the end of the conference I finally found time to try to go to this, and the line was extremely long. Ntare called me on his way out of town and asked if I got a chance to go to this. “No, I gave up waiting” I said. “I’d rather just go to Africa with you next time you go.”

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