From The Forest Theatre And Arts Festival
From the Forest is London’s newest theatre and arts festival, which took place in Waltham Forest from 21st June to 1st July. Starting out as a four day festival in a single venue in the Winter of 2016, the festival expanded to over 60 shows this year, spread across multiple venues over two weeks. Championing the creation of new performances in great venues, the festival aims to provide an affordable platform for artists to showcase their material. Anyone and everyone is welcome to apply to be a part of the festival.
Here are a few pictures and videos from our show.
The song we're playing in the clip above is a Tswana folk song called Mangwane Mpulele. It's sung in Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho.
-- LYRICS --
Mangwane mpulele (Aunty, open up)
Ke nelwa ke pula (The rain is coming down on me)
Le ga dile pedi (Whether there are two)
Le ga dile tharo (Whether there are three)
N’ka nyala mosadi (I too can get married)
-- ABOUT OTTO AND THE MUTAPA CALLING --
Otto and The Mutapa Calling is a lively London based marimba band playing energetic, joyful music from Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, including folk songs, original songs and popular southern African covers. The band's set-up includes soprano, tenor and baritone marimbas, mbira, hosho, drumming and singing, with both traditional and contemporary dances. The marimba band’s sound is full of energy and pulsating rhythms - and their music shares the rich cultures, histories and stories of the people of southern Africa. Otto and The Mutapa Calling is a unique and colourful experience and is the only active professional marimba band of its kind in the United Kingdom.
www.ottogumaelius.com
-- SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS --
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