Donald Molosi announces retirement from professional theatre after 22 years.
Molosi ends a 15-year award-winning Broadway career.
“I’ve been doing professional stage performances and touring since childhood. So, yes, I always intended to retire from theatre at 35. I don’t know what’s next. We will see,” says the actor.
Black Is A Beginning.
Botswana-born actor Donald Molosi has partnered with Uruguayan film director Nicolas Lejtreger for a short film that marks Molosi’s retirement from the professional theatre. The latest offering by the Mahalapye-born polymath is called Black Is A Beginning. The film project is the first of a few films that Molosi will release in 2023 to reflect his award-winning Broadway career.
Molosi adds, “A village boy from Mahalapye became a Broadway star for an award-winning span of 15 years. As I retire now, I am sharing how that happened. I partnered with Nicolason Black because he tells human stories excellently.”
Perhaps Molosi’s most popular work is his oeuvre on Sir Seretse and Lady Ruth Khama’s epic romance: Molosi released a book (We Are All Blue), a DStv documentary (also called We Are All Blue), a Broadway play (Blue, Black and White) and a Hollywood film (A United Kingdom).
“This new film is part of my long goodbye from professional theatre. I will launch more projects next year to thank all my fans who have supported me since I was a child. I especially thank my ancestors who taught me that we wear black to mourn and build, to end and to begin,” Molosi explains the title of his new short film. Black Is A Beginning is currently filming in Walthamstow Wetlands in North London, England.
At 15 years old, Donald Molosi was the youngest on-air announcer in Botswana when he co-hosted a show with Dollar Mac on Yarona FM in the early 2000s. Molosi has often credited Oratile Jazzelle Kebakile as his inspiration to get into radio as a child.
“Jazzelle was the standard for us child entertainers when I was growing up. I followed in her footsteps to radio and charted my own path from there. When our national broadcaster opened in 2000, I was one of the first children to present at the new station. This is before Mantlwaneng came along because Oaitse Kgomotso, who was in Mantlwaneng, was part of this other UNICEF-funded first. I remember how scandalous it was that I had worn shorts on a talk show in 2000 when Btv opened. I almost got the producer, Kitso Mosiieman in touble! That shows you how far we have come as Batswana. We are hopefully a little more relaxed about dress codes on TV now,” Molosi shares.
Molosi has shared that he had initially intended to retire from professional theatre in 2020. He explains, “In 2020, I was in a pandemic like the whole world. I was also personally evolving and it was not the right time for me to reflect. I feel ready now. I am going to share my retirement message in three films that will be released in 2023. In all the films I appear as my drag persona called Dumela Fella.”
In Black Is A Beginning, Molosi will appear as Dumela Fella. In a docu-dramatic style, Molosi will deliver his most important thought as he exits a career that saw him making history as the first Motswana to perform on Broadway in the early 2000s. On Broadway, Molosi burst onto the scene with Blue, Black and White. This was the name that Molosi named his country’s flag in 2007. When he later used the title for his off-Broadway play, the phrase became popular to the extent that it is a staple in today’s speeches made by politicians when they refer to Botswana unity.
“Black Is A Beginning is a thank-you letter to Botswana whereas Blue, Black and White was a love-letter to Batswana,” Molosi explains. “When I named the flag in 2007, I was simply doing it for convenience as I was studying vexillology. I realized that our flag did not have a name or even a nickname and so I named it. I am a citizen, why not? Now with this film I reflect on where the curiosty came from and why this flag is important to me.”
Nicolas Lejtreger and Molosi met earlier this year in London when Molosi was in the UK to give a reading at Oxford University. “I immediately knew I wanted to work with Nico. I am grateful that he called me up and asked me to be part of the project. There will be many other international and diverse actors in the project and they will be revealed in time.”
Nicolas Lejtreger is a film director and cinematographer born in Uruguay. He works in Spanish and English. Lejtreger is known for films such as Close to The Sun and The Island of Wonder and Despair.
Of his 22 years as a professional theatre, Molosi spent 15 of them in the New York Theatre District. Molosi is currently based in Trinidad and Tobago and is filming Black Is A Beginning, in London.
Donald Molosi is an actor, writer and public thinker. Molosi is President of the Upright African Movement. Molosi’s alter ego, Dumela Fella is a drag queen.
For more information or collaborations, contact Waka Talent Agency.
info@wakaagency.biz
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