 about now we want to talk about matters theater film acting and anything in between that field and with me I have a thespian a filmmaker actor drama teacher and what the newspapers describe as the finest theater brains they weren't only Martin King gondu now he is here he'll be talking to us about those things that I've told you about he has a play coming up he'll be telling us about that and to do a more and we get to learn more about film and theater welcome thank you how are you thank you so so much finally introduce yourself to our people that's just a little bit we so much more to Martin is that I think so yeah sure you mostly said it all like he said I'm a thespian well the main reason we introduce ourselves as such as opposed to just an actor means your background is mostly from theater so yes so years and years in theater so not that known to everyone else yeah unless they go to theater yeah I'm a playwright I write for means I write for stage but I also write for TV as well I also write for I write short films yeah I like experimenting here I act for screen as well what else do I do I teach speech and performance I produce I told you there are so many things I had not seen about you we are talking about we are putting it into you know theater and film yes when you talk about theater I know thespians they are very passionate about what they do and the world is transitioning into film theater as much as their plays and everything we still need to go to the film world because that is where the world is headed to so how did that how was that transition for you transition for me was almost intentional but intentionally slow so first of all you said yes the transition is happening to film but raw performances will always be here they were there when Jesus was here he was doing theater you know yeah the standing around projecting talking to the people that is theater theater storytelling this was being done ages before the white man came so theater has always been there and even after film will still have it even when all this platforms come up will still always have theater so for me the transition happened I've been performing on stage from 2007 started at the National Theater then had years and years of the Phoenix players as an actor and as a director as well yeah so it's around 2010 that this analog digital when that happened yeah around then 2010 2011-2012 somewhere there was a transition where every theater actor we used to work with went to TV so they were either acting on a TV show I'm presenting something others went to radio and then it became very vacant so I was like you know what let me just take advantage to now build myself as a as a thespian so that is when I really put work in there but later I always knew and eventually go to screen but I didn't want it to approach it as I didn't want to approach it as everyone else would like let me build a career with this TV thing I'm a screen thing so I was like no I love theater I'm addicted to good stories I'll keep doing this up till the time is right for me to transit so around 2018 is when I started thinking about filmmaking since then I put out a couple of short films at least a year of course things slowed down because of the recent COVID thing but yeah that's that's been it just doing the balance I have background in well I've been trained for TV writing so that helps as well to still do a bit of screenwriting for a couple of projects so it's a bit of a balance but yes theater has consistently been there and I'm glad we're back yeah most of the actors okay from what I know because I have acted before and when I first went to try acting for film I was told I am overacting I don't know need you mezoia theater you know theater you need to there's more film did you experience that have you had actors who are experiencing the same in film well I honestly don't think there's a problem with that I think the problem is always a challenge to the director because the actor is only but a vessel so if you demand for them to fit in all in the same way then clearly you'll be doing this every time actors with yet I think it's a matter of the one in charge of a project one knowing how they cast so that even if you bring a theater actor or an actor with a background in theater you have explained to them what is required so that when they get there by the third take yes we've reduced it a bit but it still depends on one the tone of the project and to the material you're working with because something like comedy comedy works very well especially when it's all out with an actor who's done a lot of theater because they now know how to overdo it just a bit but when it's like very serious drama then maybe turn it down and it's only I always say it's blame the director yeah because they're the one they're the ones who at least have a say when it comes to casting but also for the end product it's all on the actor is just okay so tell us a bit about the short films that you have worked on before we get into what has brought us here today yeah sure I'll only share the ones that probably are in the public domain so they can check us out on our YouTube prevail presents as the company's YouTube every social platform I guess it's also prevail presents and on prevail presents there is that a shiny that's a very cheeky short film starring starring Iroh and faith canini this is Iroh singer yes and faith canini a very very good actor yeah a lady actor and that was just me playing around with memories from my growing up but also mixing it up with stories from our people so it was just a small short that we premiered at doki books this is pre-covid yeah no this is marking them yeah in the middle of a pandemic so that was good it was just to make people laugh and have a good time but we shot it before it's just the premiere was a little later and what else there is contained contained starring myself and a cameo watch this was about a couple and how they went through the covid season and I remember this was it came it came off as a challenge and I'm not the guy you challenge yeah because someone was like no Joe you can't you can't do a whole film project with sorry I have to do this you can't do a whole film project without without sound like sound is the most important weight so I was like yeah sure I'll work with sound in the post but on the ground like you had no sound on the ground yeah yeah like it was intentional it was intentional because I was told you couldn't just like oh okay sour what you are a man who likes a challenge because there's another one that you're about to reveal to us yeah so so yeah it turned out okay was it was just about the containment of the covid season yeah how it affected different couples very few came out stronger most couples ended up split or not alive so many dark secrets in the covid closet yeah so that was contained on my youtube page the Sun castles Sun castles stars Bilal Wanjao Akinyo Luwoc and Samyan performers yeah and this is about the effect of separation the effect separation has on children yeah yeah so we would I really don't like preaching with my work so it's just watch it feel the things you will feel then decide how you live your life you know I won't tell you what is interesting motivation for us can check that out there is the comeback I think there's the comeback the comeback was was a collaborative project we did with Alice Kumbani and this is I think on old gold films YouTube on Alice Kumbani page and this was about the comeback how people were found with second wives after covid was done so we created a lot during covid that is what you did the most on film on yeah yes but when it comes to theater not so much was done not so much was done so my upcoming project I started writing it then oh yeah but the thing was a lot of people were like you guys especially the writers you'll be writing a lot now that covid is here I thought I would but I was just depressed for and I'm not using depressed like the big thing it is I will let me choose the lighter yeah lighter what I was I was just indoors and I felt like I felt everything because that's the thing with with I guess actors maybe not all of them at times you you feed from the energies around you and the covid especially the first few months they threw me off I could barely work I could barely feel creative so I spent most of my first few months just watching TV and working out but it was a very disturbing season so making films is what excited us theater we couldn't do that yeah who aren't allowed to come together yes yeah so let's talk about that play that you wrote during the pandemic supernova tell us a bit about that cool yeah supernova I started writing in September 2020 my stage projects I write for a while so that's taken me two years to complete I think you've seen my face 2020 we're in 2022 I actually didn't finish writing it that long ago yeah less than less than a month ago but we started rehearsing a couple of months back yeah so yeah that's been an exciting project supernova the meaning of supernova is the process of a star dying like literally the stars will look up at when they die they become either find dust or black holes okay but that process is called supernova so a supernova for this particular projects supernova is a one-man production meaning it's it's only one person on stage for at least 75 minutes there is the other challenge yeah one person on stage for 75 minutes yes for 75 minutes how yeah how are you supposed to pull that off yeah I guess people will have to come in but the thing is it every every one person performance depends on the writing so if the writing is well is well played around with then it keeps the audience engaged and then it's also a challenge for the actor because they now have to play more than one so for this particular one I play now I've revealed that I'll be the one yeah so in this particular one I will play three distinct characters but with another three who come in and out yes so by three distinct means at least three characters have more than 25 minutes by themselves on stage yeah then we'll have at least another three meaning that could be close to five who pop in and out and it's just same and so these five people in one person yeah yeah yeah yeah it's going to be exciting and yeah how do you plan on keeping it interesting because I mean seeing the same person okay not literally the same person character wise different people how how will you keep it interesting and make people you know engaged or thankfully the work like I said if the writing is well done then it really becomes easy to follow the story because it's riveting it's very interesting it's about it's about a radio guy this radio guy is called Frank he has a morning radio show he does breakfast his show is called this is not cursing so I might as well as a show is called F in the morning because his name is Frank yeah that's the name of a show yeah so out there he's a public figure you guys know how it is yeah especially when you come to work you have to be all bubbly and energetic but once the cameras go off you're like amen now life you know I'm going through this I'm saying this so that's what he's going through relate you show you know Frank the Frank character goes to this every morning six across studio wake up Nairobi how you doing it's your boy and then after in the morning yeah gauge is them brilliant after that he has things to go home to yeah so we get to see back to reality that balance and he has people who are close to him there are things that excite his life but there are also things that really take him down there and it's set when covid is ending so it's set in 2021 so he talks about going through covid it talks about his career picking yet his personal life going down under so how do we keep it engaged the story is super good that I can assure people and the characters are super interesting there's change in lights so that helps there's change in costume that helps there's an interval yeah it's going to be really good okay so I can people well will what will you be doing the play and where can people get the ticket fantastic so the people can all our social media platforms we used to have a Twitter to me I'm a quick phone out at your pandemic so right now it's just IG which is prevail presents you know on Facebook it's a prevail arts company so what people can get there are all the updates that we give so the poster is out with a pay bill number with the tickets and how much they are in fact today we just released a bogey ticket so for four tickets guys can get it at 3,500 one ticket it's 1,099 shillings like for two it's 2k and they'll see all the details there it's going to be at the National Theatre particularly the Ucumbim Dogo and we decided that because we like it very intimate so as soon as we've sold out my phone guy but hopefully I've had you have fans from Nanyuki yes we always take our place to Nanyuki because there's a crowd that left Nairobi and went to Nanyuki and they love theater you know that has hinted who they mainly are so we'll be taking it there as a year goes yeah okay so once again can you tell people your social media handles maybe an actor wants to join prevail prevail yeah how they can do that well honestly especially when actors heat us up on here how can I get into the industry and you know I'm there just go out there and watch shows what shows after the show engage with the actors this whole online thing go watch it after it's done how do you get into this like you have to be there yourself so in short I'm trying to say your story exactly our social media platform the company's prevail presents my name is Martin Kegondu and so Martin Kegondu everywhere from YouTube to Twitter Twitter it's Kegondu on Instagram it's Kegondu that's it all right thank you so much for coming through we appreciate your time so so much asante any parting shots any parting shots I'll just say happy holidays what right and good job oh when is the show show me a Monday okay this labor day okay all right so you go watch it me I think I'd be curious to see that one man you know one man performance that's a challenge is that a challenge if you can pull it off he might take it up and if you do please tell us I took up that challenge so yes thank you so much make sure you go to the show if you can now miss kia um details would be all right yeah so please go enjoy yourself if you are an actor miss kia don't DM people do the work okay do the work yes so do do dating