TaSUBa Theater

A key actor in Digital Drama, the TaSUBa Theater is at the epicenter of institutional transformations. In the early 1990s, Sweden and Norway supported the construction of a magnificent , with a theater building decorated with makuti (thatched) roof and a seating capacity of over 1,000 in an open-air auditorium. The theater was a landmark in the East African art world, and the heart of the college’s social body. On 31 January 2002 the theatre burned down. The reason remains unknown, but a faulty electric wire may have been the cause of the fire. The event marked the beginning of what social anthropologist Victor Turner refers to as social drama, with four phases of action: breach, crisis, redressive action, and restoration. The fire itself was a breach or symbolic transgression, followed by a crisis, especially in governance. In the next phase, redressive action, the college (BCA) was transformed into an executive agency (TaSUBa). The final phase, restoration, has proven highly conflictual. TaSUBa has been reconfigured according to the dictates of neoliberal public sector reform, reaffirming relations with government agencies and external partners. But the new social structure is quite unstable, with segmented social relations and latent social conflicts simmering under the polished surface of executive management. This social drama of executive transformation is the story of Digital Drama.