About twenty learners took part on Sunday, December 14, 2025, in a training workshop led by renowned actors Dosso Tiekoimba and Nastou Traoré at the Alliance Française in Bangui, Central African Republic. The event was organized as part of the 6th edition of the International Festival of African and Afro-descendant Films, "Bangui Fait Son Cinéma" (BFSC).
In a convivial and studious atmosphere, the external performance space of the Alliance Française in Bangui hosted the acting workshop on Sunday, December 14, 2025. The training, organized within the framework of the Bangui Fait Son Cinéma festival (which has been running in Bangui since December 9, 2025), began with a series of vocal exercises and group activities. These were designed to stimulate the participants and prepare them physically and mentally for stage work. This warm-up phase allowed the learners to loosen up, build confidence, and better internalize the demands of acting before moving on to practical work.
The participants then worked on a scenario proposed by one of the learners. The chosen story featured an American businessman who arrived in a Francophone country to offer a gift to a company CEO who only spoke French. Once the businessman was announced, the CEO called upon a dishonest translator to swindle his guest. Several characters were involved in this situation, including the American, the CEO, the secretary, and the translator. Divided into groups, the learners interpreted the same scenario, resulting in varied and contrasting readings.
Learning to Act Beyond the Script
For each performance, the trainers provided constructive criticism, highlighting strengths and suggesting avenues for improvement. Dosso Tiekoimba emphasized the actor's ability to breathe life into a sometimes underdeveloped script: "Because often, you will have to deal with scripts that don't really exist. There are less vibrant scenarios that you must make vibrant." He also stressed the importance of stage directions and the creative freedom granted to the actor, who must be capable of going "from point A to point X."
The Ivorian actress Nastou Traoré, for her part, reminded participants that voice and confidence constitute the very soul of the actor: "It is often said that an actor's first soul is their voice, but for me, it is above all confidence. If you are too shy, you must push past it." She also encouraged participants to confront fear, a central element of performance work, while commending some promising performances observed during the session.
A second scenario was then proposed: the story of a young man who steals a woman's phone in a market, only to make a call. This situation led to several scene variations within the same sequence, promoting the exploration of different acting registers. Finally, two stories drawn from the learners' lived experiences were also staged, strengthening the link between reality and artistic interpretation.
After these different scenes, the trainer Dosso held an informal discussion with his learners, which helped them understand the inner workings of the profession. "We learned that when acting, you have to maintain eye contact with the other actor and master the scripts as well," one learner shared. During these exchanges, some learners discussed the difficulties they encounter in the profession daily. They then congratulated the trainers.
Experience Sharing with Other African Filmmakers
Following the interactive workshop given by the two main trainers, the learners also had the opportunity to chat with several renowned African filmmakers present at the festival, including Nigerian Biedari Yacouba Hamani and Cameroonians Axel Abessolo and Anurin Nwunembom. In his address, Nigerian filmmaker Biedari Yacouba Hamani challenged the young actors on the importance of coherence between speech and gesture, reminding them that the body must accompany and reinforce the text for a credible performance on screen as well as on stage.
This workshop thus established itself as a significant moment of transmission and sharing, offering young actors a space for expression, learning, and self-reflection, at the heart of the creative momentum driven by Bangui Fait Son Cinéma.
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