Martin Kigondu's take two: Rise from a dishwasher to theatre king in the making

The first time Martin Kigondu walked down the winding staircase and into the Phoenix Theatre in Nairobi, he knew he was home. “It was different, it’s an intimate space and it blew me away,” he says more than a decade later. On that day back in 2009, Mr Kigondu was crashed when the audition he had gone for did not even happen.

As a newcomer at Serare School, a young and impressionable Mr Kingondu watched the stage play Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The play was directed by Ian Mbugua with a cast of Serare’s students.