ABUJA – A Director at the National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr Dotun Osusanya, says there is a distinction between live theatre and celluloid or home video experience.
Osusanya made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
He said that the future of playwriting and live theatre performances in Nigeria were still bright in spite of the current boom in the movie industry.
“There is a world of difference between live theatre and celluloid or home video experience.
“One of the many factors that account for not getting enough live theatre activity is the lack of the development of the sector in Nigeria in spite of the fact that it thrives in other parts of the world,” he said.
According to him, part of the problems is that we do not introduce our children to writing and live theatre early in life.
“Our children do not write because computers have taken over, in fact, we parents are not encouraging our wards to express their writing talent.
“Nobody is providing our children with live theatre stage performances experience and this is partly because we do not have the opportunity of going regularly to watch live performances,’’ he said.
Also, Mr Kayode Aiyegbusi, an Assistant Director of Arts and Culture, Department of Social Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory, corroborated the views of Osusanya.
“Irrespective of the low patronage being experienced during attendance in live theatres in Nigeria as a result of the upsurge in the movie industry, the theatre is still very much alive,” he said.
He, however, admitted that there had been some shift from the theatre to the movie, but maintained that it had not signaled the death of the live performances. [eap_ad_1] Aiyegbusi acknowledged that there was a dearth in playwriting and stage performances of live theatre.
“We have seen the movie business come up and the way a lot of people have changed their allegiance from live theatre to movies has really brought in low patronage to live performances and theatre plays.
“You might not be hearing names as you used to, names like Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, John Pepper Clarke and so on, but I know that people still write a lot of good plays.
“These days, our playwrights write, but you hardly see them performed, almost everything ends up in an academic environment.
“This is one of the reasons why people think that playwrights are no longer popular. But I can assure you that lots of quality plays are still being dished out,’’ he said. (NAN)
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