The second monthly meeting of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Lagos Chapter, held on Saturday March 10th, 2012 at the Little Theatre, Artists village, National Theatre Annex ground, Iganmu Lagos. The meeting was spiced up with music rendered by Korede, Lari Williams and a dance drama by the energetic and creative Onileagbon Royal theatre. Industry greats; Lari Williams, Olu Okekanye, Toyin Abiodun (reputable playwright and dramatist), Dr Tolu Ajayi ( first Chairman of ANA) graced the occasion and engaged in an explosive discussion relating to the theme “The Dying Art of the Stage Craft”. Why wasn’t stage drama (theatre) booming anymore?.

Veteran Lari Williams set the ball rolling. In his view, the foundation for stage craft (via theatre) was not laid. According to him “those who are suppose to help it live, have not done anything about it. At the National theatre, the only 5,000 auditorium has been shut down for nearly twenty years. It started with the excuse of minor repairs, then major repairs and now a billion plus budget is needed to get the central air condition working. They must make sure the A.C gets to the road”. He stated that he had written between 25 and 30 articles in his column “stage and screen” in Vanguard Newspapers during a 25 year period, where he talked about growth, and over view of the Entertainment industry.

“How many halls do we have in Lagos?” he asked, “one show cost N500,000 to rent the hall, how much will you charge the masses to watch the show at the National Theatre?. You build the set, advertise, provide costumes, pay artistes fees, there’s the sound, light, how much do you spend to break even?”. He stated that we had lost the theatre tradition and we have become used to one night performance. “I studied theatre in England. In America you have Broadway, which is the mother of Hollywood. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ran 2,000 plus shows in one theatre before it was made into a film, Sound of Music ran 1,000 plus shows as well”. Another stage performance had run for 58 years in one theatre. He further stated that Government was not helping. They should have established theatres in various places.

Toyin Abiodun was of the view that the problem confronting theatre practitioners lay in the inability to inject stage craft into popular culture. “We haven’t been able to evolve theatre into 21st century…how many theatres have we built… and the audience can’t relate with the plays”. He opined that practitioners can’t run away from the spirit of commercialization and that technology plays a role in modern day theatre. “There should be the introduction of Reality TV shows revolving around theatre, competitive drama amongst schools, and we can invite schools to come and see plays” he said.

Olu Okekanye stated that in his “Ife days”, they took theatre to schools, and also staged market plays. “Theatre is not dying, it’s just passing a phase and practitioners are running away. Those who graduate from the university, just went there to obtain certificates... read more by clicking on the link below:

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