Costumes as depiction of cultural identity in Pedro Agbonifo-Obaseki’s Idia

In Nigeria, costumes present interesting vistas for exploring cultural identity. They have social implications and at times are politically implicated. This may be attributed to Nigeria’s multi-cultural atmosphere that makes costumes a reflection of the cultural identity of the people. Nigerian performances in festivals and play productions provide a platform to study and appreciate this phenomenon. Using the participant observation and literary methods, this article interrogates how costumes can depict the cultural identity of a people. It appropriates the dynamics of costumes as depiction of indigenous identity, using a play production of Pedro Agbonifo-Obaseki’s Idia as directed by Israel Wekpe under the aegis of the Edo State Chapter of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) at the University of Benin in 2013. The study reveals that costume promotes the cultural worldview of the people it represents. The conclusion reached is that costumes in Nigeria must depart from such outside influences that undermine their ability to communicate indigenous identity. Keywords: Costume, Cultural identity, Idia, Play production, Nonverbal communication

Aestheticism in visual symbols: catalysts for theatre patronage in contemporary play production

Theatre practice in Nigeria like the world over is in a state of constant flux due to the ever emerging new trends. New concepts, styles, forms are continuously on demand as a result of the insatiable human tastes in performance and coupled with a civilization in which technological advancement and human creativity are not left out in its wake. The emergence of the social media has come to add more pressure on the live theatre from where the film medium stopped. Nigerian theatre patrons and sponsors have little or nothing to do again at the theatre at least, not with mobile phones such as i-phones, i-pads, tabs, blackberry and android, serving as forms of entertainment on the go. Therefore, wooing and keeping the live theatre audience will take extra energy and this can only be achieved if the visual appeal trend is revolutionized with a quantum deployment of visual aesthetics. The beauty of play production is ensconced in visual symbolism since theatre communication makes use of two of the human senses principally – the visual and the aural. These senses are in the main, complementary and supportive, its functions are numerous to the point that a theatre performance will be close to being meaningless without their application– be it in its superfluity, moderateness or aesthetically immoderate. This article, therefore, articulates those visual symbols required by a director and his or her production team to capture and sustain his or her audience in a theatre. Having employed a qualitative research approach, the paper established that visual symbols such as lighting, scenery, costume, sound, and makeup are ready tools at the disposal of the director in achieving the visual aesthetics of a theatre production so as to keep his or her audience and continuously enjoy their patronage. Keywords: Aesthetics, Visual Symbols, Contemporary Theatre Production, Theatre Director

Productive leisure in post-Fordist fandom

For over a decade, scholars have considered how digital play has converged with the work of media production. From esports and volunteer moderation to play-testing, the circuits of game production are accelerated by players’ passionate engagements as fans and hobbyists, which are intertwined with their professional ambitions to join the industry. It is now taken for granted in scholarly discourse that work and play, production and consumption, and professional and amateur identities are blurring. Researchers propose hybrid terms such as ‘prosumption’ or ‘playbour’ to capture the variation, complexity and contradictions in media participation and value creation across diverse fan practices. This analysis proposes that these post-Fordist neologisms oversimplify techno-cultural changes and legitimate ambiguities in fans’ relationships with media companies and their imperatives for productivism in platform capitalism and its gig economies. In contrast, hobbies have always been a mediating category of productive leisure that can be traced back to industrialization’s cleavage of labour from recreation. This article argues that charting how this liminal category of hobbies has been institutionalized in contemporary media practices provides an analytical lens to interrogate post-Fordist obligations of productivity and neo-liberal expectations of entrepreneurialism.

Approaches to Play Directing in Contemporary Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters

Documentation remains one of the major challenges of the Nigerian theatre; as a result many theatrical performances have gone into oblivion. Studies have been conducted that have given birth to the many approaches to play production and theories of directing in the Nigerian theatre. However, most of these studies focused on directors in educational theatres, as many directors outside the academia seem not to have attracted much scholarly interest in terms of documentation. This research documents the directorial approaches of two Nigerian directors – Segun Adefila and Bolanle Austen-Peters – using four productions and will be of benefit to theatre scholarship and the industry. The study employs a qualitative method of research, and the findings reveal Segun Adefila as an anti-realistic director and Bolanle Austen-Peters as a realistic director. Also, both directors use film to support live drama in their productions. This study therefore recommends that directors embrace the use of film in live theatre, in line with technological trends around the world.

Sławomir Mrożek at the Tatar stage: the metamorphoses of Polish stage

In this article we analyzed the stage interpretation of Sławomir Mrożek’s play on the scene of Tatar theatre. The performance of “Shashkan babay” (“The mad grandfather”) play was staged on the 10th of February, 2016 by Karim Tinchurin drama and comedy theatre in Kazan. It was the first staging of Sławomir Mrożek’s in Tatar language. In this article we generalize the history of Sławomir Mrożek’s plays production waves in Russia. The specifics of Polish text interpretation by producer Rashid Zagidullin was outlined. We proved that “Shashkan babay” play production continues the best tradition of Russian and Polish theatres.

Reflections on Latina/o Theater

“Theatre,” modified by the adjective “Latina/o”, like any other genre of human expression, is extraordinarily rich. It includes the legacy, and continuing vitality of varied and often conflicting aesthetic projects. This article discusses the vexed definitional problem of what is theater by, about, and for Latinas and Latinos, both in terms of production of plays and the academic study of theater. It provides a historical timeline that focuses on the 1960s to the present, a commentary on play production, an overview of academic discussions, and conclusions drawn from a survey of course syllabi. It uses the examples of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton and works by the Coatlicue Theater Company to challenge simplistic understandings of what Latina/o theater is and does.