Encouraged by the need to revive community theatre in the tradition of the Late Hubert Ogunde and to encourage the youths to show interest in the art as a career, the Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria, Akinsola Adejuwon and his team created Ajoyo for a three-state tour. Edozie Udeze, who was on the team writes on how the Troupe was able to thrill people and really revived interest in dance-drama, music and so on in Kogi, Ekiti and Kwara States.
T he dances and songs were more solemn and evocative than the audiences across the states where the performances took place actually expected. To them, the golden years of Hubert Ogunde are here again. The era when travel theatre; when communities across the nation were given the opportunity to watch the National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN) perform and thrill the people.
Today, Mr. Akinsola Adejuwon the new Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria has elected once more to take theatre back to people, to the nook and crannies of the states where the presence of the Troupe are needed through performances, using dance, drama, music and more to reach out to the youths and remind them that there are plenty of aura and openings in the dance sector.
To achieve this aim, Adejuwon and his team created Ajoyo, meaning celebration, a collection of dances, infused with the stories of the different Nigerian societies to tour three states of Kogi, Ekiti and Kwara. It was to showcase the beauty of the art to the people and bring them back into the rhythm. It is a celebration deeply embedded in folk-dramas of all kinds. The show which is an embodiment of all elements of the art into one fold is to let the world see how the interrelationship of the different performing arts can be condensed into stage. In the end, the Troupe was able to dazzle the different audiences where they performed. “Ours is to show the people across the 36 states of the federation that art is life and life is art”, was how Adejuwon described the whole experience.
And so, from Kogi State where the first performance took place to the University of Ilorin where the grand finale for the first lap of the 36 states tour was held, the overall clamour by the people is that truly, art is life. At Lokoja, the Kogi State capital where the people are known to celebrate life with the art, the people were more enthusiastic to embrace the idea of the restoration of the guerilla theatre. There, the artistes showcased the synchronisation of dance and music, embellishing them with props, crafts, designs, decorations and more. As they moved into the stage with slow, steady movements of the stage light in conformity with the solemn, songs of dirges and sorrows, love and celebrations, the audience immediately became spellbound. The silence in the hall soon became a sign that the Troupe was on course; that the dancers in their best energetic elements were ready to prove that they were prepared to take the people along in their systematic stage mesmerisation.
After the second performance at the Arts Council of the state the folowing morning, the Troupe headed to Kabba, another culturally enthusiastic town in the state. In Kabba, a new approach was adopted. The artistes opted to take to the streets to announce their presence. With plenty of music, drummings, and invocations, the people were woken from their slow, easy-going native lifestyle into the boisterous welcoming arms of the theatre. At the communty hall, the show took place outside, where the residents trooped out in their numbers to embrace the profundity of total theatre. Before the displays came to an end, it was free dances, and open shows for all. The people equally responded with their own level of artistic demonstrations, charging on with the idea that it is indeed pertinent to take live theatre to where the people would appreciate and welcome it more by being fully involved.
It is pertinent to point out that the Kabba show beame a leeway for the usefulness of the whole experiment. Adejuwon told them to hook up to the National Troupe in order to enjoy the opportunities offered by drama, music, dance, painting, decorations and more. “This concept is for all the youths of the country. It is for you people to see how the arts can be used to offer employment to you all. It is not only football or oil, arts is alive to engage as many people as can show interest in it,” he profferred.
When the show moved to Ado, the Ekiti State capital, the total approach changed. At the palace of the Ewi of Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugba, the people quickly formed the largest assemblage of crowd ever. Performed at the Oja-oba market square, the crowd was peopled by both the rich and the peasants. There, the audience was evocative; the open space was quite in line with a typical street theatre concept. And so, as the performances went on, the crowd cheered, jeered, clapped and sniggered. The ecstasy was too much and they clamoured that the performances be extended to more places so that more people would be in the position to experience the euphoria of this era of new dance concepts to expand the frontiers of community theatre.
Addressing the people, Yomi Longe, the director of Ekiti State Arts Council commended the Troupe and told the crowd that now they can enlist to be trained to be better artistes. He said, “theatre cannot die. The Troupe is here to ensure that the idea of live theatre does not die. Is it possible for live theatre to die?”, he enthused and the crowd responded in total unison that that cannot happen. “So let us carry on with itinerant theatre. As you people know, Ekiti people truly love theatre; we live as dancers, as performers whose interests in all aspects of the art cannot be taken for granted.”
Of all the places visited by the Troupe, the encounter at Iyin Ekiti, a town, a few kilometers west of Ado Ekiti was applauded as the best organized and well received by the people. Iyin people trooped out in their thousands as the community hall suddenly became too small to accommodate the audience. The traditional ruler of the town promptly sent his high chiefs to stand in for him. Both the old and the young, market women and peasant farmers abandoned their works to grace the occasion. Before too long, questions were being asked as to how this dream of making dance a lucrative business can be achieved.
Ekiti people generally were at home with the idea. Most of them did not only dance by the side to prove their deep interest in the show, they decided also to introduce their local professional artistes to be fully involved in the dance drama and to also entertain the people .The Iyin people were able to prove that the idea of community theatre is a germane one. They showed that art should not be removed from the people. Art shouldn’t be made an elitist and utopian profession. In as much as it is for the people to demonstrate their own heritage, it is equally for them to find professional fulfillment. Some of their elders recounted the days of Ojo Ladipo when street theatre gave so much employment and hope for the people. It was an era when it was poignant and prestigious to be an artiste and live on it and make investments.
From there, the train moved to Ilorin, Kwara State. The venue was the Auditorium of the University of Ilorin. Here, it was a different experience entirely. The students who were to commence their exams the following day, along with their vice-chancellor, Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali stormed the venue in their droves. It was here that the Troupe actually encountered the first modern stage throughout the tour. The electricity and chemistry of the stage craft and movements now became more charged. The idea of the introduction of durbar and palace dances, elitist in all its epitome, was to enlist the interest of the sophisticated audience. And truly this played off well. The VC was so enthralled that his speech afterwards was filled with hyperbolic and expressive sentiments for the Troupe. “This is wonderful. The women are lovely; they are the most wonderful dancers I have ever seen. While the women danced like men, the men danced like supermen. What a beauty! What a wonderful outing!” Ambali decided, charging the Performing Arts students of the institution to be proud of their profession. “Any university in the world that does not have a proper department of Performing Arts is incomplete,” Ambali told the audience comprising all his principal officers and a beehive of the student populace cutting across all disciplines and departments.
Although this is the first stage of the nation- wide tour of the Troupe, the issue of embracing a more proper costume to suit the communality of the concept is yet to be incorporated. Adejuwon and his team have to note that costumes of a street theatre have to be in conformity with the principles of performances. The Troupe has shown that it can deliver. Even when there is no money to do so, the artistes have proved that dancing and singing and acting are their primary role in the society, yet they should begin now to imbibe the total idea of community outlook in their concept, approach and presentation. This is an orientation that needs to be looked into and addressed with maximum urgency. It also shows that Adejuwon, whose background is in the visual arts can fuse into performance arts all these elements to give theatre its total groove; its completeness to recapture the society and tell the story of love, togetherness and peace.
Culled from Thenationonlineng
