The Nation Newspaper

Tag: National Troupe of Nigeria

  • Artistes’ coalition petitions board of National Troupe

    The Nigerian Artistes United (NAU), a coalition of cultural workers and art patrons, has petitioned the Chairman, Governing Board of the National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN), on alleged continuous abuse of office and financial impropriety by the Artistic Director/CEO, National Troupe of Nigeria, Comrade Tar Ukoh.

    The petition signed by Patience Aghomo and AdekibaGodspower and dated November 26, 2018, specifically urged the governing board of the troupe to request anti-graft  bodies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to investigate the alleged fraud and corruption under the leadership of Ukoh in the last 19 months.

    The coalition alleged that  Ukoh spent N21million capital expenses the troupe received last year without any single production to show for it. They also alleged that the Artistic Director cornered jobs meant for the National Troupe such as Nigerian Port Authority and the Embassy of China performance deals. “He was paid to perform for NPA and the Embassy of China, amongst others, of which monies were paid directly to him…He blew the N2.5million that NPA paid for the performance,” the group alleged.

    According to the petition, the group listed instances where funds were allegedly misappropriated and expended without observing due procurement process. These include:

    *alleged fraudulent retirement of the sum of N10.5million for a one-day ego tripping talk show branded as sharing the green grass;

    *alleged retirement of the sum  of N11.5million on a sham that he called National audition for artistes that he wanted to recruit into his personal musical band, the National Orchestra,

    *that Ukoh allegedly expended the sum of N5.5million, which he retired as community theatre project and children’s theatre project that were never reported by the press,

    *that in July 2018, Ukoh allegedly gave approval for the release of 5.4million for purchase of drums and musical instruments be withdrawn from a personal account it was paid into and paid to him in cash. He returned to Lagos two weeks later with four small size Djembe drums, which he claimed were shipped in from Ethiopia each at a cost of 1.4million.

    The Nigerian Artistes United described the situation in the National Troupe of Nigeria as that of the ship without a captain as “Mr. Tar Ukoh refused to officially resume work in the parastatal head office in Lagos…and has continued to run the NTN on telephone from Abuja and most times from his residence in Jos.”

    In his reaction, Ukoh who spoke on telephone dismissed the coalition as a faceless and unknown body in the sector, saying he cannot respond to such petition. “Artistes cannot sit down in Lagos and be writing petitions. I cannot respond to such. If they have any complaint, they know where to go to. I decline to respond to their allegations. In fact, pages of newspapers are not the right avenues to respond to any allegation. However, the artistes should be patient as it will be better soon. I am trying to set up a cultural Iroko tree for Nigeria. I met   depleted national Troupe, so we have to develop a repertoire that is people-oriented and with quick result. I am like a man trying to transform a worker using type writer to use computer,” he said.

    On the allegation that he sent core artistes on compulsory leave, he stated that the artistes were sent on temporary leave.

  • ‘Why more children are taking to acting’

    ‘Why more children are taking to acting’

    Josephine Igberaese is a director with the National Troupe of Nigeria.  In the past, she handled Creative Station, a drama series for children during the summer holiday.  In this chat with Edozie Udeze, she talks about how the programme has helped to discover new talents and refocus creativity in others.

    Tell, to begin with, this programme has been an eye-opener to me and to most of us who have been involved in it.  The satisfaction it gives me is that when the children come here initially, you’ll see some of them so shy because they have not been on stage.  But then, give them two weeks or so after they have been molded, you see them very agile and eager to go,” Igberaese began.

    “Now they can begin to talk and mix freely.  For me, this makes life easy for them.  That self-consciousness is no more there.  Apart from that, the education they get in the areas of creative writing, acting, music – those talents their parents were not aware they have, we discover them here during this process of molding them.  Those who know what to do but do not know how to go about it, we also begin to nurture that.  In the end, the children I see after one month of their being here are a different breed of who they were when they came in.  This is part of the joy we derive from teaching them.”

    Igberaese who studied Theatre Arts at the University of Jos, explained that the best way to keep the children busy during the long vacation is to allow them do some creative endeavours.  “You see, they have been in school for this while.  Then what again will you teach them now?  And children do not necessarily learn in formal setting, because this year we are dealing with the theme, the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.  Last year, it was about the Nigerian nation and many of them learnt a lot.  Now when they do not teach them History in schools anymore, the topic becomes handy for them to learn about Nigerian cultures and traditions and more,” she said.

    To her also, learning and mixing up with one another gives the children plenty of joy.  “Yes, you have to tell the story over and over again and you can see them glitter and glimmer.  This also makes their parents proud.  They now see what other options they have for the children – those who can sing; those who can dance or paint or even play the drums and perform.  There are varieties of creative things each can show his or her preference for.”

    In the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade story, Igberaese and her team are looking at the movement of slaves from Africa across the Atlantic to the new world.  It is a whole new experience for the children who indeed marvel at the fact that truly for over 300 years human beings were parcelled like cargoes across continents.  “This movement also affected farming because the youths who were sold into slavery would have been useful in that regard.  They took away all the able-bodied men to help develop Europe and America while Africa was left barren.  And apart from that, what was the reason for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?  The children were quite curious to know the reason and you could really see that enthusiasm to get to know about their past.”

    Before this lesson began, the children were mandated to go and check on the internet what the topic entails.  “So by the time we began to work on the topic as their creative theme, they’d already known what it is all about.  We then spent time talking about each person’s research.  Each person stood up and told us what he researched on.  Each kid told us based on his age.  The older ones were of course more matured about it and in the end, we had plenty of issues to dwell on.  Most of them asked me, did it really happen?  And I said yes and they were shocked.”

    Having been better informed now, the next step was to take them on the creative exercises based on the chosen theme.  But again Igberaese allayed the belief that the programme is basically for rich men’s children.  “No, it is not” she said, “Here, we have children from Orile, from Ajegunle, from Ijora Badia as well as from other local places around.  Most of them were sponsored by kind-hearted Nigerians.  They’ve been paid for to be part of this show.  So it cuts across.  Last year, I called them children without borders because you could see them all mixing together, whether you were from Ikoyi or Lekki or Mushin.  Once they dropped their bags, they also dropped their social classes.”

    While on stage, it was not possible to know who came from the rich or poor family.  The children ranging between five to seventeen years old were in the mood to bubble, to thrill and to impress.  In them, you see theatre, you perceive drama and feel the razzmatazz of all sorts.  “There is no class distinction here and that is why I call them children without borders.  It is only incidental that it is parents who are a bit affluent who see the need to bring their children here.  It is they who see the need for a vocational education which includes sports, art and all.  And probably many of them will go to school abroad.  And in applying, these are some of the things they ask them.  So what we do is to help  link up these children sooner or later.”

    In all, it is not that the parents of the less privileged do not appreciate them.  They only do not have the wherewithal to allow them to come for the programme.  “This is why we keep looking for sponsorship for those who have the talents but do not have the money to come.  You see also children of the rich who can afford to have their holidays abroad but their parents want to prepare them for tomorrow.  There are no jobs anywhere, and they can learn now how to be big actors in the future.  This is the opportunity we are offering them with this creative station.  They watch most of their idols on TV or on CNN and now many of them want to be like them.  This is why parents are encouraging their children to be in Maltina Dance, in American Idol and so on.  This is the time when creativity pays and most parents do not want to lag behind.”

    From experience, Igberaese further explained, some of the graduates of the scheme are now prepared to record their own music.  “It is so awesome to see kids of just yesterday so eager to do their own music.  It is so amazing.  The irony of it all is that once you’ve been here before, you get addicted to it.  These children are like that; they want to act and be involved even when they have passed the age.  They still come for the programme and function back stage.  They mingle with the children, telling them one or two things as they make up.  The issue of acting or taking up theatre as a profession is already in them.  Those who have done it before appreciate what they have learnt and that is why they try to come back every year not only to say hello but also to hobnob with the younger ones.”

  • A play steeped in tradition

    A play steeped in tradition

    Omo Uwaifo in his latest play, One Kingdom, One Monarch, reinforces salient traditional elements in Benin history and culture. Excerpts during the play reading session by the National Troupe of Nigeria last week shows that community theatre is still an issue in the society as Edozie Udeze reports

    One Kingdom, One Monarch, a play written by Omo Uwaifo replicates part of Benin history and culture quite alright.  For those who did not have the opportunity of studying the history of Binis in its epitome around 1750, this play gives a little glimpse into that period.  It involves all the intrigues of culture, tradition, beliefs and the norms of the people.  Benin is a place where tradition is not just strong and highly revered, the Binis are known for their high regard for their leaders and chiefs.

    This is the story of Agboghidi, a traditional leader of his people whose son, Ogbe was stubborn enough not to heed the entreaties handed down to him by his father.  Agboghdi was an Enogie, a traditional leader somewhere on the fringes of Benin but had a son at his old age.  Before the boy, Ogbe, was born, the divinities and the deities had warned that he should not go far off into the forests for hunting.  Particularly, the forests of Igbaghon on the banks of the River was the most feared for him.  But Ogbe was a young man full of youthful exuberance, not easily given to the counsel of elders.  And so he set out to the Igbaghon river all alone, for hunting without the consent of either his mother or father.

    A fatal move it turned out to be.  There, the witches struck him deaf.  His near senselessness now became the basis for the story, for this drama which is replicated in One Kingdom, One Monarch.  It is a play that is rather rendered in prose form.  Apart from the story itself which agitates your mind as you read through it, its presentation in drama form is below standard practice.  The format and flow sound more of prose.  As you read through it, you’re rather gripped by the fictional story of a people steeped in deep tradition.  All the elements of stage movements, props, actions characteristics of a stage drama are not there.

    This, indeed, is one of the very many ironies of play reading.  It plays the whole episode in such a way as to show the direction a play can go.  From the excerpts, it showed an abstract which is, of course, the best that the director could make out of the scene where Ogbe was found dumb and confused.  The rigmarole in that scene goes to show perhaps that that scene may be the only action-packed portion of the play.  What is the real sense in telling a story without properly situating it to give all the dramatic effects, nuances and impressions necessary in a drama?  Drama is action packed in words, with movements that can equally bring out the beauty and the essence of the characters involved in the story.

    However, where a writer has chosen to present a play in a prose form with long sentences, where the scenes are too wordy without appropriate action, then there is a problem.  As a play, One Kingdom, One Monarch is too long.  It is usually very boring to have a long play that could have been summarized in less space with few characters.  When the dialogue is made to project issues that give no meaning to stage dramatisation, a lot of questions need to be asked.  And, of course, in the normal tradition of drama, proper answers have to be proffered so as to make the play assume its proper place as one.  The issue of the duplication of roles by many characters in the play calls for serious attention.

    It was also good that the National Troupe of Nigeria, organizers of the play reading chose the person of Odia Ofeimun to preside over the session.  His approach and style was novel.  However, the reading which began many hours behind schedule was not courageous enough to tell the playwright that the opening of the play is flat, bereft of the traditional ideals.

    When it was time for criticisms, almost everybody believed that it is purely a traditional Benin episode.  But where would the props and some other salient elements of a drama fit in when it goes on stage proper?

    It is a play in seven acts without part one.  Even though the actions began in earnest, there is part two, but there is no part one.  At least, it was not indicated. This is why it appears there is a collapse of ideas at the beginning and that the playwright suddenly recovered from his frenzy as soon as Ogbe also managed to regain his own senses as from part two.  There is a little dramatic sense in stating that perhaps Ogbe’s idiosy seeped into the ideas of the early part of the play.  But it all goes to depict the general belief that witchcraft has come to be part and parcel of many societies in these climes.

    The role of Obo (diviners) in the traditional setting of a people; how they were able to handle the Ogbe situation when consulted, all point to the fact that Benin traditional norms long known for their efficacies still hold sway.  There is total beauty in such a tradition so long as it does not inhibit people’s progress or limit their powers to be free from the mundane.  When Ogbe finally became the Enogie, myriads of potent traditional tendencies played themselves out so brazenly.  Moreover, it was clear he learnt the necessary lessons to be able to continue in the tradition of his predecessors.  As an Enogie, his enigmatic poise and composure were indices of a man at home with his people.  He understood his people wholesale.

    And so beyond tradition, the play has to be reviewed to make it a better issue on stage.  It has to be done because that is the central idea of play reading.  Even though Uwaifo is a trained engineer who has written a couple of other books, his sense of play writing has to be made to be in conformity with the acceptable norm.  “But let it not take long to get him to do that (page 66).  And so let this be the shortest possible escape route to make this a formidable play both in content and otherwise.  Let the songs which usually come in form of dirges be infused more into the play to stir the audience.  Let the drums play so often to bring out the sorrows of those aroused by the many oddities in the lives of the people.

    Born in 1932, Uwaifo is a prolific writer who even in retirement is waxing stronger as a writer.  He said he wrote the play to fulfill an age long desire to depict a part of his people’s history.  Ofeimun said it is a play that must be seen within the context of its history, while Martin Adaji of NTN described it as a play with deep traditional elements.

  • A legend for season of love

    A legend for season of love

    Edozie Udeze writes on One Legend, Many Seasons, a play written by Professor Femi Osofisan and staged by the National Troupe of Nigeria to bring closer home the real essence of this season of love and reconciliation

    Even though One Legend, Many Seasons written by Professor Femi Osofisan is an adaptation of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, the message it has for the people and the society was made clear on stage last weekend. The play was chosen by the National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN) to bring to people’s minds the true essence of Christmas. “It is a season of gifts, love and total reconciliation,” so said Martin Adaji, the Artistic Director of the Troupe.

    The play centred on a miserly rich man named Alomolodu. He had worked tirelessly to make money. But it was the kind of money he did not want to share with anybody. His love for his relations was cold. In the process of working himself to the marrow making money, his wife left him. He didn’t even have time to look for a replacement.

    Alone in the world, he took his office work as his only companion. His workers were like slaves to him. He had no pity for them. He always told them to be punctual or be damned. When his neighbours and relations came along to mention Merry Christmas to him, he shunned them, saying, “nonsense and ingredients. Christmas is not for people like me.”

    On and on, he went to display his disdain towards the people. But at a stage the ghost of Makon, a dead colleague of his appeared to him to warn him to desist from his obnoxious life style. “it will lead you to hell,” he tells him while appearing in chains. It was one message Alomolodu did not let go. It struck him truly that if his dead colleague could appear to warn him, then there was more to it than he could understand.

    Within the same period, three more spirits appeared to show him three stages of Christmas: The Christmas in the past, Christmas in the present, and Christmas in the future, all emphasising the need for him to show love to humanity. “Your wealth is meant to be shared with the poor,” he was told.

    Slowly, the spirits took him back to his boyhood days when he lived in a thatched home. There they made him understand that life has stages and each stage is meant to depict a different scenario, both for the person concerned and the people around him.

    The climax came when he was shown his grave in a cemetery. On the tomb was written “gone too soon – life and times of Alowolodu whose remains lie here.” This touched him so much that he began to shiver and ponder over his life and how he had treated people with disrespect. This therefore became a turning point in his life. His attention was henceforth turned to the people he once discarded and derided. He not only began to shower them with love, he saw in them his own source of existence. “There’s total beauty in life when the rich shares what he has with the poor around him.” Alowolodu kept reminding himself, while reminiscing over his past and present.

    Directed by Josephine Igberaese of the National Troupe, the mainstream of the play was the application of flashbacks to depict most of the scenes. The use of a narrator in the person of Albert Akaeze who incidentally bestrode the stage like a colossus, showed that the play truly has one legend, but too many seasons. Akaeze’s professional handling of the storyline helped to put the audience at ease to be able to follow the sequences with more rapt attention. It was Igberaese’s way of being inventive and colourful so as to ensure that no details were left out.

    Perhaps, the director should have also eliminated the animal kingdom aspects of the story. The introduction of that session really removed the shine from the play. At a stage when the audience had got used to the antics of Alowolodu and the lessons to be learnt from the play, there was a sharp diversion to the storytelling involving the animals. That diversion immediately put people off. For, indeed in the strictest sense of theatrical directing, it had no bearing to the main body of the play. For this reason and more, it made the play unduly long and boring.

    It was so boring that some people began to shuffle and hiss, a way to stamp their displeasure. “Why should a play of one-and-half-hours be made to last longer than necessary?” Someone hissed in disgust.

    Nonetheless, the presence of the playwright, Osofisan, the Minister of Culture, Edem Duke, Chairman of National Troupe board, Markus Ishaya and other important dignitaries made the show more colourful. Duke noted that people who have something to offer should help the poor. “That is what Christmas means to all of us.”

    Duke, who slipped unto the stage to join the artistes to make his remark did not stay to the end of the play. However, he made it clear that the play is not only timely and instructive so that the people ought to learn from the Alowolodu episode, it is also a play meant to allow people go soul-searching.

    The play, which has been performed in many countries including Ghana, Canada and the US, only proved that the season of Christmas is universal. It is one season when people ought to come together to share what they have and also make new friends.