The Nation Newspaper

Tag: young artistes

  • Shatta Wale chides young artistes crazy about awards

    DANCEHALL artiste, Charles Nii Armah Mensah, known as Shatta Wale has advised new artistes pursuing the dream of becoming a brand not to allow themselves to be pushed towards award, rather they should be encouraged to build themselves financially and also become global brands.

    In a series of tweets, he posted during the week, when he lashed out to music critics via his twitter handle on Wednesday.

    The tweet reads, “let’s not push our new artistes so much towards award schemes because after that the burden for them to create becomes too much and so I suggest we rather build them financially and give dem a global brand.”

  • Sahara Group sponsors young artistes to London Film Academy

    Winners of ‘Grooming Film Extrapreneurs’, a project of Sahara Group, are about to enrich their skills at the London Film Academy.

    The winner, Joseph Duke and First Runner-up, Chinenye Balogun who emerged from over 200 entries, will undergo training in Editing and Cinematography, courtesy of the leading African energy and infrastructure conglomerate.

    Unveiled in 2016, the competition flagged off Sahara’s unfolding corporate citizenship model tagged: extrapreneurship. The model seeks to create a platform that finds, creates and connects young people with business interests in emerging markets.

    The competition involved the submission of 15-minute documentaries on the activities of Nigerian entrepreneurs by young filmmaker.

    Joseph Duke, the overall winner of the project recently completed a six-month internship programme with ace filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan, being the star prize of the project.

    “It still feels like a dream each time I think about how Sahara Group’s support has enhanced my career. I spent six dream months with Kunle Afolayan during which I learnt a lot and interacted with some of the best minds in the industry. Now, going to the London Film Academy is another experience I am looking forward to. In fact, Sahara Group has changed my life and given wings to my aspiration,” he said.

    Duke said he was already working on some projects that he hopes would announce his entry into the film industry “in a big way”.

    According to Bethel Obioma, spokesperson for Sahara Group, the energy giant was delighted to be “co-creating a future of excellence in the film industry with budding talents through its projects and interventions,” adding that Sahara draws inspiration from giving individuals wings to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

    “We are passionate giving all we can and working with like-minded stakeholders to promote sustainable development across the globe,” he said.

    For Chinenye Balogun, the London Film Academy experience would further hone her skills in pursuit of her dream of ultimately becoming a successful film maker.

    She said: “I am inspired by what Sahara Group is doing in terms of helping people’s dreams come true and look forward to using my career and achievements to support young filmmakers.”

    Sahara is currently concluding plans for the next edition of the grooming film extrapreneurs project with an extended mandate of giving opportunities to young filmmakers in Africa to showcase their works.

     

  • ‘Ours is to discover and nurture young artistes’

    ‘Ours is to discover and nurture young artistes’

    The Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria, Akin Adejuwon, in this chat with Edozie Udeze, harps on the mandate given to the Troupe to reach out to the rural communities and various states to discover and develop young artistes both for continuity and professional dexterity and more

    For sometime now, the National Troupe of Nigeria has been involved in a project to help dramatise literature text books that are on the WAEC syllabus for secondary schools across the nation.  It is a project that is not just very dear to the heart of the Artistic Director of the Troupe Akin Adejuwon, but one he says is compulsory and which the management of the Troupe is totally committed to.  When one of the plays, Othello, written by William Shakespeare, was staged by the Troupe in Umuahia, Abia State recently, Adejuwon told The Nation in an interview that “this project is not an intention, it is one that is mandatory for the Troupe.  In our mandate as the National Troupe of Nigeria, we have up to five subject areas where we are expected to show interest.  One of them is to discover young talents.  Not only that we are expected to also develop these talents to meet with their expectations in life.  This also includes school dramas, for this is the best level where we can discover these talents and develop them.

    “We know that interest in literature is going down and there is need for us to do what we must to help revive the interest.  So it is not an intention, it is a project we have no option but to embark upon.  It is our duty now to go from one zone to the other to dramatise some of these plays so as to make the books not only simpler to understand but also make the images register in the minds of students.  This way, the interest will come back; the students will see the characters perform their roles on stage.  This is for us also to remove that age long belief that this is a National Troupe only stuck at the National Theatre, Lagos.  No, we have to move around to places to register our presence, to make our impact felt.  Of course, this is a National Troupe of Nigeria.  It is for us all and we are meant or even mandated to be felt nationwide.  We have to remove those inadequacies that are not the best for the National Troupe of Nigeria.

    “Now, from the very onset we have gone on the streets with the best plays and dances to demonstrate that we are prepared to go to the grassroots to prove our mettle.  We have done this in different states and we are prepared to do more.  Now, we have extended it to secondary schools across the nation.  We were once in Osun State to do what we’ve just done in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

    “It is now time to take theatre; I mean schools dramas to the grassroots.  It is time for them to feel real theatre; to see how these books can indeed be made real.  Let them see, feel, and be a part of this process of reality on stage.  This is why we have chosen the six geo-political zones of the country.  What we have now for the South-East is for this season and that is why we are here now.  From here, we hope this model can be taken further afield to other zones.  We hope also to take this to other states of this zone in order to make this play known to more students, more schools, thereby ensuring that the interest is totally revived.

    “Now the interest in Othello was raised particularly by the students themselves.  We discovered that the difficulty in understanding Othello as a literature text is real.  The age of setting and the language of the book make it quite a challenge.  This is why we have chosen the book.  And you could see how the artistes were able to demonstrate and simplify the text on stage.  The students were thrilled and were able to follow from the beginning till the end.”

    Adejuwon also believes that the lessons in Othello, though written in Elizabethan English, are multifaceted.  “On one hand, you could see a good army general who could not also control his inner being in terms of his love life.  And on another hand, it shows that when a man is strong, he needs people to help him in policy making and decision process.  A man who must get assistance must also be humble; he must lower himself, so that people will be there to be of help to him when he needs them.  No matter how evil thrives, it will soon be brought to an end.  This is the lesson in this play and we all have to learn one or two things from it.”

    For now, the Troupe is planning to take its travel theatre to other parts of Nigeria, but only being hampered by funds.  To this end, Adejuwon, said, “We will resume the tour as soon as we have the funds to do so.  Once we have enough funds again we are coming to the South-East.  There’s even a strong pressure now that we must go to the Midwest – Edo, Delta and so on.  This is so because of the strength of culture in Edo State.  It is a centre of culture and the new Oba of Benin is also a total image of total culture.  His dream now is to start an Academy of Art and also the senate chairman on culture Senator Matthew Orhogbide who is from Edo State is insistent on us taking street theatre to Edo State.  So we will be in Edo very soon with our repertoire of street theatre”, he concluded.

  • Music, drama and dance for young artistes

    Itah Hozaife is a Theatre Arts graduate of the University of Jos and the founder of Ink Marks.  This is a social enterprise established to develop children in different aspects of the art.  The children range from 9 to 18years and the concept is to teach them how to write plays, prose, songs; also how to direct, how to write scripts and develop their own innate talents through exposure to the rudiments of the art.  She had a chat with Edozie Udeze on these and more

    So what is the whole essence of Ink Marks and Reel kids?

    Since 2009, we discovered that there had been mass failures among the kids in the area of English Language and that innate ability to develop their God-given talents. We therefore felt that we could do our best to turn the situation around for good. We thought also we would be one of those to resolve that and show the kids the way forward in terms of how to speak and learn English to help them be the best in their chosen profession.

    Now, we have two projects coming up this August. It is to coincide with the long holidays. One is called REEL kids. This has to do with teaching children English Language and Literature in English, using music, drama and dance. We did this last year and so this is the second time. Last year’s was encouraging.

    What we do after we’ve taught them the English Language is to give them the task of creating their own songs. In this wise, we use musical or home video films to demonstrate and see if they’ve learnt what we’ve taught them. This is so because kids have to be allowed to be who they are.

    What’s the age range for this…?

    This is open to kids between 8 to 16years. And we have fifteen days to do this and then allow them to practice on their own. This year we are lucky we got a lot of support from Diamond Bank and others. The second part of it will also come up towards the end of August. In it, we will host the first winner of Idols dance competition. He will also come around to help the kids write their music and develop their dance patterns more. Also part of the show is what I have tagged I have a speech. This is the first time we’ll be doing that. And it entails the inspiration of Martin Luther King. What we do here is to allow the kids to write a speech to see how they can handle that aspect of the art. The challenge will be there too.

    That’s the question they have to answer: What makes for a good leadership? The core essence of the speech is to talk about this leadership issue as it concerns us here in Nigeria mainly. So, the young ones have to write the speech answering that question of who qualifies to be a good leader and so on.

    The theme here is really centred on leadership. If they have to write this speech, they have to understand leadership, true leadership that will help to make a better tomorrow.

    The programme which is being supported by the Lagos State first lady will be read by her sometimes before the end of the year. However, this aspect of the show will be used as part of the October 1 independence anniversary of the country.

    Right now, we are calling for entries from children between 8 – 18 years. After that, all we do is select top 20 kids and then we will work with the children on leadership and speech writing workshop. This will last for 10 days. We have already got our panel of judges who will now select the number one speech out of the whole lot. The winner’s speech will then be presented to Mrs. Fashola to be read in September and aired on television come October 1.

    Why are you involving the First Lady in this?

    Emm… In the first place, we feel she loves the kids. She loves children a lot and you can always see that in her. She is very keen on children. She attends a lot of functions involving children and you could see how she relates with them. It is so amazing, you know. Now we feel the children will benefit more from her motherly love and attention. By interacting with her, they will also learn a lot about her and what she stands for. This is one way the children will also be much more involved even at this level of creativity and all. She really shows her deep love for children and her presence will equally inspire our kids to be like her in terms of leadership; in terms of motherly care and comportment.

    So, when I pushed the project to her, oh, she said she loved it and would be part of it. And it didn’t surprise me even though she didn’t know me, she agreed to be part of it.

    There’s too much of the English Language in the kids. Are you trying to do some of these experiments in our local languages?

    No, I am not doing that and I must be honest with you. And now I will tell you why. Currently, I am looking at the exams they are going for. If you look at NECO, WAEC and JAMB, they do not do well in English Language, English Literature, Biology and so on. If you look at the scores in the subjects I have mentioned, they failed all round. My focus now is to get them to be passionate about learning. If you teach them to be passionate about learning, the likely hood of their thinking well is there.

    You see, the reason why kids fail is that they are no longer interested in education. This is why the approach to education now has to be different. We have to get them interested first and then other issues will follow. This is why we use issues that they love; issues that appeal to them most to get education closer to them. What is in it for them is to go to school. It is not good enough to say to them to go to school. You have to explain to them why and this has to be through good examples of the things they are familiar with.

    So, it is left for us to discover the areas they are gifted. Some are gifted in the art while some in the sciences. So, ours is to teach them which way to go. So after this, we help them to polish this talent and then take it further in order to make them the best they can be. When they finish, they don’t need to beg for a job because they have their talents well developed to be on their own.