Theatre Culture Bouncing Back In Nigeria, Says Artist
A stage play actor, Babatunde Ojobaro, says the theatre culture is bouncing back in Nigeria after years of hibernation due to the advent of home video and cinemas.
Ojobaro, who is popularly known as Mister Rain, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Thursday that, there has been major increase in the number of theatre production companies operating in the country.
“Stage plays across the country have also increased. The cycle is back. People are constantly looking for new ways to be entertained, and the culture is shifting towards theatre again.
“The good thing is, there are now more informed theatre enthusiasts wanting to receive the theatre culture, and we are doing just that.
“Knowing the times we are in and producing stage plays that resonate with the time and season, the audience is flocking back to the origin of entertainment,” he added.
He however said that the practitioners must find ways of sustaining audience interest in the theatre by “evolving with time and finding creative ways to remain relevant.”
Ojobaro said that there’s a huge margin in terms of investment and profit between stage plays and home videos.
”Of course, there’s a huge margin, and this just has to do with the commercialization of these products.
“Investors are thinking ROI and the home video and cinema have more prospect because they have the capacity to reach more audience at a particular time compared to stage plays.
”Stage plays audience is limited to the size of the space being used per time, that is why I said earlier, that theatre producers need to evolve.
”Now, we need to involve more technology and innovation to expand the frontiers of production and the capability to reach more audience in a single production,” he said.
Some of the stage plays produced and directed by Mister Rain are August Visitor Sometime in May, Morena is Coming, Oluronbi the Musical, Moremi the Musical, A Cycle of Ravens, The Engagement, Vagina Monologues, Maybe Tomorrow and Man Talk Woman Talk.