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WORK REVIEWED:
Dapo Adelugba On Theatre Practice In Nigeria
ADEMOLA DASYLVA (INTERVIEWER)
Ibadan: Ibadan Cultural Studies Group, U of lbadan 2003.298pp.
Dcjpo Adelugba un Theatre Practice in Nigeria is the firs* puhlirntinri under the ISP.SF. interview series, a project of the Ibadan Cultural Studies Group ol the !'acuity ol Arts, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The Ibadan Cultural Studies Group was lounded at the University of Ibadan in 1.999, with membership drawn from other Nigerian universities and research institutes. Apart lrom organizing workshops (such as the one on "Folklore and Arts in the Promotion of World Peace," R-12 January 2001), the group has since inaugurated what it calls ISESE publications, including lsese Monograph Series, Jscse.'Journal ojFo!More, lsese Creative Writing Series, and the lsese Interview Series. The ISESE interview series is designed to comprise interviews with ten theater practitioners, selected across the spectrum ol theatrical engagement in the Nigerian society, including, according to the interviewer-author, "the travelling theatre, amateur, semi-professional theatre practitioners and their counterparts in the Universities." The objective is to arrive at a "concise biographic documentation" of these practitioners in order to convey a full picture and impression of their theoretical and practical contributions to the growth and development of theater practice in Nigeria.
This is a laudable project, a courageous initiative even, considering the many constraints currently being faced by academia in Nigeria occasioned largely by the failure of the authorities to provide adequate funding for academic research and ensure preservation ol "the idea of the university." The pervasive anti-intellectualism ol successive Nigerian governments now at its most absurd and ridiculous level, under the present Obasanjo administration, has dealt a great blow to the task ol contemplative inquiry into the causes and effects of fundamental issues by the academia.
Perhaps the greater value of this publication lies in the fact that it is a useful contribution to theater scholarship in Nigeria. As in most other disciplines, there is a shortage of books written and researched by Nigerian theater academics and practitioners. Much of the work in theater practice exists in the area of performance, and unlike the practice in the West, very few theater practitioners in Nigeria have managed to move from performance to theory. The result is that theater studies in Nigeria have...