Building on earlier works on the African video film movement this book discusses: The Dynamics of Finance in the Nigerian Traveling Theatre; Christian Morality Plays in Nigeria; Television Docudrama as Alternative Records of History; Nigerian Tele-Drama and Propaganda; Money and Mercantilism in Nigerian Historical Plays; History of the Ori Olokun Theatre; and The Socio-Economic Construct of the Nigerian Home Video Film.

This book provides an overview of the full range of the teaching and practice of Committed Theatre and theatre of commitment in Nigeria for scholars in the arts and cultural studies. It is divided into four sections; Chapter 1: Theatre in Development Discourse, which is comprised of four papers that explore the theories of practice of theatre of commitment. Chapter 2 : Nigerian Theatre in Perspective discusses the trends, ethos of revolution, theatrical elements and communalistic/individualistic tendencies and the taboos theatre, drama and traditional theatre in Nigeria. In Chapter 3, the social, cultural and historical implications of Nigeria theatre, is examined in papers that focus on politics, theatre, and echoes of separatism in Nigeria and including an analysis of Aesthetagement of the Calabar Carnival in Nigeria. Chapter 4 performs a critical analysis of committed theatre practices from a global perspective. Interviews were conducted with committed artistes from Nigeria, Canada, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. Committed Theatre Perspectives in Teaching and Practice in Nigeria has the potential to impact the philosophy, teaching, and practice of theatre. The ideas contained in the book provide an excellent framework for understanding the importance and more importantly, the impact of theatre on society.

Now available in paperback for the first time this edition of the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre series examines theatrical developments in Africa since 1945. Entries on thirty-two African countries are featured in this volume, preceded by specialist introductory essays on Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa, History and Culture, Cosmology, Music, Dance, Theatre for Young Audiences and Puppetry. There are also special introductory general essays on African theatre written by Nobel Prize Laureate Wole Soyinka and the outstanding Congolese playwright, Sony Labou Tansi, before his untimely death in 1995. More up-to-date and more wide-ranging than any other publication, this is undoubtedly a major ground-breaking survey of contemporary African theatre.

In this collection of essays written from different critical perspectives, African playwrights demonstrate through their art that they are not only witnesses, but also consciences, of their societies.

Derived from The Cambridge guide to theatre_

This book aims to offer a broad history of theatre in Africa. The roots of African theatre are ancient and complex and lie in areas of community festival, seasonal rhythm and religious ritual, as well as in the work of popular entertainers and storytellers. Since the 1950s, in a movement that has paralleled the political emancipation of so much of the continent, there has also grown a theatre that comments back from the colonized world to the world of the colonists and explores its own cultural, political and linguistic identity. A History of Theatre in Africa offers a comprehensive, yet accessible, account of this long and varied chronicle, written by a team of scholars in the field. Chapters include an examination of the concepts of 'history' and 'theatre'; North Africa; Francophone theatre; Anglophone West Africa; East Africa; Southern Africa; Lusophone African theatre; Mauritius and Reunion; and the African diaspora.

African popular theater includes conventional drama plus such nonliterary performance as dance, mime, storytelling, masquerades, vaudeville, improvization, & the theater of social action & resistance. Media such as radio, film, & television are included.

Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance is a collection of regionally focused articles on African theatre and performance. The volume provides a broad exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance and considers the directions they are taking in the 21st Century. It contains sections on current trends in theatre and performance studies, on applied/community theatre and on playwrights. The chapters have evolved out of a working group process, in which papers were submitted to peer-group scrutiny over a period of four years, at four international conferences. The book will be particularly useful as a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in non-western theatre and performance (where this includes African theatre and performance), and would be a very useful resource for theatre scholars and anyone interested in African performance forms and cultures.

Provides an international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet.