To raise awareness of environmentally destructive behaviors in their community, faculty and students at Dennis Osadebay University adapted a poem about ending cultural pollution into a play about the consequences of environmental pollution. In this essay, members of the team reflect on this production and its efficacy.
The team at Shanty Theatre dove deep into Igbo mask and masquerade traditions to stage the largest of them all: the Ijele Masquerade. Angelea Okolo and Eseovwe Emakunu detail the research and creative process they used to bring the masquerade to Benin City, Nigeria.
Art Management in Africa / La Gestion des Arts en Afrique
Tuesday 29 April 2025
Nigeria and Kenya
Cultural policy, art councils, funding bodies, and other alliances are critical to an art manager's functions. This episode examines the role of cultural policy in Africa.
Eseovwe Emakunu and Anita Anoma of Shanty Theatre recently launched a campaign that brought together primary school performers and university audiences for a dance drama performance about climate change. They discuss the creative process and impact of this performance project, which catalyzed action and learning about the impact of climate change and deforestation in Nigeria.
Dan Kpodoh’s The Struggle dramatizes governmental and corporate exploitation in the oil-rich Niger Delta by telling the story of a group of militants who sought liberation but became corrupted by financial interests. Eseovwe Emakunu, a Nigerian theatre professional, interviews Kpodoh about the play’s function as protest theatre against political oppression.
Eseovwe Emakunu and Dennis U. Obire, co-founders of the Shanty Theatre, chronicle their work in the Adagbabiri Community in Bayelsa State, which is one of the most educationally deprived states in Nigeria. Using a theatre for development model, the group worked with local children to create a performance that demonstrated the importance of education in the social development of a community and nation.
The concept of climate finance refers to monies provided by those responsible for climate change to ease the burden of the crises on those who bear the brunt. This is a situation whereby the polluter pays as much as they pollute. The attention placed on climate finance dominates the narrative of climate change mitigation since polluters are able to pay monies allocated to them as climate finance. Climate finance has not fully addressed the issue of the elephant in the room.
Different art forms (such as theatre, film, visual arts, and social media) have often been used to communicate, educate, and promote climate justice issues. This episode offers the opportunity to hear stories of practitioners using their art forms in this era of climate emergency. We focus on theatre practices and digital art forms and ask guests to share their work and that of others from the continent.
Offering Perspectives on Ways Existing Cultural and Non-Cultural Infrastructures Can Open Opportunities for Diplomacy and Soft Power
Tuesday 14 March 2023
Saskatchewan, Canada
The Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET) at the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance at the University of Regina, in collaboration with Theatre Emissary International, presents the online book launch of Re-centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability. This book explores the role of national theatres, cultural centers, cultural policy, festivals, and the film industry as creative and cultural performance hubs for exercising soft power and cultural diplomacy. This event will feature live captioning and ASL interpretation.
Socially-Engaged Theatre Through the Lens of Tor Iorapuu's Community-Driven Theatre
Friday 18 November 2022
Nigeria and Canada
The Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET), in collaboration with Theatre Emissary International and the University of Jos, Nigeria, presented the online book launch of Different Models, One Goal: Doing Theatre, Democracy, and Social Justice edited by Adediran Ademiju-Bepo, Hussaini U. Tsaku, Awuawuer Tijime Justine, Shadrach Teryila Ukuma, and Bem Alfred Abugh livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 18 November 2022 at 9 a.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 10 a.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 3 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 16:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1) / 4 p.m. WAT (Lagos, UTC +1).
Theatre artist Kofoworola Owokotomo describes her experience teaching theatre to students at the Concord School in Ibadan and advocates for more funding of arts education in Nigerian schools.
In 2021, Nigerian director Josephine Awele Odunze directed a powerful production of Wedlock of the Gods by Zulu Sofola. Odunze sits down with Eseovwe Emakunu to discuss the play’s connections to issues Nigerian women face today, as well as her hopes that theatre can contribute to attaining true gender parity in Nigeria.
Eseovwe Emakunu sits down with theatre practitioner Israel Wekpe to discuss how he and other Nigerian theatre artists use theatre to address racism and discrimination.
Episode Five of Decolonizing Dramaturgy: Theatremakers from Africa in Conversation
Wednesday 17 November 2021
Africa
Taiwo Afolabi presented Decolonizing Dramaturgy: The Dramaturge as a Curator and Programmer livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 17 November 2021 at 9 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 12 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 5 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 6 p.m. WAT (Lagos, UTC +1) / 18:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1) / 19:00 SAST (Johannesburg, UTC +2) / 20:00 EAT (Nairobi, UTC +3).
Episode Three of Decolonizing Dramaturgy: Theatremakers from Africa in Conversation
Wednesday 3 November 2021
Africa
Taiwo Afolabi presented Decolonizing Dramaturgy: Self-Dramaturgy and dramaturging others: dramaturge as a nurturer livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 3 November 2021 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 4 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 5 p.m. WAT (Lagos, UTC +1) / 17:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1) / 18:00 SAST (Johannesburg, UTC +2) / 19:00 EAT (Nairobi, UTC +3).
Episode Two of Decolonizing Dramaturgy: Theatremakers from Africa in Conversation
Wednesday 27 October 2021
Africa
Taiwo Afolabi presented Decolonizing Dramaturgy: Dramaturgy and dramaturgical processes from Egypt, Nigeria and Zimbabwe livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 27 October 2021 at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 5 p.m. WAT (Lagos, UTC +1) / 17:00 BST (London, UTC +1) / 18:00 SAST (Johannesburg, UTC +2) / 18:00 CEST (Berlin, UTC +2) / 19:00 EAT (Nairobi, UTC +3).
Kofoworola Owokotomo shares her experience directing a new production of The Vagina Monologues that explicitly addressed women’s oppression in contemporary Nigerian society.
Kofoworola Owokotomo shares the theatre for development processes she undertook with a team of students to tackle issues of drug abuse, tribalism, and poor attitudes towards education in two Nigerian communities.
A Summit for arts & culture leaders committed to building equity
Friday 24 April - Saturday 25 April 2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Arts Connect International presented the Arts Equity Summit livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Friday 24 April to Sunday 26 April 2020.
Every four years, Catholic seminaries across Nigeria come together for the All Saints Seminary Festival of Arts and Culture, which features theatre rooted in the cultures of Nigeria’s various ethnic groups. Israel Wepke sits down with Eseovwe Emakunu to discuss the process of making theatre with All Saints Seminary, Uhiele.
