Tolu Ayileka
The National Theatre of Nigeria has hosted a series of training workshops for theatre practitioners and professionals across the country in a bid to support the growth and development of the local arts industry in Nigeria. The one-week workshop kicked off on Monday Monday 19th of August at the Wale Adenuga Centre, Alliance Franciase in Lagos and covered various aspects of theatre productions, including project management, playwriting, and storytelling.
During the opening ceremony, Mrs. Tola Akerele, the General Manager of the National Theatre, revealed that the workshop is an effort of the institution to empowering practitioners across the country to improve their craft and is a first out of many to come.
She also disclosed that the National Theatre is currently willing to collaborate with practitioners and professionals across the industry in a bid to creating solutions and developing better innovative ideas to the development of theatre in the country.
Mrs Akerele in her address also encouraged the attendees, emphasizing that active participation, cooperation and collaboration amidst stakeholders is necessary for a progressive industry, and that this will lead to a new era of the National Theatre and provide numerous opportunities for practitioners in the industry.
She further reiterated that “the training sessions mark a significant step towards enhancing the skills and knowledge of theatre industry professionals in Nigeria, and the National Theatre’s commitment to supporting the growth and development of the industry”.
The first training lecture was on “Project Management Workshop” facilitated by Dr. Lessi Patrick, a certified award-winning project management professional with over two decades of experience in practice, academia and management. The session ran for 3 days between Monday to Wednesday and focused on using project management processes in the creation and delivery of better theatre productions.
This session was followed by “Introduction to Playwriting” on Thursday and was held by Shola Ashante, a UK-based Journalist, Fiction Writer and Playwright. Mrs Ashante led an interactive session on the principles of playwriting using her experiences working for international organizations such as the BBC, Sky News and CNBC as a template for the session.
Finally, the workshop ended on Saturday with an impactful session titled “Storytelling for Impact” by Anna Ostergren, a theatre director with experience working with National Theatre London, Netflix, London Business School and Bloomberg.
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