If there is one thing dear to the heart of veteran actor, Dele Odule, it is his passion to see moribund stage performances, reminiscent of the old tra
If there is one thing dear to the heart of veteran actor, Dele Odule, it is his passion to see moribund stage performances, reminiscent of the old travelling theatre pioneered by the late theatre doyen, Chief Hubert Ogunde, revived. He made this known preparatory to celebrating his 40 years as an actor.
He said he had written a stage play titled ‘Oju Kelekun’(farewell to reproach), which would be used to commemorate the celebration, adding that a sum of N100m would be needed for the project. He said the play would be directed by a foremost theatre practitioner and first professor of dance in Nigeria, Bakare Ojo-Rasaki, a former director, Abuja Carnival.
On his latest passion for stage performance, he said, “Stage performances have suffered a setback in Nigeria theatre circle. But you will also agree with me that most of our late theatre legends made fortune and fame through the stage and travelling theatre practice.”
Odule explained further that he was set to hit schools, theatre halls across the South-West and Yoruba areas in the North Central, after the drama troupe must have done performances for state governments in these states.
He said, “It is therefore my intention to revive the stage drama as a means of commercial empowerment through the schools and streets and bring back the lost memories.
“Our youths can then have a direct opportunity to choose a career in the arts through this form of motivation.”
Odule, who is the President of Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Association of Nigeria, said he had assembled a team of professional artistes from the academia and the travelling theatre practice to make the project grand.
He said, “The practical theatre without theory is a child’s play while the theoretical theatre without practical is an intellectual failure. The combination of these two will definitely bring about the originality in Nigeria theatre.”
Odule said the era of white-collar jobs was gone in the country, adding that “the various departments of theatre arts practice, if adequately tapped could create job opportunities for the nation’s teeming youth.”
Later this month, he said, he would still call for an audition to shore up the cast and crew, who would spend at least 21 days rehearsing towards the stage performance which is expected to hit the stage for its first command performance on June 12 in Abeokuta.
This, he said, would in commemoration of the 24th anniversary of the annulment of the freest and fairest election in the country.
