We Need Space For Film And Theatre To Thrive – Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, Theatre Researcher

Afolabi’s work focuses on socially engaged theatre and in this interview, he explains his work and how theatre research and development can be elevated for purpose within the African continent.

Theatre has a long and rich history in Nigeria and Africa, taking people on a journey through the stage with a heightened sense of appreciation for the temporary excitement of a live performance. Film has taken its place in recent times, reaching more people home and abroad. How can we expand theatre as a medium to complement the permanence of film?

In Nollywood had a conversation with Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, the founding Artistic Director of Theatre Emissary International, who was inducted into the prestigious Royal Society of Canada as a member of the RSC College in December 2023. 

The RSC exists to promote Canada’s national academy and the council of senior and distinguished Canadian scholars, humanists, scientists, and artists.

Afolabi’s work focuses on socially engaged theatre and in this interview, he explains his work and how theatre research and development can be elevated for purpose within the African continent. 

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

You’ve done incredible work and research in theatre and have now made it into the Royal Society of Canada. Did you have a roadmap? 

Thank you. I didn’t have a roadmap, at least not in the traditional sense. I did my undergrad at the University of Jos. Then, I started my theatre company immediately after; afterwards, my masters and Ph.D. 

I always knew that I loved research but I didn’t want to do research for research sake. I wanted something that would address critical issues and connect people. I was basically doing research and doing my practice so the theatre became a space to explore ideas. 

Tell us more about your research centre.

It’s called the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (CSET) and I designed it as a place for people to link together from research students to scholars. Right now, there are five research clusters. They are Theatre Broadly Defined: Justice and Policing, Theatre and Immigration, Creative Economy and Cultural Policy, Art Wealth and Well-being, and African Studies, Decolonization, Ethics and Performance Studies. 

It’s all very broad and came out of my research as I have an extensive research portfolio. 

How do you define socially engaged theatre? 

I started my theatre work with Theatre for Development. This is where we take theatre to communities and all of that. My definition of socially engaged theatre is really the theatre that caters for the needs of the people, that is about the process rather than the product. It’s about using theatre to focus on talking about different issues within the context of the people. 

We work largely with communities but at the end of the day it is about community building and relationships. It’s about using theatre to investigate people and issues that are critical to them. 

I think that we have the tendency to do that in the African space. The challenge a lot of the time is that in Theatre for Development, it’s always serving a particular purpose and most times, it is the purpose of the founders. It’s not necessarily using theatre to do research, it’s like let’s just go shake, let’s just go and dance. They’ve given us money to do something on malaria, let’s do it and leave but that’s not what I do. 

I really use theatre to investigate social issues. They are two different things. I think that takes a lot of bravery and at the same time vulnerability to do that. 

So when we talk about African and Nigerian spaces and the work that needs to be done. I agree with you that it is broad but I like to examine broad topics with questions. What questions should we be asking and attempting to answer when it comes to socially engaged theatre for the African and Nigerian space?

I would answer that quickly. So, one of the researchers that is working at the centre with me came to work with me because the Nigerian research space thought that his research was not researchable. When we got talking, I was like ‘oh! This is neat. You know, come over, let's work together.’

Now they are working with me on in-flight entertainment research. One of the bigger questions we need to ask ourselves in the Nigerian and African space is – how do we research? What do we need to do differently? How is our way of doing things stifling creativity? 

Beyond that, there’s so much conversation around decolonization, decentralisation, indigenous studies, post-colonial theory and all that that we need to ask ourselves about. 

For a lot of my students, I tell them we are thinking about the intersection of theatre and so many things. Let’s stop regurgitating things. Let’s go in and do new research and really speak about things that are really important rather than just speak about the fairytales that we have been told. 

Let’s talk about how you see the performance itself and the commercial structure. There are a lot of Nigerians right now who would never experience theatre. How would you describe the current state of theatre performance-wise and theatre as an art form in Nigeria and in Africa, by extension?

I always say that the cinema experience can never compare with the theatres. They are different and audiences need both. Theatre is live, it’s temporal. The temporality is critical, the immediacy is important which is different from people watching online or on Netflix or in the cinema. And I think all of these things have their spaces. The challenge we have is that we think of success in terms of how much we’ve got or how much we make and I think that theatre has never been for profit. 

I think that the challenge is that we’ve been trying to compete with the big cinemas but in the commercialisation, we need to think about spaces for community theatre.  We should create more of these spaces and I would say the challenge is that those spaces aren’t necessarily created because there isn’t a lot of financial support. 

At the end of the day, we need to stand up and say what we want to do and how we want to build our systems so that we can create an ecosystem that helps art thrive. 

Can we focus on what we have as theatre that is peculiar to us? 

Like I mentioned, the temporarity, the immediacy, the live experience is what makes theatre worth it. 

This makes a lot of sense. Congratulations on your acceptance into the Royal Society of Canada. What does this mean for you going forward? 

When I’m asked this question, I’ve had to reflect on what’s in it for me. What do I take out of it? I think for me it’s the fact that we are giving both the present and the coming generation the possibility to dream. 

I was the only Nigerian from theatre that was inducted or ever been inducted. I believe in history of the society and I think for me, if I’m able to inspire both those that are here now and those that are coming behind to say you can do it no matter what, knowing the colour of our skin, the realities that our political system in the country — the stigma, not just reality, the stigma that that has also put on some of us that are in the diaspora, because it’s real. It is real. 

The second thing that I think I get out of this for me is the opportunity to be able to broaden my network and my horizon because we are better as our networks, right? There are potentials for different projects and I think as Nigerians, it’s important for people to see how great we are. 

You have a theatre company and a training focus. What is the goal in Nigeria?

We have a sort of research centre in Nigeria and I’ve sort of been working online. The goal is to raise the next generation of researchers. I mentor a lot and then depending on the opportunities, I speak and continue to engage with the continent.