World Theatre Day Celebration; Lagos State government puts structures in place to provide more platforms for theatre Art practitioners to perform- Mrs Saidat Olaitan Otulana

The Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture celebrated the prestigious World Theatre Day on 27th March. The theme of this year’s World Theatre Day is “Theatre and a World of Peace”. 

Since 1962 World Theatre Day has been celebrated by ITI Centres,

The Director, Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture, Mrs Saidat Olaitan Otulana during an interview session with journalist after the live stage play at the Council auditorium said that the theatre industry in Nigeria is coming up and most of our performances can be compared to the best in the world.

She agreed that a lot still needs to be done for example there are not so many platforms for performances in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos. Right now we have places like Tera-Culture, which have stages for theatre art performance, we have the Freedom Park. 
She said that the National Art Theatre should be the flagship in Lagos but unfortunately for some issues we don’t have life performances there. 
But as we speak the Lagos State government is  putting structures in place

to provide more platforms for  the theater Art practitioners to perform by the Commissioning of four new theater Arts coming on stream before the end of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration, with that commissioning more opportunities will be provided for upcoming and performing Artist to showcase their talents across the Lagos State.
On the life performance play-let  of the day title “The Wizard Of Law” a play written by Late Professor Mrs. Zulu Sofola, she said the play is a ca-tire of life’s pressure on professionals like the Lawyer Ramoni Alao, a man who must have made money at one time in his life but apparently had come into hard times, but we see the wife putting a lot of pressure on him for to make more money, he succumbed to the wife’s pressure by going into shady things such as collecting clothing materials and refusing to pay by pretending to be dead, that is not a good character, it would have being good if he worked harder or ventured into other business to increase his income other than become a fraudster.

We see another Character, the cloth seller too who was trying to out smart the lawyer by selling his cloth above the normal price, both of them were cut in the web of their own game, you can inmagin the one you least expect Jegede the goat keeper outsmarted both of  them in court.
The lesson for us in this playlet “Wizard Of Law” is for us to be diligent in our work, honest and forthright and not live above our means.
The play indeed was a mixture of drama and comedy as the audience rolled over with laughter at the characters. It had a lot of lessons to teach the audience on societal moral decadence and building a good character in the face of economic hardship etc.

Also present is Mrs Ayoade Oyinboeade Kuburat the Assistant Director of Arts and Craft. Oshodi- Isolo Local government. HOD. Who lead a delegate of teachers and pupils from the Oshodi/Isolo primary school. Precisely five schools were represented under Oshodi they are Oshodi Modern primary School, Owosheni primary School and New State Primary School while under Isolo we have Farombi primary School Isolo and ST. Paul primary School Isolo.

Mrs. Saidat Olaitan Otulana the Director of Arts and Culture Lagos State took the Students on excursion around the facility. They visited the Art Gallery where they were shown various arts and craft designs. 
The director informed the Pupils about how to build a Career as an Artist or Theatre Practitioner. The pupils learned about the culture of Lagos State and history. With particular reference to the Eyo.
The International Theatre Institute ITI is the world’s largest performing art organization founded in 1948 by theatre and dance experts and UNESCO. Dedicated to performing arts, ITI advances UNESCO’s goals of mutual understanding and peace and advocates for the protection and promotion of cultural expressions, regardless of age, gender, creed or ethnicity. It works to these ends internationally and nationally in the areas of arts education, exchange and collaboration, and youth training. ITI organizes the International Dance Day and World Theatre Day every year at the UNESCO, Paris.