‎ Performing Artists and Total Theatre Training Acquisition in the Nigerian Theatre

Abstract

Performing Arts Department is a unique academic Department in the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. The uniqueness of the Department lies in the tripartite nature of its main degree programme. Courses in the Department are specially designed to promote and accommodate music, dance and drama, which are piloted by seasoned lecturers. Students and graduates of Performing Arts are also great performers whose unique theatrical performances usually celebrate the total theatre idiom peculiar to the people of Africa. They are also being constantly grounded in the theoretical base of the theatre. Through the deductive method and with particular reference to the Department of the Performing Arts, University of Ilorin, this study examines the practical and theoretical issues involved in total theatre training acquisition. After providing a brief theoretical base to support our illustrations, we also review some unique academic courses, theatrical performances and social programmes of the Department. We conclude the study by emphasising the notion that, the performing artists can only become rounded artists if they acquire and accept the significance of total theatre training acquisition, and that the curriculum of the Department of the Performing Arts can be adopted by other interested theatre related institutions. Some suggestions are also provided as roadmap to this total theatre training acquisition.