Unibadan Masques 1974-6, a Memoir of the First Two Years

Summary

Aspirations

Dr J.A. Adedeji, Acting Head of Department [of Theatre Arts, into which the old School of Drama had evolved] and Dexter Lyndersay, Unibadan Masques' Project Director, have stated that the new Company ‘should reflect the African personality – in tradition, in present-day life and in aspiration for the future. It is a Company of dedicated artists in acting, dance, music and stage-crafts who will present a variety of African concerns under different guises, i.e., a group of Masqueraders entertaining in the most complete way possible – to encourage thinking and celebration in performers and audience – together.’

Quoted in University of Ibadan Alumni Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 3, June 1975

There was no doubt that the University of Ibadan administration had high hopes for the success of our new acting company, for which, in its 1974–75 budget, it had voted Naira 6,000 to the Department of Theatre Arts. There was no doubt that the Arts theatregoers, drawn mainly from the campus population, were in a high state of attendance approval – we had enjoyed enthusiastic sold out houses (305 seats) from the start.

The university's Alumni Newsletter was cheering us on, in a half-column piece that began with the news that Unibadan Masques had been ‘launched in November 1974 – providing an average of one production per month …’ and offered an appropriate highlight in the fact that our opening production, Diagnosis, had been written by a University of Ibadan (hereafter ‘Unibadan’) registry administrator, Emmanuel Enemute Avbiorokoma (Alumnus ‘59).