Celebrating 100 years: How kids in drama held pros spell-bound

The National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN) in collaboration with Beeta Universal Arts Foundation recently held a National Schools’ Dramatised Storytelling Competition, themed ‘Nigeria : A Hundred Years of Existence – Our Story So Far’. Aimed at dramatizing the country’s one hundred years in existence, the competition was also targeted at challenging school children to form […]

The National Troupe of Nigeria (NTN) in collaboration with Beeta Universal Arts Foundation recently held a National Schools’ Dramatised Storytelling Competition, themed ‘Nigeria : A Hundred Years of Existence – Our Story So Far’.
Aimed at dramatizing the country’s one hundred years in existence, the competition was also targeted at challenging school children to form their perspective, tell the story of the nation’s hundred years of existence in a complex entity called Nigeria.
No less than 30 primary and secondary schools from across the FCT expressed their passion and commitment to respect rules of theatre even at their level. They also distinguished themselves in their ability to interpret the theme and various sub-themes in their use of props, costumes and make-ups, just as they left no one in doubt that theatre art will not go extinct even with the overriding influence of sciences. The secondary school students provoked admiration from the professionals.
Asides entertaining guests, they also exhibited a vast appreciation of the socio-economic and political reality in the country.  While some schools highlighted the era of imperialism and colonialism as beginning of Nigeria’s woes, others blamed bad leadership, avarice and corruption for the country’s developmental backwardness.  
Brilliant as their performances were, none was successfully able to enacted Nigeria’s 100 years of existence without reference to the nation’s early days of abundance and peaceful co-existence, the joy of Independence, military interregnum as well as the Civil War that almost disintegrated the country. They highlighted societal ills with references to the menace of militancy, incessant killings and kidnaps and other insurgencies which have recently besieged the nation will reflecting their negative impacts.
Using and sustaining techniques like Bertolt Bretch’s ‘Alienation Effect’, they captivated audience emotions.  While some schools proffered divine intervention to Nigeria’s problem as part of their resolutions, others left it to the audience to decide way forward.
Josephine Igberaese, initiator of the competition, and NTN’s Director of Drama, said she was deeply fascinated by the children’s performance. “It is an indication that even the children are not oblivious of issues and challenges confronting the country. And there is hope for the future. Nigeria, I strongly believe, will be in capable hands that will transform it to a world power in the near future. Also, our home video industry that is currently enjoying a boom will benefit immensely from the varied talents that will be nurtured through this process.”
 Storytelling, she said, is the most powerful tool for effective communication, and could be used to educate, celebrate and present a community’s aspirations to promote mutual co-existence.  “The storyteller is a chronicler of history, traditions, and our way of life through songs, dance, drama, poetry and parables.”
Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Troupe of Nigeria, Martine Adaji, said “the main reason for the programme by the National Troupe was to bring to the kids the story telling tradition which is fast dying on account of the social media that has invaded the nation’s landscape.”
Acknowledging that the country needed to make progress with the rest of the world, he said, “we must not lose sight of our own culture, and without this kind of practice, the children will lose the culture completely, our future identity depends on how rooted our children are in our cultural stories.”
“The stories dramatized”, he said, “were sourced by the children from their own communities and that will sharpen their intellect and make them grounded in their own cultures.
 “I can assure that this kind of programmes help  to engage children and save them from having unproductive past times, children who ordinarily would be roaming the streets doing nothing now begin to think constructively about how to save their country Nigeria,” Adaji said.
According to Adaji,  the theme was chosen  “to prescribe some kind of solutions to the problems we have in this country, as you saw from what they did here today, they are so sensitive to the problems which we adults may have even overlooked.
 “Hopefully by next year, if resources permit, we will like to cover the six geo-political zones, because for now, we have covered only Abuja and Lagos, and that way we will be able to represent the country in all its ramifications”.
The winning schools are now reserves in the NTN who will be called upon to serve the nation at local and international levels. “But once they have passed through this process and they are available on completion of their studies, it will be a lot easier for them to come into the National Troupe and get enlisted.”
Bikiya Graham-Douglas, the CEO of Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, the co-sponsors of the programme, said the contest is a national competition and it is opened to all the schools in the country.
She said  “we want to use this programme to harness the talents of our young ones,  because if we can catch them at this incubation stage, and create enabling environment for them, by the time they are adults, they are already professionals.
 “We all know that the arts community is one of the most neglected sectors in the country, so  we are going to ensure that the talents here today are absorbed into the main stream, we have taken down the names of the talents we have discovered already and we will definitely be sponsoring the children to make sure they access training and we are hoping that this can help us present drama as a mainstream subject and we want the educational bodies to recognise drama as a mainstream subject in schools.”
At the finals held at the Women Development Centre, Abuja, three primary and eight secondary schools made it to the grand finale that held last week.
Emerging winners of the stiff competition which also posed a challenge for judges to decided  were Government Secondary School, Lugbe, in first place, as the School For The Gifted, Gwagwalada and Crest International School ; Mararaba winning second and third places respectively in the secondary school category.
Ideal Basic School, Kubwa beat La-Vogue International School, Kurudu and Bankys Private School, Gaduwa Estate to second and third positions respectively in the primary school category.