Women’s Contributions to Theatre Productions in Nigeria: Playwrighting, Play Directing, and Costuming

Abstract

Focusing on Foluke Ogunleye and Toyin Bifarin Ogundeji, I examine the contributions of women to the contemporary theatre productions in Nigeria. I examine Ogunleye’s contributions to playwriting and theatre directing. I engage her playwrighting text, Nest in a Cage (1997), and her directorial approach to Femi Osofisan’s Twingle Twangle: A Twinning Tayle (performed in 2006). Also, I examine Ogundeji’s contributions to play directing and theatre costuming. I give attention to Ogundeji’s directorial work in Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy (2012) and her costuming aesthetics in Wale Ogunyemi’s Langbodo, which was directed by ’Bayo Afolabi in 2011. I contend for mutual respect in the working relationships between Nigerian women dramatists and their male counterparts in the production processes of professional theatre in Nigeria.