The Red Carpet Speaker Series In Town And Gown ‘Mastersclass’

Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, Professor Segun Ojewuyi has been facilitating some impressive conversations between ‘Town’ and the Ivory Tower at the University of Ibadan. Observing that our centres of knowledge creation/dissemination must of necessity begin again to actively engage the leading lights and managers of their respective industries, Ojewuyi in collaboration with the Department of Theatre Arts and the Association of Theatre Arts Students (ATAS) of the University, has just concluded the first leg of The Red Carpet Speaker Series programme.

The programme opens up new opportunities for a continuous exchange of new knowledge and experiences, in order for both Town and Gown to independently (and sometimes jointly) validate what either party is teaching and/or doing.

This first of the Red Carpet Speaker Series features five of the very top and best of the Creative Industry and Performing Arts in Nigeria. They have been lighting up the Arts Theater of the University with their rich professional perspectives, sharing their cumulative gifts of many years of ethically sound practice and service to Nigerian culture, theater, media, business and politics.

Mr. Yomi Layinka is the Chief Operating Officer of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State and a Senior adviser to the Oyo State Governor Senator Ajimobi; Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters, a leading Arts Entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Terra Kulture and Producing Director of Saro! The Musical, the highest grossing musical in recent Nigerian theater history; and Mrs. Taiwo Ajai-Lycett (OON), and Nigeria’s internationally-acclaimed actress for the stage and screen.

Kicking off the series on June 15, Layinka spoke on the influence, extent and impact of media on the world today while exploring the topic “Media: Opportunities and Challenges.”

Ajai-Lycett

He emphasized the power of exponential and abundance thinking, observing the enormous power that the social media has placed in the hands of the ordinary man and woman of our time. In his words, “So many times we are consumed by the problems around us when indeed we should be the very solution these problems need.

We should be exponential solvers of situations and problems.” Noting the change that has come to the world through media technology, he said there was a time when “it was believed that only kings, chiefs, Pharaohs and divinely instituted constitutions could solve problems.

This power was later transferred from them and became available to the industrialist. Now the power has been unleashed into the hands of every person, giving every individual, not just the institutions, the power to achieve solutions and change the world. The power to solve problems is no longer autocratized but now fully Democratized.”

He challenged the audience in the filled-theater hall to seek competence and integrity in ensuring success and service to their profession and humanity.

Bolanle Austen-Peters trained as a lawyer and worked for the United Nations in Geneva before turning to the business of Nigerian Arts and Culture. She has made a great success of it, promoting Nigerian culture through the arts and promoting the artists in a remarkable way.

Speaking on the subject of “The Business in Arts” she drew from her experience and accomplishments as Founder/CEO of Terra Kulture and Executive Producer of the Bolanle Austen Peters (BAP) Productions, which produced the hugely successful musical, Saro! There is also the record of seven years of weekly theatre presentations through the “Theater Terra” that provides a nurturing ground for young Theater artistes.

The celebrity art promoter and entrepreneur came on stage and she took flight teaching, sensitizing and inspiring the audience of students, lecturers and Professors, noting first and foremost the rudiments of building a strong business model.

“Building your art business as a self sustaining success depends on having a pure product, maintaining high integrity and sticking with the best practices of a sound business model,” she said. “A brand does not happen overnight, you have to believe in your product, nurture it with care and patience.

You have to keep at it until the world believes in it. When it is pure, of consistently high quality, then you have a brand and you have business.” She emphasized that Theater is indeed good business, revealing that she has concluded that more Theaters in the country will not only be a solid job creating venture, but also a highly profitable enterprise.

In closing a most inspired presentation, she warned that the students needed to become very good citizens and artistes first and foremost, to ensure they have a competitive edge. Grand matron of Nigerian actors, Mrs Taiwo Ajai Lycett, an Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR), owned the historic University of Ibadan Arts Theater on the third day of the series, speaking on “The Actor’s Worldview”.

She spoke, sang and acted all with the panache of a star. The word Diva does not capture her essence. Her mission was clear — to teach, motivate and entertain and all three she did with passion and class. She declared that as an actress she is a cultural evangelist, a missionary whose mission is acting and whose pulpit is the stage.

She gave the young and aspiring actors some insight into her mastery of the craft. First, “master your breath, master your mind and master your life,” she said. Commenting on the laziness of even some of the famous faces in Nigerian Theater and Nollywood, she insisted that language is central to communication and acting. Good diction is essential for clarity of communication and the specificity of dramatic action, regardless of the chosen language of the script. “You must enjoy the power of the moment.

Acting is having a grand idea of the world and a specific connection to the urgency of now.” She urged the students not to be afraid to be different and to stand for something. “The secret to success is service.

Good ideas with exceptional service, create abundance” In an impassioned response to the series, Mr. Muritala Sule, an accomplished and respected filmmaker and arts administrator hopes that our university system will wake up to this synergy between gown and town that has become so rare.

The curricula in the Universities, he observes, “have hardly changed from what it was in the eighties, when there was a strong fencing of Gown from Town such that Gown was known as the Ivory Tower from which people “came down” on graduation. “The World, Nigeria’s academia must be told, has moved on to such stage as make Gown go to Town to help harness the latter’s potential.

My observation is that the Nigerian Gown should rather GO TO TOWN in ALL sectors of the economy as is done in advanced cultures now.” Mr. Ben Tomoloju, foremost Arts Advocate, Theater Critic, Playwright and Director, and Mr. Richard Mofe Damijo, Nigeria’s leading screen actor, Lawyer and immediate past Commissioner for Arts and Culture in Delta State will round up the series with presentations on July 8 and 9 respectively. Reports by Kesiena Obue, Lawal Kolade and Doyinsola Okunola (Theater Arts Students, University of Ibadan)