Unveiling Crown Troupe’s big masquerade

He had just finished rehearsing with the Crown Troupe of Africa and students of the University of Abuja for the 400-year anniversary of William Shakespeare, when this reporter trailed him to his Abuja hotel room.

In company of British Council’s staff, who facilitated the project, Segun Adefila watched from the corner, as his ‘boys’ drilled students of the University of Abuja in dance-drama, in preparation for the Abuja leg of the touring theatre. Few minutes later, the rehearsals were over and the students returned to their campus, while members of Crown troupe retired for the day.

Though the founder and ‘big boss’ of Crown Troupe, Adefila’s room was home for all, people entered at will and he never complained. From what transpired in his room that day, it was obvious they have bonded so well. You need to see the humour and love that exist between Adefila and his troupe; he’s like a father to them all. You could hardly differentiate boys from girls; they all rolled together.

Just when we were to commence the interview, another group trooped in, this time, with a basket of food; it was dinnertime and everyone was exited.

“You can go and have your food,” Adefila said, as the troupe swaggered out in a rhythmic movement that gave them out as professional dancers.

“This project is courtesy of the British Council. It’s just coincidental because, this year is the 20th anniversary of Crown Troupe. Yan Brailowsky came through the British Council to Nigeria to hold a masters workshop for directors because, British Council started a project called Lagos Theatre Festival. So, I met him and we got talking. After a while, he told me he would love to run something with us. So, I told him we would be interested in talking a show, touring the country; that would be a dream come true,” Adefila said.

To make that dream come true, Yan wrote a proposal for the celebration of 400-years of Shakespeare to British Council.

“He said, ‘Listen, Shakespeare is 400 years today, let’s do one of his plays with Crown Troupe of Africa and give it a Nigerian adaptation.’ That’s how we started. For me, the year just became very exciting,” he enthused.

Being what he is, Adefile opted for a Nigerian adaptation of the novel, which he translated to pidgin and entitled it Love at War.

“It’s been exciting because, we’ve been to Lagos State University where we worked with the students and had a workshop with them. Dance, drama, music… we fused all of them into a performance. We took the same story to University of Calabar, but changed the name, the songs and those things. Then we are here in Abuja for the same show with the students of University of Abuja.”

Besides, Crown Troupe is working with the Goethe Institut Lagos on a play, Exception and The Rule for the Lagos Festival this month.

“We will round off with Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. So, the year is not as bad as it was few years ago,” he said, with hues of satisfaction

The Crown Troupe of Africa is a dance-theatre company comprising artistes whose forte is the creation of new, but socially relevant works.
Established in June 1996, the company of artistes, who share a common belief in the viability of the arts as a tool for social re-engineering, a major motive of our dedication to creating works that are socially relevant, thought provoking and empowering.

The troupe explores the arts genres of dance, drama, music, poetry as well as visual arts in their creations with the aim of achieving a proper balance between the functional and aesthetic values of African total theatre. Over the years, the troupe has been involved in various artistic enterprises organised locally and internationally.

“Huddled in one sitting room, we sat, talked and decided to start a group- just like that!

This sitting room or parlour as we prefer to call it belonged to the mother of one of us. It was her own flat in the house of her husband and father of this member. The patriarch of the household where the journey physically began is himself a trailblazing musician of international repute. He is non-other than the King himself, King Sunny Ade. This kind mother popularly known as Iya Ronke, who allowed us the use of her flat, has transited, but her motherly gesture has not and cannot be erased,” Adefila said.

Asked what he was thinking when he came up with the idea of forming Crown Troupe, he said, “Thank God I wasn’t thinking them; if I were thinking, I wouldn’t have done this. I feel when you think, you become analytical; there was no room for that. If I had done that, you think about the terrain, the hostility towards the profession you are going into and all that. So, it was an age where you thought you were a Super man; you could change the world.”

Initially, it was all about singing and dancing for fun, but along the line, it became a serious business.

“We just loved to sing, but as time went on, it began to metamorphose into something more serious. I had spent some years on the street without going to school; after my O level, I just stayed. But when I got back into art, I decided to go for a certificate in drama and then for a degree. All of these experiences and educational background started changing the whole thing,” he said.

You started theatre before going to school?
“Long before education; the background is that I come from a traditional masquerade family. I come from a royal family, so, I’ve been exposed to the traditional masquerade from childhood; I had my own masquerade as a child. While in primary school, I was acting and dancing; I did the same during my secondary school days.”

Leaving secondary school, young Segun was left to make his choices and he chose to pursue a career in theatre.

“As a young man in the kind of neigbourhood where I grew up, the world was open; we had a lot of options. There was University of Lagos, there was Yabatech, there was College of Education, there was Project Time, and of course there was street gangsterism, armed robbery, there were lots of things to choose from.”

For Adefila, art was just something that came naturally.

“When I got into it, I was like, ‘ah, this is a lifeline, this is what I wanted all my life.’ So, there was no time to think about the risk and discipline involved. What came to mind was for me to go and enjoy myself,” he said.

When he enrolled at the University of Lagos for a degree in Theatre Arts, Adefila was never interested in using his certificate to secure a white-collar job. Instead, he was more interested in acquiring knowledge to hone his art.

“I’ve never done anything in my life outside theatre, but I’ve always had this dream that I’m going to be very, very rich. That has been there, but how it’s going to happen, I’m sure it’s not going to happen through crime. Theatre is just another life; it takes you over and you are gone. Sometimes, you feel you are rich; sometimes you feel like, ‘why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

As for his second Class Upper degree in Theatre Arts, “I just kept it somewhere; I’ve never applied for a job in my life. While school was going on, I was practicing and studying. So, the moment I was done with school, I faced theatre. Fortunately, I happened to grow up in the neigbourhood that needs a platform to harness talents of young people and Crown Troupe became that platform,” he said.

Before Crown Troupe, Adefila was part of a troupe called Black Image in 1995. But by 1996, he got fed up and started his own troupe.

“We started with no drums, no instruments, but a barber close to where we rehearsed brought a gong to us and said, ‘I’ve been hearing you people sing and dance with no instruments. Well, I have nothing, but I’ve got this gong.’ It was that crazy. I was ready to pay people to perform for them because; this is just what I wanted to do. Sometimes, when people pay me, you feel like, ‘why are you paying me for enjoying myself,” he enthused.

However, it was never an easy task starting Crown Troupe, couples with the criticisms and not soo good commentaries from neighbours.

“People said, ‘don’t go near them. It’s a secrete cult; they are bad people. How can a young man wake up in the morning and be carrying drums around, wasting his time. They said a whole lot of things, but we just kept going without even knowing why. That’s why I said, if we had thought about it, we wouldn’t have gone into it.”

To a large extent, Crown Troupe practically drove Adefila back to school.

“Something just told me it’s beyond just climbing the stage to entertain; we had to study. Suddenly, the works of Fela assumed a new meaning with school; Ogunde and Soyinka’s works started making sense to me, including my masquerade background.”

Beyond just for entertainment, Crown Troupe has become a tool for public enlightenment and education. They became famous for their ground breaking, unique and innovative rendition of works that are flexible enough to be performed in conventional and unconventional performance spaces.

“It’s like one planned it. As time went on, it started changing form, shape. So, it went beyond, ‘I just want to be happy,’ to ‘hey, these boys, they have energy; you have to harness their energy.’ I remember walking with one of the boys one night, we were going through a street and there was a fight going on; young boys were breaking bottles. And the chap with me said, ‘Bros, I don’t blame them because, they don’t have 7am call time.’ And that touched me; it was like somebody giving you a medal. I couldn’t explain to the young chap what he just did.”

He continued: “I was like, ‘Oh, this is what we are doing.’ Our normal routine is very tight; you have to be around by 7am for physical training. When they are done, you have to carry one script or the other, where do you have time for frivolities,” he quizzed.

For Adefila, though art is a beautiful space that allows one be anything he/she wishes, you have to be focused to get the best out of it.

“It’s the only place you can’t afford to lose your head; you have to be intact because, who wants to listen to you if you are not intact? Say whatever you want to say about Fela, but you are going to quote him today because, he saw it, he said it and it’s happening. Sometimes, while we are working, they don’t even know what we are doing until they go out and people begin to understand what they know.”

From dancing for fun, members of Crown Troupe have acquired enough knolwdge to the extent that they now teach dance and drama to university students, especially during the 400 years of Shakespeare celebration in Nigeria.

“I’ve been in here trying to read a script that I want to translate; they are the ones taking the students of University of Abuja. About 80 per cent of them have never been to the university, but they are the ones taking university students in dance, drama and others.”

According to Adefila, government should pay attention to creating platforms for young people to express themselves.

“There are platforms and people are wasting away; when are we going to have schools of drama, dance and all that? In advanced nations, such schools drive their entertainment industry. It’s a different thing to go to the university and study drama, but go to a school of drama, you have to be very rich; Nigerians can’t afford to do that. We really don’t need a Police Force if we get our bearing right,” he said.

On how he comes up with their scripts, Adefila explained that, “you have to be socially conscious to function well in Crown Troupe. So, if you were just being an average guy or girl in the group, after a while, you will start thinking because, you are coming to tell us a story of what you encountered in danfo or molue; that’s how we write our scripts. So, you are out there on the street; you are seeing thing that the audience are going to see. How do you weave it together? How do you make us laugh and reflect about it? So, for me, that became what art should be, but that does not negate the fact that art could be something else; people can decide to do any other thing they wish to do.”

From the level of acceptance the group has received from within and outside the country, it seems the breakthrough has finally come?

“I still feel people are just tolerating us. Nigeria is an interesting country; if you are consistent, they will like you. I feel that if you are truthful to yourself, nature will do you a favour; these things will just happen. I know we had doors shut in our faces; we had lots of rejections, the years of not being noticed by anybody. And if what you wanted was to become a superstar or to be noticed, you just give up after three years. But no, that was never our drive; one just wanted to do it; we were not concerned about anything.

Over the years, the group has trained young talents, who have also gone to set up their own theatre group with the hope of replicating the wining formula of Crown Troupe.

“Oh, they have all moved on. In fact, the set of people you know, they’ve all moved on to form their own groups. For instance, while on this tour, I had two shows handled by former members of Crown Troupe; it could be music or dance. I was cracking a joke the other time, that after 20 years, one should be able to show at least one coaster bus to say this is what we have after consistent work. But sometimes, when looking at things materially, there’s this other part that authenticates the madness,” he said.

He continues: “The society looks at you because of what you own, so, if you don’t own much, they look down at you. But this same society respects you, takes care of you, protect you, not because of what you own, but because of what you know and what they see from you. For instance, why would anybody bother to come and see our show? What placed Crown Troupe where it is today? We didn’t have a chance at the beginning, but if you prove that you deserve a chance, they we will give you a chance; that’s the situation,” he said.

Just recently, Footprints, the children arm of Crown Troupe, performed for the visiting German President at the Freedom Park, Lagos.

“Incidentally, the president was going to visit and they said, ‘come and perform and we met him.’ In fact, five of those kids were in Germany for another dance project,” he noted.

Recalling his days of humble beginning, Adefila said, “around 1997 when there was no computer, we would go and type these two liners: ‘we are Crown Troupe; we are entertainers. If you have any event, please invite us.’ We would make photocopies and use biro to write the address. I would trek from Bariga to Ikeja, Opebi, Adeniyi Jones… we would go to all the companies there. We trekked to and fro and when you come back, you will head for rehearsals. I remember one occasion where I had N50; that was all I had. With that, I could buy bread and bean and a bottle of coke or use it to transport myself from Bariga to Ikeja. But I would take the former; I usually trekked, knowing that I have N50 I can fall back to.”

From sharing puff puff with sachet water to having cabin biscuits and minerals, Crown Troupe has reached the level that it now pays stipends to members.

“When they finish a show, some of them go as far as Isolo, Ikotun Egbe, Ikorodu and they still come for rehearsal the following day. As much as we are passionate about the arts, it get’s to the point where they need to show something for it; they have pressure from their families,” he said.

For now, the big picture for Adefila is to ensure that nothing is wasted in Nigeria when it comes to talent.

“If I become an entrepreneur, I want to have community theatre all over Nigeria; it makes me as rich as I want to be, if money is my interest. I will be employing people as well. So, if community will have their own theatre and people will have a place where they can gather and see something about them, that will be great.”

For theatre artiste, not everybody wants a white-collar job.

“Not everybody wants to be an engineer, pilot, journalist… there are lots of young people, who just want to do arts. So, the big picture is to create that kind of platform because, that’s where I’m happy.”