The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), has appealed for collaborations and support to promote its activities, saying the association is back and will support young actors in the country.

Led by its Acting President, Lagos Chapter, Erelu Ikubuwaje Mary, the body said it’s chatting a new path that will better reposition the guild in the state and bring back the lost glory of the Guild.

Erelu said that the Actors Guild of Nigeria is committed to strengthening the Nigerian film industry, promoting professionalism among actors, and contributing positively to society through its craft and humanitarian efforts.

“We believe that a strong partnership with Guardian Newspaper will help us share impactful stories, celebrate creative excellence, and project the positive image of Nollywood to a wider audience.

“This visit is therefore not just a courtesy call, but the beginning of what we hope will become a mutually beneficial relationship between our organisations. Together, we can promote creativity, culture, and community development.

We are appealing for visibility and collaboration for our programmes which include trainings which are free, health walk, public awareness and others.

AGN comprises every tribe and it makes it differ from other guilds and it’s about being a good actor. To become a member, every aspiring member must go through training, obtain its form.

“None of our members will work without being paid or molested. Anyone not a member of the guild is wasting his or her time. As a producer, my movie will not be accepted if I use actors who are not in any guild, and, that’s why we are out to create awareness.

On how AGN regulates conducts of producers and rates for audition, she said: “There are moves by the federation to regulate so many things in the industry, and making moves that will ensure that directors, producers speak in one language but we are dealing with the actors first because they are in the majority.

“There are a lot of talks on social media about the Nollywood industry that are not positive so, it’s important to have a platform to pass correct information.

On what the Guild is doing to attract new members, Director, Guild Service, Emmanuel Onyika, said: “What thing about this business is that you have fun while doing your job. You must create activities for members to make them happy and part of what we do to bring back the fun is Actors Week which is a week-long programme where we have talent hunt, cultural display, modelling and others; and we have Actors Night which is a night actors come together to celebrate and merry.

We monitor our members on set; we monitor the food they eat, accommodation, work schedule to avoid working overtime. We can’t afford to see actors die due to over work. Every last Thursday of the month is a no-shoot day and we mandated that people must go on break every Sunday to rest so they can be refreshed.

The national president of the guild, Abubakar Yakubu Sanusi is building on the legacy of his predecessor, Dr Emeka Rollas Ejezie and we are doing with the national body set for us. AGN in Lagos will rise again.