Wole Oguntokun
Encyclopedia
Wole Oguntokun is a Nigerian playwright, stage and film director, as well as a theatre administrator and newspaper columnist.
; Master of Laws (LL.M) and Masters in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies, M.H.R.S. from the University of Lagos
. He has been called to the Nigerian Bar.
The Muson Centre thereafter hosted plays he wrote and directed including "Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka" in May 2002; "Rage of the Pentecost" - August 2002; "Ladugba!" -September 2002; and "The Other Side" - November 2002.
At the same venue in March 2003, he produced and directed his adaptation of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' titled "Piper, Piper"; and his play on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, "Gbanja Roulette", in May and July 2003.
In December 2003, he featured the matriarch of Nigerian Drama, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, in his stage play, "The Inheritors". Other plays of his produced at the Muson Centre include "Prison Chronicles" in March 2004, "The Other Side" starring Kate Henshaw-Nuttall in November 2005; "The Sound and The Fury" in April 2006; "The Inheritors" featuring Joke Silva
in August 2006, and "Anatomy of a Woman" featuring Stella Damasus-Aboderin
in March 2007.
Considered a stage activist by some, he also produced and directed plays by other playwrights at the Muson Centre. They include "The Trials Of Brother Jero" by Wole Soyinka
on the 2nd and 3rd of July, 2005) and Femi Osofisan's "Once upon Four Robbers" in December 2004.
In July 2007, he initiated a collaboration with the Arts Centre known as Terra Kulture, on Victoria Island, Lagos and commenced the "Theatre@Terra", becoming its founding producer and artistic director and turning it into one of Nigeria's most consistent venues for Theatre, with plays being produced every Sunday at the venue. Oguntokun ceased to be the sole producer of Theatre @ Terra in January 2011 though he continues to direct plays at the venue from time to time.
Oguntokun has produced and directed plays by many of Nigeria's best-known playwrights including Wole Soyinka's (Kongi's Harvest
, Madmen & Specialists, The Lion and the Jewel, The Swamp Dwellers, Death and the King's Horseman, The Strong Breed, Childe Internationale, Camwood on the Leaves, The Jero Plays); Femi Osofisan's Morountodun, Once Upon Four Robbers, The Engagement, The Inspector and the Hero; Professor Ola Rotimi's The Gods are not to Blame; Zulu Sofola's King Emene, Wedlock of the gods, Wizard of Law as well as Athol Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is Dead
Oguntokun was official consultant to the British Council/Lagos and the crew of the National Theatre in London for the purpose of that National Theatre's production of Wole Soyinka's play, "Death and the King's Horseman" in April and May 2009.
Oguntokun was the General Secretary to the Lagos State arm of the Association of Nigerian Authors in 2003/2004 and is the writer of "laspapi", a blog on Arts and Society. He has been described as one of 300 people, events, places and things that shaped 2010 (in Nigeria)
The performances of his plays have been supported by The Society for Family Health (SFH), The Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, Pathfinder International, The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) amongst many others. His play, "Gbanja Roulette" was presented at the Shehu Yar'Adua Musa Centre, Abuja in October 2003 with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo as Guest of Honour and again at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock in January 2004. "Gbanja Roulette" and "Audu's Way", both plays written by Oguntokun with HIV/AIDS as the subject matter were performed to the Lagos State, Edo State and Anambra State Houses of Legislature in separate productions sponsored by the Society for Family Health (SFH). Gbanja Roulette has since become an official part of the syllabus at the University of Lagos.
Oguntokun directed Ola Rotimi's "The gods are not to blame" for the Muson Centre International Festival of 2006 and was commissioned by the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) to head the writing team that adapted Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” for the Nigerian populace. The end result was V Monologues-The Nigerian Story, a production which he directed in March 2008 in productions at the National Arts Theatre, Terra Kulture, The Muson Centre (all in Lagos) and also at The Women's Development Centre and The Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Centre in Abuja.
Oguntokun created the annual "Season of Soyinka" now approaching its 6th Season in which plays by the Nobel Laureate are featured for a period spanning at least a month, and "The Legend Series" in which evergreen plays by 1st and 2nd generation Nigerian dramatists are featured. He is the author of the published poetry collection, "Local Boy and other poems". Oguntokun wrote, directed and produced the unprecedented "The Tarzan Monologues" - a dramatic stage-rendering of Monologues by men touching topics which include Religion, Politics, Erectile Dysfunction, Infidelity, Finances, Love and Marriage, Infant Mortality among many others. The performances were all Sundays in November 2009 and February 2010. This led to the production of The V. Monologues v. The Tarzan Monologues in which male and female actors duelled on stage in all the Sundays of March, September and October 2010 in Lagos-Nigeria as well as at the National Theatre, Ghana.
Oguntokun directed Aime Cesaire's "A Season in the Congo" for the Lagos State Government / UNESCO -sponsored "Black Heritage Festival" in April 2010 and his own play, The Waiting Room in the same festival in April 2011.
Early in 2010, Oguntokun was commissioned to write and direct a play on the life and times of Bishop Samuel Ajai Crowther, the first Black African Bishop of the Anglican Church, titled "Ajai The Boy Slave" made up of cast members from Britain and Nigeria. The play was performed at the Muson Centre in Lagos on the 19th and 21st of December 2010.
Oguntokun was one of five Nigerian Theatre Directors selected by the British Council to be part of a Nigerian Theatre Director's Residency/Workshop in the United Kingdom in May 2011. In August 2011, he was one of two Nigerians chosen to be British Council Delegates to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Oguntokun was a facilitator at the Theatre Directors Workshop organised as part of the Garden City Literary Festival in collaboration with the British Council in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in September 2011.
His play, "The Waiting Room", has been selected to be presented at FESTINA, the annual celebration of stage plays by the National Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) from Friday the 28th of October until Sunday the 30th of October 2011.
Oguntokun's theatre company, "Renegade Theatre" was one of five African theatre companies and the only West African one, selected to be part of the Shakespeare Cultural Olympiad at the Globe Theatre in London in April-June 2012. 37 international touring theatre companies will present each of Shakespeare's 37 plays in a different lanaguage. Oguntokun will be directing The Winter's Tale in Yoruba.
and ‘Living Free’ on MBI television (2002).
He also produced the television show on current affairs,
The Cutting Edge’ which ran on MBI in 2002.
Oguntokun was a Producer and Head Writer on Season II of the Pan-African Talk-Show, "Moments with Mo" and produced briefly on Season IV.
He continues to write the weekly column, "The Girl Whisperer" on gender relations in the Sunday Guardian, a column he has written since March 2007 and is a member of the Governing Council of the [Committee for Relevant Art] (CORA), a leading Arts and Culture Advocacy Group in Nigeria.
Oguntokun is the Chief Executive Officer of Jason Media and Renegade Theatre.
Education
Bachelor of Laws from the Obafemi Awolowo UniversityObafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University is a government-owned and -operated Nigerian university. The university is in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria...
; Master of Laws (LL.M) and Masters in Humanitarian and Refugee Studies, M.H.R.S. from the University of Lagos
University of Lagos
The University of Lagos - popularly known as Unilag - is a federal government university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos, Lagos State, southern Nigeria...
. He has been called to the Nigerian Bar.
Theatre
Oguntokun emerged as a player on the Nigerian Theatre landscape in September 1998 with his productions of his satirical stage drama, "Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka?", which was a lampoon of the Nigerian Military in governance. The first productions were put up at the University of Lagos' Arts Theatre in September. In October and December of 1998, he produced the same play at the Muson Centre, Lagos, one of the foremost arts venues in Nigeria.The Muson Centre thereafter hosted plays he wrote and directed including "Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka" in May 2002; "Rage of the Pentecost" - August 2002; "Ladugba!" -September 2002; and "The Other Side" - November 2002.
At the same venue in March 2003, he produced and directed his adaptation of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' titled "Piper, Piper"; and his play on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, "Gbanja Roulette", in May and July 2003.
In December 2003, he featured the matriarch of Nigerian Drama, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, in his stage play, "The Inheritors". Other plays of his produced at the Muson Centre include "Prison Chronicles" in March 2004, "The Other Side" starring Kate Henshaw-Nuttall in November 2005; "The Sound and The Fury" in April 2006; "The Inheritors" featuring Joke Silva
Joke Silva
Joke Silva is a Nigerian actress and director. She has received several awards and nominations for her work as an actress including the awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2006, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the African Movie Academy Awards...
in August 2006, and "Anatomy of a Woman" featuring Stella Damasus-Aboderin
Stella Damasus-Aboderin
Stella Damasus-Aboderin is a Nigerian actress and singer. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the African Movie Academy Awards in 2009.-Early life:Damasus-Aboderin was born Stella Ojukwu in Asaba, Delta State...
in March 2007.
Considered a stage activist by some, he also produced and directed plays by other playwrights at the Muson Centre. They include "The Trials Of Brother Jero" by Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
on the 2nd and 3rd of July, 2005) and Femi Osofisan's "Once upon Four Robbers" in December 2004.
In July 2007, he initiated a collaboration with the Arts Centre known as Terra Kulture, on Victoria Island, Lagos and commenced the "Theatre@Terra", becoming its founding producer and artistic director and turning it into one of Nigeria's most consistent venues for Theatre, with plays being produced every Sunday at the venue. Oguntokun ceased to be the sole producer of Theatre @ Terra in January 2011 though he continues to direct plays at the venue from time to time.
Oguntokun has produced and directed plays by many of Nigeria's best-known playwrights including Wole Soyinka's (Kongi's Harvest
Kongi's Harvest
Kongi's Harvest is a 1965 play written Wole Soyinka. It premiered in Dakar at the Negro Arts Festival. It was later made into a film of the same name film of the same name, directed by Ossie Davis.-Plot:...
, Madmen & Specialists, The Lion and the Jewel, The Swamp Dwellers, Death and the King's Horseman, The Strong Breed, Childe Internationale, Camwood on the Leaves, The Jero Plays); Femi Osofisan's Morountodun, Once Upon Four Robbers, The Engagement, The Inspector and the Hero; Professor Ola Rotimi's The Gods are not to Blame; Zulu Sofola's King Emene, Wedlock of the gods, Wizard of Law as well as Athol Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is Dead
Oguntokun was official consultant to the British Council/Lagos and the crew of the National Theatre in London for the purpose of that National Theatre's production of Wole Soyinka's play, "Death and the King's Horseman" in April and May 2009.
Oguntokun was the General Secretary to the Lagos State arm of the Association of Nigerian Authors in 2003/2004 and is the writer of "laspapi", a blog on Arts and Society. He has been described as one of 300 people, events, places and things that shaped 2010 (in Nigeria)
The performances of his plays have been supported by The Society for Family Health (SFH), The Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, Pathfinder International, The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) amongst many others. His play, "Gbanja Roulette" was presented at the Shehu Yar'Adua Musa Centre, Abuja in October 2003 with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo as Guest of Honour and again at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock in January 2004. "Gbanja Roulette" and "Audu's Way", both plays written by Oguntokun with HIV/AIDS as the subject matter were performed to the Lagos State, Edo State and Anambra State Houses of Legislature in separate productions sponsored by the Society for Family Health (SFH). Gbanja Roulette has since become an official part of the syllabus at the University of Lagos.
Oguntokun directed Ola Rotimi's "The gods are not to blame" for the Muson Centre International Festival of 2006 and was commissioned by the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) to head the writing team that adapted Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” for the Nigerian populace. The end result was V Monologues-The Nigerian Story, a production which he directed in March 2008 in productions at the National Arts Theatre, Terra Kulture, The Muson Centre (all in Lagos) and also at The Women's Development Centre and The Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Centre in Abuja.
Oguntokun created the annual "Season of Soyinka" now approaching its 6th Season in which plays by the Nobel Laureate are featured for a period spanning at least a month, and "The Legend Series" in which evergreen plays by 1st and 2nd generation Nigerian dramatists are featured. He is the author of the published poetry collection, "Local Boy and other poems". Oguntokun wrote, directed and produced the unprecedented "The Tarzan Monologues" - a dramatic stage-rendering of Monologues by men touching topics which include Religion, Politics, Erectile Dysfunction, Infidelity, Finances, Love and Marriage, Infant Mortality among many others. The performances were all Sundays in November 2009 and February 2010. This led to the production of The V. Monologues v. The Tarzan Monologues in which male and female actors duelled on stage in all the Sundays of March, September and October 2010 in Lagos-Nigeria as well as at the National Theatre, Ghana.
Oguntokun directed Aime Cesaire's "A Season in the Congo" for the Lagos State Government / UNESCO -sponsored "Black Heritage Festival" in April 2010 and his own play, The Waiting Room in the same festival in April 2011.
Early in 2010, Oguntokun was commissioned to write and direct a play on the life and times of Bishop Samuel Ajai Crowther, the first Black African Bishop of the Anglican Church, titled "Ajai The Boy Slave" made up of cast members from Britain and Nigeria. The play was performed at the Muson Centre in Lagos on the 19th and 21st of December 2010.
Oguntokun was one of five Nigerian Theatre Directors selected by the British Council to be part of a Nigerian Theatre Director's Residency/Workshop in the United Kingdom in May 2011. In August 2011, he was one of two Nigerians chosen to be British Council Delegates to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Oguntokun was a facilitator at the Theatre Directors Workshop organised as part of the Garden City Literary Festival in collaboration with the British Council in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in September 2011.
His play, "The Waiting Room", has been selected to be presented at FESTINA, the annual celebration of stage plays by the National Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) from Friday the 28th of October until Sunday the 30th of October 2011.
Oguntokun's theatre company, "Renegade Theatre" was one of five African theatre companies and the only West African one, selected to be part of the Shakespeare Cultural Olympiad at the Globe Theatre in London in April-June 2012. 37 international touring theatre companies will present each of Shakespeare's 37 plays in a different lanaguage. Oguntokun will be directing The Winter's Tale in Yoruba.
Television
Oguntokun independently produced and wrote the TV sit-coms, ‘Crossworld Blues’ on DBN TV (1999)and ‘Living Free’ on MBI television (2002).
He also produced the television show on current affairs,
The Cutting Edge’ which ran on MBI in 2002.
Oguntokun was a Producer and Head Writer on Season II of the Pan-African Talk-Show, "Moments with Mo" and produced briefly on Season IV.
Documentary
Oguntokun wrote and produced a documentary on inner city violence on young females, "The Sounds Of Silence", which was commissioned by the Ajegunle Community Project (ACP) (2009).He continues to write the weekly column, "The Girl Whisperer" on gender relations in the Sunday Guardian, a column he has written since March 2007 and is a member of the Governing Council of the [Committee for Relevant Art] (CORA), a leading Arts and Culture Advocacy Group in Nigeria.
Oguntokun is the Chief Executive Officer of Jason Media and Renegade Theatre.