ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/328 These are publications by academic staff and postgraduate students of Theatre Arts programme Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:15:01 GMT 2026-04-22T00:15:01Z ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/2320 Title: Managing the challenges and prospects of dance as a profitable vocation in Nigeria Authors: Ohenhen, S. Abstract: Generally, the choice of performing arts as a career and means of livelihood in Nigeria is a tough one. But to further narrow the choice down to dance and choreography, poses even greater challenges. Incidentally, dance contains viable economic opportunities as a sustainable vocation which ironically, not many previous literatures have examined. This paper, therefore, investigates the challenges and prospects in the choice of dance as a career and sustainable means of livelihood in Nigeria. Various literature on the background to dance and on the economic viability of the performing arts and culture, in general, were explored. The primary data for the study was also garnered from one-on-one in-depth interviews and participant observation. Dance, given its artistic and entrepreneurial components, is a sustainable career choice in Nigeria. Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the arts and culture in Nigeria would find this research a veritable resource document. Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/2320 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1473 Title: Effective talent management: A panacea to self-sustainable career and vocation in the performing arts and culture industry in Nigeria Authors: Ohenhen, S. Abstract: The performing arts is a professional discipline with immense career and vocational opportunities and potentialities. These opportunities span both paid-employment and self-employment ventures that can be optimized by performing arts scholars and practitioners. Ironically, there exists an alarming rate of employment and entrepreneurial instability in the sector in that most performing artists and artistes do not seem to be able to sustain gainful engagement over a lifetime or at least over a reasonable long haul without them either veering into other seemingly more lucrative and sustainable means of livelihood, or completely fading into oblivion This situation is often due to lack of deliberate attention to effective talent management, which incidentally is a critical success factor in the more conventional industries, be it an entrepreneurial pursuit or a gainful employment. This paper examines talent management as an effective intervention in the quest for enduring and sustainable vocation or career in the performing arts and culture industry, against the background of the persisting doubts over the economic and commercial viability of the sector. In-depth one-on-one interviews, focused group discussions and library research methods, are relied on, and data collected subjected to content analysis. The paper concludes that there is a habitual lack of concerted and consistent attention to effective talent management by both artist employees and artist self-employees in the Nigerian performing arts and culture sector, as against the practice in the conventional industries, and that, more than any other factor, this is largely contributory to the perennial self-sustaining career and vocational deficiencies faced by performing artistes and artists in Nigeria. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1473 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1472 Title: Counter-terrorism and socio-political acculturation in Ahmed Yerima’s heart of stone and pari Authors: Ohenhen, S. Abstract: The writer, says Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, “must be a writer in politics”. This is an authoritative positioning, also in line with the Marxists’ maxim that the writer, and particularly the writer in the arts and in the theatre more particularly, must be read, or seen to be contributing committed and concerted commentaries to the day-to-day socio-political issues prevalent in their geo-political environment. Against this background, the typical contemporary Nigerian dramatists stand out in their commentaries through their works, toward the social, economic, political and communal acculturation and reengineering of the Nigerian space. This paper examines the themes of anti-terrorism and socio-political acculturation in Ahmed Yerima’s Heart of Stone and Pari, against the background of the overwhelming national challenge of growing insurgencies, terrorism, and impunities, in various parts of the Nigerian geo-political space. One-on-one interviews, case study analysis and focused group discussions, are largely employed, and data collected, subjected to content analysis. The selected Yerima’s works are instructively contributory to the socio-political acculturation and concientisation of the Nigerian polity against the ills of terrorism and growing insurgencies in the society Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1472 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1394 Title: Tragedy and African cosmic reality: Readings in Wole Soyinka’s death and the kings horseman and Esiaba Irobi’s the fronded circle Authors: Abakporo, P. C. Abstract: It is understandable why critics like Ruth Finnegan would not see drama or theatre in the make-up of Africa due to their approach to judging African theatricality from Aristotelian templates. Africa is a unique race. Their understanding of the world and their place in it forms the bedrock on which they live and relate with both themselves and their environment. Activities of both social and sacred nature are tightly linked to survival and balance in the cosmic realms. It is on this concept that Africa upholds communalistic living against the individualistic lifestyle of the West. This paper adopted the content analysis approach to reading the concept of African tragedy in the face of Afro-cosmic realities for authors like Finnegan who saw Africa as a barbaric race devoid of theatricality. It is observed that African tragedy goes beyond the fall from grace to grass, the predetermined nature of man’s existence, and the death of the individual. Although it recognizes these concepts in part, it treats them in the light of their implications for cosmic harmony and balance as typified in Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Esiaba Irobi’s The Fronded Circle. It concluded that any act of man that alters or attempts to alter the cyclic movement and relationship between the worlds of the living, the dead, and the unborn is tragic within the Afro-cosmic space and spells doom to survival of the erring world, not just to the individual. It is in the actions of this magnitude that African tragedy is located. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT ir.bowen.edu.ng:8181/jspui/handle/123456789/1394 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z