Lagos Theatre Festival to create platform for young artistes, organisers say

By Mateen Badru
Lagos, Jan. 20, 2020

The organisers of Lagos Theatre Festival (LTF) on Monday said that the 7th edition would create a platform for young performing artistes to showcase their talents.

The organisers, who spoke during a press conference at the Freedom Park in Lagos said that the festival would enable artistes express themselves unhindered.

The festival, which will hold from Feb. 27 to March 1; is created to promote the presentation of theatre in unconventional spaces.

Olasupo Sasore, the festival chairman, said that the festival would support theatre-makers and producers to expand their practice beyond the traditional theatre space.

“The Lagos Theatre Festival is an annual event. This year’s edition, supported by the British Council, is aimed at exceeding bounds.

“We also have the Lagos Theatre Festival Foundation also constituted to open up a platform in the industry for people to express themselves.

“The festival will also deepen the market in Lagos and portray it as the home of artistic expression,” Sasore, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State said.

Also, the Festival Director, Bikiya Graham-Douglas, said that the festival would start with over 420 shows, 42,800 overall attendance, 50 workshops; 260 production companies.

She added that no less than 15 countries would be expected to participate.

“This festival will create a platform for many young performing artistes. We want local production companies to see Lagos Theatre Festival as their home.

“This will be a platform for networking and creation of opportunities.

“It is a vibrant industry and the event is doing everything possible to support artistes and also gather new audience.

“The festival is also a platform to tell our authentic stories through the productions you see,” she said.

Similarly, the artistic director for the festival, Lydia Sobogun, while explaining the ‘out of bounds’ theme for the edition, said she was thinking out of the box.

“We will be thinking conventionally to impact positively on the society,” she said.

She added that the venues for the festival would be the Freedom Park, African Artistes Foundation, Alliance and National Museum, Onikan, Lagos.

NAN reports that the LTF partnered the British Council in 2013 as part of its ambition of fostering exchange and collaboration between Nigerian and British artists through the presentation of high quality Nigerian and British theatre plays.