A performance venue in limbo !

One of the great art hotspots of Abuja is the place popularly called Arts and Crafts Village. That of course is not its official title. It is rather the permanent site of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).

 In the middle of this great  art space is an amphitheater which has been out of any serious use for quite  a while.It was put to some use recently as rehearsal venue for the forthcoming production of Trials of Brother Jero scheduled to show in Abuja schools from Oct 2015

NCAC Trials 2015 gets its first outing!

On Thursday , the NCAC @ 40 Celebrations took another step forward with a special event for children. Tagged Children's Cultural Variety Day, it was conceived basically as one at which the children would perform to a dominantly children audience and so it was in the main.

Based on the fact that this event shares children interest with another NCAC@40 event,being the production of Trials of Brother Jero,the day's billing was adjusted to include a 15-minute except from that play.

Below are a few pix from the event :

The following are pictures from earlier rehearsals :

I am a prophet ! A prophet by birth and by inclination !

Set me down ! Set me down!! That is his house !

Chief Clerk, is that work !

If I were not one not to think evel of anyone,even you, ......

I am already late for work !

One pound, eight shillings......!

Mind you, the beach is hardly worth having these days!

Hopeful Brother Jero tries to sneak past Amope

Beware, Sister, that is a sinful way to speak !

You are going nowhere till you have done a little bit of my own work.

Is it not money you are going to the market for ?

The fish does smell a bit , doesn't it ?

Maybe it is you that have not a bath for a week !

NCAC is 40 !

The National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC was brought into legalistic existence in 1975 via Decree No 5 of that year . It has since then been in continuous business of promoting, presenting and preserving the living culture of Nigeria. It is therefore deservedly celebrating its 40th year of existence this year.

Quite a good number of activities have been outlined for this celebration and a few have already been held, notable among them The International Craft Fair, a special edition of its 7-year old AFAC among others.

From its early years, the NCAC has been very conscious of its responsibility for effective demographic coverage of the nation's citizenry in the delivery of its services. Thus children and youth are given a special place. Amongst the services specially designed for this demographic bracket is the Schools Drama program by which NCAC puts up a performance of one or more plays recommended for Secondary School external examinations.

By a fluke of fate, the same play by which this program was launched in 1982, viz Wole Soyinka's Trials of Brother Jero is in the schools syllabus this year and has been selected by the NCAC Performing Arts Department for performance in the Schools Drama component of the establishment's 40 years anniversary.

Please come along as we feed you information on the various actions that have been and will be taken towards the actualisation of this laudable project.