Michael Etherton - The Development of African Drama

This book made available by the Internet Archive.

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Acknowledgements

This book is the result of a continual sharpening of perceptions shared by friends and colleagues through discussion, team teaching and criticism of each others work. I am most deeply indebted to John Reed who, as professor of English in the University of Zambia where I first taught, and subsequently, has shaped my thinking over the past fourteen years. I am especially grateful to him for his painstaking criticism of the manuscript while he encouraged me to complete it. I am also grateful to James Currey who has encouraged my creative writing, and helped me to understand, practically and theoretically, the problems of publishing African plays while providing me with the opportunity to put my own ideas about this into practice. I am greatly indebted to my colleagues in drama at Ahmadu Bello University: Brian Crow and Salihu Bappa, Tony Humphries, Oga Abah and Saddiq Balewa, Tunde Lakoju and Sandy Arkhurst. We have worked together collectively and creatively; in addition, they not only read and criticized chapters but also gave me time to write by taking on an extra burden of work. I must also acknowledge stimulating interaction with other colleagues in ABU and with our dram.a students. Many colleagues elsewhere have offered and given help, especially Atta Annan Mensah in Ghana who has helped me to understand the function of African music in performance, and Ross Kidd in Canada who has opened to me a broader Third World context through contacts and travel opportunities.

The editors of HULA, Michael Crowder and Paul Richards, encouraged me to write the book I wanted to write; though of course I am responsible for any inadequacies and errors.

Finally, I wish to thank Joe Eke Udo for readily making available to me the secretarial facilities of the English department, ABU. I sincerely thank Joan and Franklyn Bellamy and Margery Abrahams who made their houses available to me to write; and my long-suffering family who made many sacrifices, often unacknowledged by me. Zaria, July 1981

Glossary

This glossary contains short definitions of some of the theatre terms which occur in the text. Words which appear in bold print within definitions in the glossary have a separate entry.

Act (n.IpL -s) a division of a play into sections. European theatre has tended to divide plays into either one, two, three, four or five acts, labelling the divisions thus: Act 1, Act 2 etc., depending on the number of divisions. In time, playwrights have come to structure the action of their plays in accordance with the division into acts. (See also scene.) To act (v.) is to assume a role.

Action {n. sing.) refers to events within a play. E.g. the action of the play takes place inside a prison.

Alienation effect {n. sing.) the English phrase for the German Verfremdungseffekt, V-effekt, which was the term coined by the playwright Bertolt Brecht, for a type of acting and theatre presentation which avoids creating the illusion of reality on stage in order to make the audience more critical of the action in the play. For instance, (1) the actor does not become the character he or she is playing, (2) all the technical devices by which illusion is created are in full view of the audience, and (3) the action can be stopped in order to sing songs about relevant issues.

Allegory (n. sing.) and allegorical (adj.) in drama and theatre, allegory is the process by which abstractions, like wealth, salvation, are made concrete on stage, using characterization (including the use of costumes, masks, props) and story.

Anti-climax {n. sing.) see climax.

Apron (n. sing.) that area of the stage between the proscenium arch and the audience in a conventional theatre building. (See illustration on page 16.)

Art Theatre also art theatre {n. sing.; as pL, Art theatres, refers to theatre buildings) a term somewhat loosely used to refer to either (1) experimental dramatic production by intellectual playwrights and theatre artists (in this sense a new theatre), or (2) established elitist theatres which produce the great works of the

culture, including opera and ballet, in contra-distinction to the new theatre; or (3) both'! and 2, especially in societies where all receive state subsidies and are, therefore, differentiated from the purely commercial theatre.

Aside {nJpl. -s) a comment made by an actor in role which is clearly audible to the audience but is not meant to be heard by the other characters on the stage.

Backcloth {nJpl. -s; also N.Am., backdrop) a large piece of fabric, generally with scenes painted upon it, which is behind the actors, dividing the scene from the back-stage area (except in a theatre-in-the-round production). Useful also in outdoor performances. (See illustration on page 19.) Flats can serve the same purpose as backcloths.

Black-out {n. sing.) the total elimination of light on stage and in the auditorium, usually to indicate the ending of a scene. Some playwrights conclude scenes in their play-scripts with the term black-out. (See also curtain.)

Box-office {n. sing.) the place in the foyer of a conventional European theatre where tickets for performances are purchased. A more idiomatic use is in the sense of the amount of money taken for a performance, e.g. the box-office was good tonight. In anglophone West Africa the more common word for box-office is gate.

Cast (n. sing.) generally refers to the group of actors who each have a part or parts in a play. Sometimes refers to the list of characters in a play, an abbreviation of cast-list. To cast (v.) is to give actors their roles, or characters they are to play, in a particular production.

Character {n.lpl. 5 ) a person within a play; people whom the play is about: e.g. the character of a corrupt party secretary; a group of prisoners whose lives the play explores. Characterization {n.) refers to the process by which the playwright creates the plays characters.

Choreography (n. sing.) the composition of the movements for a new dance or dance-mime, to be performed either by one person or by an ensemble of dancers. The choreographer choreographs the movements, working closely with the composer of the music for that dance.