Thespian journey around climatic change

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/08/thespian-journey-around-climatic-change/

By 
EBELE ORAKPO

Phrases like climate change, global warming, carbon emission and greenhouse gases have become part of our everyday vocabulary, yet, so many people do not honestly know what they are all about. These days, we hear of earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, floods, typhoons, droughts, erosion, crop failure, intense heat/cold etc.

Some people have attributed this to the end-times, saying that the end of the world as we know it, is here. On the other hand, scientists believe that these changes occur as a result of the daily activities of man which affect the environment negatively.

To help bring home the message of climate change, its effects and how to mitigate them, a performer and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies,   University of Nigeria Nsukka, Mr. Greg Mbajiorgu, uses the medium of theatre because he believes that “more than any other medium of artistic expression, drama and theatre provide society access to a truthful recreation of both the adverse effects of climate change and its consequences on human lives and even on our

A Review of Mbajiorgu's Wake Up Everyone

Nigerian theatre mixes oil and climate, on the ground

By Nikolai Huckle

Wallace Heim writes:
http://www.cultura21.net/topics/climate/nigerian-theatre-mixes-oil-and-climate-on-the-ground-2 
 

“The Nigerian playwright and academic Greg Mbajiorgu got in touch with us after reading Robert Butler’s blogs on Ashdenizen on the difficulties of writing plays about climate change. Greg sent us his play, Wake Up Everyone, which has a preface quoting from this blog.

Wake Up Everyone began as a commission by the African Technology Policy Studies Network, Nairobi, Kenya for their international conference on climate change in Nigeria in 2009.

That policy world is represented in the main character, Maukwe Aladinma, a retired professor of agriculture, now attempting to get the local government in the rural Ndoli area to build flood defences and advising communal farmers on using organic waste and planting stronger, non-GMO seeds. The professor, too, is a dramatist. In a play-within-a-play, the actors of his theatre company rehearse scenes describing the effects of climate change, those happening now and those anticipated: rivers

NURESDEF AWARD WINNER

http://unn.edu.ng/news/2012-nuresdef-abstract

Greg Mbajiorgu Clenches First Position Overall in the Arts/ Humanities (Research Category) Of the 5^th Nigerian Universities Research and Development Fair (NURESDEF)

The University of Nigeria has taken the 2^nd position in overall performance at the NUC-organized Nigerian Universities Research and Development Fair (NURESDEF) held at the University Gymnasium hall of the Federal University of Technology, Gidan Kwano Campus, Minna, Niger State from October 8^th to 12^th, 2012.  The competitive fair meant for all universities in Nigeria was attended by mostly federal universities (including three from the Southeast zone which are Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike; The University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt). The host University, FUT, Minna, took first position in overall performance, while five universities took the third position in overall performance. They include Federal University, Lafia; University of Benin, Benin; University of Ilorin, Ilorin; University of Port Harcourt, and, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

In his keynote address during the occasion, the Director General, National Office for Technology

My experiment with solo and ecological theatre – Mbajiorgu

BY MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU

Greg Mbajiorgu

Twenty one years ago when Greg Mbajiorgu staged his solo drama, Prime Minister’s Son, little did he know that his modest adventure into that theatrical path inaugurated in the Nigeria by late Funsho Alabi and Tunji Sotimirini would eventually stand him out as an important playwright to watch.

Today, Mbajorgu, Senior lecturer in the School of Film and Dramatic Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka remains the only standing Nigerian playwright that has consistently staged and published a reference text in the dramatic genre of solo dramaturgy. Besides his interest in solo drama and performance, Mbajiorgu, who also writes poetry has again, trailed another important path by directing his creative imagination to the writing and staging of an ecological drama.