African Theatre 13 Ngugi a Thiong'o and Wole Soyinka [Paperback]

Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong'o are the pre-eminent playwrights of West and East Africa respectively and their work has been hugely influential across the continent. This volume features directors' experiences of recent productions of their plays, the voices of actors and collaborators who have worked with the playwrights, and also provides a digest of their theatrical output. Contributors provide new readings of Ngugi and Soyinka's classic texts, and a stimulating new approach for students of English, Theatre and African studies. The playscript for this volume is a previously unpublished radio play by Wole Soyinka entitled A Rain of Stones, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002. Volume Editors: MARTIN BANHAM & FEMI OSOFISAN Guest Editor: KIMANI NJOGU Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of WarwickDirectors and collaborators assess and comment on the production of plays by West Africa's Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and East Africa's most influential author Ngugi wa Thiong'o.Editors' Introduction - Martin Banham and Femi Osofisan and James GibbsReading & performing African drama: how Wole Soyinka & Ngugi wa Thiong'o influenced my work - David KerrAyan contra Ujamaa: Soyinka & Ngugi as theatre theorists - Biodun JeyifoENCOUNTERS WITH SOYINKA: I Working with Wole Soyinka - Tunji Oyelana and Sola AdeyemiII The difficulties of a neophyte staging Wole Soyinka's The Beatification of Area Boy - Tunde OnikoyiIII Pentecostalizing Soyinka's The Trials of Brother Jero - Bisi AdigunIV The Lion & the Jewel in Mombasa - Silviah NamussasiENCOUNTERS WITH NGUGI: I Choru wa Muiruri: reflections on the Kl3!