Damiete Braide
damiete_braide@yahoo.com
07030059588
All is now set for the seventh edition of the Jos Festival of Theatre 2013. Slated to begin on Saturday, February 23, in Jos, Plateau State capital, the festival, which is tagged: Challenge Perceptions, will end on Friday March 1. Upcoming artist, Joy Okeshola will perform during the opening festival and five plays will be staged. The festival will be preceded by a pre-festival play titled Banana Talks on Sunday, February 17, where two artistes will examine their previous lives and compare these with the present.
There will also be workshops on arts management, Salsa dance and directing that will be featured during the festival. Wale Ogunyemi’s epic play, Queen Amina of Zazzau, opens the festival on Saturday February 23. It tells the story of the legendary Queen of the ancient Empire of Zazzau, her administrative skills, her love for her people, her formidable spirit in war. Her love life which proves to be a fatal flaw in her greatness. It will be followed by August Wilson’s Jitney, one of the festival plays dedicated to the annual African-American History month.
The play is set in a taxi park (Jitney) about the story of a father’s disappointment about his son and his inability and unwillingness to forgive his son before his own death. His son had shot and killed his white girlfriend in circumstances that could have been avoided. The second American play of the festival, Tennessee Williams’ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, will feature next within the festival.
The final play of the festival is Femi Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel, a metaphor of a sick nation ruined by greed, waste and addictive corruption. It is midnight and the cover of darkness gives room for all sorts of vices and arrangements. The 2013 festival is supported by the US Mission, the Federal Government and Alliance Francaise, Jos.
