Modes and significance of casting in the Nigerian theatre: Bolanle Austin-Peters’ ‘Saro’ and Felix Okolo’s ‘The Walking Stick’ in perspective

Abstract

The concept of role-playing; auditions and the selection of artiste to play a part in a script is an exclusive decision making privilege reserved for a would-be producer, director, choreographer and or musicologist before a theatre production can be said to have taken place. However, poor or wrong casting has often been the bane of most highly speculated and perhaps well funded theatre productions in the past. In Nigeria for instance, this kind of artistic and managerial deficiency has often lead to decline in the patronage of the theatre. Unfortunately, there are little or no academic awareness in this direction. To bridge this gap therefore, this article takes a look at the casting modes and parameters employed in two selected productions in Nigeria with a special interest in analyzing the effects and significances of the choices made to the overall aesthetic contexts of the productions. The study is therefore highly qualitative and analytical as well as qualitative in nature. The study highlights factors ranging from height, skin color, diction, level of education, gender, age, star-profile, professionalism, shape/bodily size, artiste fee, budget, performance venue, etc, as common determining indices for the selection of actors in most Nigerian play productions.