NA: Let’s quickly talk about your fiction. What’s keeping ‘A Woman In Her Season’ from the press?

LS: Woman in her Season is in a cellar somewhere, maturing. I have stopped writing short stories because they take up far too much creative energy. I am currently concentrating on my novel and my poems now that I have finished writing my first children’s play – Chief Giridi and his Mysterious Spirits. In a few years, I believe I shall stumble upon my short fiction and consider rewriting the stories. But for now, I don’t think they have much to offer the world.
 
NA: How is your novel “Harlot” coming along?

LS: Harlot is my passion right now and don’t you dare ask me if it’s autobiographical. I am working hard looking for an agent who will believe in it as much as I do. I have put a lot into it. I want it to be in Odia Ofeimun’s words; ‘a full length novel’. I am really eager to finish it but the more I write it the more I see how far I am from the end.

NA: You run the Ibadan Children’s Drama School (ICDS) don’t you? What are the challenges of this enterprise and how do you reckon ICDS will impact on the future of theatre and film in Nigeria?

LS: I teach at the drama school. It is one of the initiatives of the Ibadan Arts Renaissance, an organisation devoted to reviving the arts tradition in Ibadan. Schools nowadays have very little to offer children as far as the arts, creativity and drama are concerned. I grew up taking part in quite a few plays at school and everything I learnt then (in terms of expression, projection and self-confidence) has stayed with me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all young children got the opportunity to explore their creativity?

As far as challenges go, they are rife. For one, contrary to the opinion of most Nigerian parents, some kids do want to become practitioners of the arts and not lawyers, accountants and doctors –  the paths their deluded parents would have them follow. So it is shame seeing gifted kids being forced to abandon their love for the theatre for instance. The other challenge is actually getting the government interested in what we are doing. We hope that as our initiative blossoms, more teachers will be inspired to ensure that literature classes in primary and secondary schools involve a little more than reading a text book and asking a bunch of boring questions.

The impact is obvious. More playwrights, dramaturges, actors, etc would mean more competition. More competition would give way to better quality productions. Better quality productions would prove that the arts are a valuable industry in any society. Ultimately, we hope that the government will be encouraged to invest in the arts so people can make a living doing what they love.

NA: Would you say that a venture like Ibadan Arts Renaissance holds the future of nurturing and promoting cultural and artistic talents in light of how successfully appalling state-linked art and culture councils in Nigeria have been?

LS: Arts councils? What arts councils? It would be irresponsible of us as artistes to give up on the arts simply because the government has chosen to be irresponsible. Actually, to be fair, what appears to be irresponsible is often ignorance. Many of our leaders are uneducated, unenlightened, behind the times and unwilling to expose themselves to new and progressive elements of life. It has therefore become absolutely necessary for organisations like the Ibadan Arts Renaissance to do what they can with no government or institutional support.

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