The International Association of Theatre Critics, IATC, a UNESCO’s statute ‘B’ partner in theatre criticism, which has been in existence for 60 years has named one of Nigeria’s theatre and drama icons, Professor Femi Osofisan as winner of the coveted Thalia Prize 2016.
In a statement by President of IATC- Nigeria, Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, said the 10-year-old prize has been won by UK-born critic, Eric Bentley (2006), Jean-Pierre Sarrazac (2008), Richard Schechner (2010), Kapila Vatsyayan (2012), and Eugenio Barba (2014).
File: One of Osofisan plays
According to him, Femi Osofisan becomes the first African and indeed first Black literary scholar to win the highly contested award, which is coming shortly after he (Professor Emmanuel Dandaura) became the first Black and first African Member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) in 2014.
The president of the association, while announcing Prof. Osofisan as winner of Thalia Prize 2016 said, “We are proud to announce that the 2016 Thalia Prize of the International Association of Theatre Critics will be awarded to Femi Osofisan of Nigeria, a playwright, director, actor, critic, poet, novelist, editor and newspaper columnist. The Thalia Prize is meant to highlight the work of those who have helped critics around the globe to understand new ways of seeing and appreciating the performing arts worldwide.”
Don Rubin, former President, Canadian Centre of the IATC, who wrote a brief introduction of Prof Osofisan described the theatre icon as “belonging to the generation that followed those two theatrical giants, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe and his footprint is almost as large as theirs on the continent of Africa and it is growing in other parts of the world as well. Probably his most well-known play is Once Upon Four Robbers, which is already taught in numerous universities around the world and has been widely anthologized. But it is only one of some 50 plays by this major artist and activist. These plays – like his critical writings – are cries for personal freedom and political action and include many adaptations of Greek and Shakespearean originals, tailored for whatever political situation might exist.”
The 2016 Thalia Prize will be presented to the awardee during the IATC Congress in Belgrade.
Founded in Paris in 1956, the IATC is a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization benefitting under statute B of UNESCO. It brings together over two thousand theatre critics in order to promote international cooperation.
