Prior to the gathering of staff, Axworthy had commenced activities at the School by bringing into residence the Kola Ogunmola Travelling Theatre for a
six-month workshop training. As ne explained later, one of the reasons "that led to tne introduction ot the folk theatre groups to the University was the grant we had from the Rockefeller Foundation, which was about a quarter of a million dollars, and tnat was a lot of money. Moreover, we could not begin classes that year. We had to wait another year, so I suggested tViat we should establish a relationship between the University arvi Ogunmula’s group tnrougn a period or residence, andl we invited him to the
University as Artist-in-Residence for a year. My aim was * / that we would get his work written down, learn his style
from him and teach him sonrp of the things he did not already know" •49
That might not have been the whole story. Axworthy must have been influenced by certain other factors. There had for instance been theatre workshops jointly organized
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
86
r. the Dramatic Society, the Department of English, and the Extra-Mural Department of the Institute of Education, such as the one conducted by Professor Anne Cooke Reid, former Professor of Drama, Howard University, U.S.A., from June 13th to 20th, in 1962. This 1962 workshop linked the University, probably for the first time, with the Yoruba operatic theatre by -presenting The Reign of the Mighty by Ogunmola Theatre from Osogbo on June 16, 1962.
This w^s an eye opener to the ingenuity of the-Nigerian operatic theatre. The production recommended Ogunmola Theatre for a Rockefeller fellowship which enabled the entire company to undertake a six-month workshop training in the Arts Theatre, beginning from October, 1962.
At the same time, in the early 1960s, America was going through similar theatrical experiences about which Axworthy must have been aware. For instance, Stephen Langley informs us about situations in America, similar to this use of Rockefeller Foundation grants for the Ogunmola Theatre workshop, as follows:
In 1962 the Association of Producing Artists (ApA), under the direction of
Ellis Rabb, took up residence at the University of Michigan. With a large grant from the Rockefeller Foundation,
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
New York University established a professional theatre training
program and with another Rockefeller grant, Stanford University hired nine professional actors to form a resident company to work with its students.... The list of profess
ionally oriented programs offered by colleges is impressive. Most were inaugurated during the
sixties and many were accompanied by ambitious plans for the
construction of-new campus theatre facilities .9. ®
These examples, we believe, partly inspired the IUC in its search for standards for UCI. As a spontaneous response to what was current in America, the Ogunmola experiment was not actually in the direction of academic learning but rather, in that of professionalism.
Axworthy said in this regard: "I got the first intakes to read a diploma instead of degree course because I wanted them t° discover what things are all about by doing. I was more concerned with professionalism t^*an with academic accumulation."51
Dapo Adelugba, one time president of the University of Ibadan Dramatic Society (UCIDS) and Manager of the University Travelling Theatre, who has studied the growth of the School of Drama/Department of Theatre Arts
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
88
-confirms this: "In the first few years of its existence -he Ibadan School of Drama concentrated its work on
professional training of would-be theatre educators and artists* A two-year Diploma programme in Educational Drama (later) replaced by a two-year Diploma in Drama and one-year Certificate Programme also in Educational Drama were set up. Later the School broadened out into participation in the Bachellor of Arts degree curricular of the Ibadan University"^*
The first production of the School of Drama was
The Palm Wine Drinkard written by Amos Tutola and adapted by Kola Ogunmola, the first product of the School. The production was not a part of the normal season of plays which was customary with theatre department, since the School of Drama had not yet established such tradition.
The motive behind this production was for it to serve as a graduation thesis for Ogunmola after the training. The graduation production was so successful that critics who had opposed the experiment in the beginning had reasons
to applaud the outcome. The union of the academic and
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
PLATE 3: Kola Ogunmola as the "Drinkard" in