The Department of Dramatic Arts and Film, University of Jos was the venue for the 2025 National Theatre Play Reading Series. This annual event of the National Theatre has previously been hosted by Nasarawa State University, Lafia (2022) and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (2022). The play text read this year is “The Chief Mourner” by Iheanacho Iweha (PhD).
At the event, which was held inside Aliyu Akwe Doma Indoor Theatre, Mr Nduibusi Henry, Director of Marketing, National Theatre represented Mrs. Adetola Akerele, the GM/CEO of National Theatre. While addressing the Department, Mr. Henry said this play reading series is one of the ways that the National Theatre has devised to increase its reach across the country. By visiting the schools in different parts of Nigeria, National Theatre functions as a unifying force for all the beautiful cultural heritage in the nation.
As an event however, National Theatre Play Reading involves students dramatising the plays on stage with all the accoutrement of a proper live stage play but with the text of the play in hand.
The Chief Mourner is a play centred around the Ibo burial culture of returning married women to their fathers’ house for burial. And how the advent of social media has changed information disseminated in modern times, often with devastating impacts on bereaved families and spouses. Dr. Victor Anyagu anchored the play reading.
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