About Us
The Department of Dramatic Arts was one of the four academic Departments created when the former Institute of African Studies was dissolved in 1977, the other three Departments being Music, Fine Arts, and Linguistics and African Languages. Professor Ola Rotimi, then a Senior Research fellow in the Institute handled the process of transition in 1976 – 1977 while Professor Wole Soyinka who in 1986 would become the first Black winner of Nobel Prize in Literature took over as Professor and Head once the Department took fully in 1977. The Bachelor of Arts degree programme is designed to develop students’ ability to analyse texts, and produce plays both for the stage and the different media. It also has the aim of making students understand the link between, and as stated in the Departmental Handbook, the arts and culture of a society and the values, beliefs, and its indigenous science and technological breakthroughs. The programme further seeks to develop students’ abilities to comprehend and explain works on drama enacted either on stage, or on radio, television and film. Finally, the course also seeks to expose students to critical and dramatic theories as handed down over the ages and in different societies.The Department took off with two programmes in 1977. The first is a one-year Certificate in Dramatic Arts (CDA) programme, and the second a four-year B.A degree programme. The first set of degree students graduated in 1981. The Certificate programme on the other hand turned out graduates on a yearly basis, such that by the time the University took a decision to discontinue it in 1999, it had churned out close to 1000 professionally competent people, many of whom remain in media and theatre practice till date.
On the other hand, the Department has never stopped producing B.A degree graduates since the first set were turned out in 1981. But while the first degree continues to stand as the core of its programme, the Department has, since early in the new millennium, launched a number of postgraduate programmes. These are the Postgraduate Diploma in Dramatic Arts, the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree, the Master of Philosophy (M. Phil) degree, the Master of Fine Arts (M.FA) degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Since then, the Department has also continued to churn out graduates in all these areas.The Department of Dramatic Arts is proud of its accomplishments over the years. Its products who are in all areas of the theatre discipline, including Acting, Directing, Theatre Management, Technical Theatre, Costume and Make-up as well as Film and Electronic Media Production have continued to excel in different sectors of the economy, but especially in the culture and communications industries, the media and, as well, the academia. The Department is blessed with competent hands, academic and professional, and this, together with quality students who have continued to enrol on the different programmes, is what has ensured its continued growth and success.
Currently, our programmes are being reviewed to engage the dynamism of the social media as they interact with and shape the practice and theory of the various aspects of the performing arts. While the programmes carefully and consciously explore the use of hands-on practical tools during teaching and learning interaction in a bid to produce graduates who are not just job seekers but are fully equipped with all necessities for entrepreneurial practice, these programmes also interrogate new and emerging theoretical perspectives underpinning contemporary industry practice.