A Celebration of African Theaters | African Theaters Now: A Conversation 

A Celebration of African Theaters | African Theaters Now: A Conversation 

The African continent consists of 54 countries. This conversation among African theater practitioners and scholars, necessarily diverse by expertise, engages a range of questions to understand better the term theater(s), the evolution of theaters among African countries, and this contemporary moment in Africa’s theaters. Who is making theater today in Africa—who’s writing, who’s producing, who attends? What kinds of theaters are being created? What prevalent concerns are being written, produced, and/or published in 21st -century African theaters? What are the challenges of producing theater on the continent? In what ways do theaters play a role in the lives of contemporary Africans?

Photo credit: The Dream That Didn’t Return (Nigeria & Rwanda), choreographed by Emmanuel C. Osahor, photographed by Olivia Mugwiza at the Ubumuntu Arts  Festival—MindLeaps (2025).

 

Opening Remarks
Abhishek Majumdar, Program Head, Theater; Arts Professor of Theater, NYUAD

Panelists
Hope Azeda, Playwright and Director, Mashirika Performing Arts; Festival Curator, Ubumuntu Arts Festival
Judith G. Miller, Professor of French Literature, Thought and Culture, NYU
Wole  Soyinka, Wole Soyinka, Arts Professor of Theater, NYUAD; Nobel Laureate in Literature (1986)

Moderated by
Robert Vorlicky, Associate Professor of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU; Former Visiting Professor of Theater, NYUAD

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