Abstract: | In Nigeria today, there is a desperate 'battle' for attention between stage drama and television/video drama. The more the electronic medium drives forward, the more stage patronage dwindles. Things have gone so bad that stage drama is almost extinct in Nigeria. This need not be so, as very many well-meaning people have pointed out, since each medium has its strengths and weaknesses. A number of factors have led to the decline of live theatre. These include insecurity, unfocussed development of stage drama, the lure of the Western form of drama, inadequate infrastructure, poor audience engineering, weak returns on investment, poor literary theatre culture, weak economic power, the introduction of television drama, and the emergence of home video drama. This paper proposes a number of interventions that can restore stage drama, perhaps not to its former glory, but to a living alternative dramatic entertainment form. These strategies include the introduction of exotic/experimental forms, the infusion of the aesthetics of dance and music, the provision of compact neighbourhood performance spaces, a re-evaluation of theatre curriculum in schools, the development of tourism, and bringing video/tv stars to the stage. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract] |