ANA Congratulates Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo on his Appointment as National Theatre GM

 

ANA CONGRATULATES PROF. SUNDAY ENESSI ODODO ON HIS APPOINTMENT AS NATIONAL THEATRE GM

 

The National President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Camillus Chima Ukah has congratulated Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo, a former Vice President of the Association on his appointment as the new General Manager and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Theatre.
The recent appointment of Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo was announced after a year the Association lost another prominent member of the Association, who is also the immediate past General Manager of the National Theatre, Late Mrs. Stella Oyedepo from Kwara State in a motor accident along the Lagos-Sagamu Expressway.

Camillus Chima Ukah in a statement issued and signed by the Association’s national publicity (North) Umar Yogiza expressed confidence that Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo would bring his experience of decades to bear in his new national assignment.

ANA President described Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo’s appointment as the “right peg in the right hole”.

He added that the Professor would bring to bear his academic intellect, international network, professional and administrative experience in ensuring smooth running of the National Theatre.

According to him, “Prof. Sunday Enessi Ododo comes to this job with huge credentials, one of which is his versatile experience in Performance Aesthetics and Theatre Technology, an experience that we hope he will bring to bear in performing his duties as the newly appointed General Manager and the Chief executive Officer of the National Theatre.

Sunday (Sunnie) Enessi Ododo is a Professor of Performance Aesthetics and Theatre Technology in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria. His scholarly work has gained considerable attention, especially his ‘Facekuerade theory’, which derives from the maskless transformational practices of traditional Ebira masquerades (eku).

He has also edited reputable journals like, Alore: Ilorin Journal of the Humanities, The Performer: Ilorin Journal of the Performing Arts, Sino-US English Teaching Journal and US-China Foreign Language Journal. He is also a Consultant to World Scenography Research Project. A good number of his essays have been published in journals in the USA, the UK, Japan, India, Netherlands, Germany and Nigeria, etc. He also co-edited Larger than his Frame: Critical Studies and Reflections on Olu Obafemi (2000) and Technical Theatre Practice in Nigeria: Trends and Issues (2006), with Professor Duro Oni.

There are other edited works to his credit. He is on the editorial board of The Perfformio, a University of Wales online journal for the performing arts; and the Editorial Board of David Publishing Company, Libertyville, Illinois, USA. He is the pioneer Editor of Scene Dock: Journal of Theatre Design and Technology, and currently also serves on the board of four other journals in Nigeria.

Ododo remains a valued and respected icon in literary and theatre circles. His play, Hard Choice, further brought him to literary limelight as a gifted playwright as he won the prestigious ANA Drama Prize in 2012. Apart from being a theatre scholar, screenwriter, actor, poet and technical theatre practitioner in his highly fecund career of about three decades, he is reputed to be the exponent of the Facekuerade theory in African Theatre Studies. Beyond these, Ododo is a distinguished and versatile creative artist, who has made modest contributions to the growth of literature and creative writing in Nigeria through his activities in the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), where he has served as Chief Judge of literary prizes and national Vice President. He also served as one of the Vice Presidents of the Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA), before becoming its 8th President; and he made innovative and outstanding contributions to the Society in two terms in office, which ended on 2nd November, 2017.