Agbo Play - A Life Journey in a Theatre of Resilience
Saturday 28th September 2024 from 10.30-4.30
About the Workshop
Agbo Play fuses performers and spectators in a form of African theatre typically played in the open air in yards, compounds and communal gathering places. It involves drumming, dance and song as stories are playfully ‘pulled’ into the performance space and bodies of the participants. It is a collective celebration, restoring the physical, social and spiritual wellbeing of the ‘gbogbo’ – the ‘flock’ or community. Agbo’s function is to serve the social, spiritual and physical well-being of all participants. Whilst its practitioners may be conspicuously virtuosic in their performance abilities, their energies are primarily focused on achieving the playful and reflective engagement of the spectators. Stories are not ‘told’ to an audience but ‘pulled’ into the playing place – the Agbo. Narratives become increasingly manifest as visceral experiences in the bodies of the actors and the gathered community.
Workshop Content
This will be a physical exploration of the relationship between play, story, actor and audience. We will animate proceedings with fragments from our current production of ‘Native Wit’. Participants will encounter key concepts which underpin the creation of our work and throughout the day apply them to their own theatre making experiments. The day’s work will conclude with the participants’ sharing their novel material in our own, unique Agbo Play.
By the end of the workshop everyone will feel empowered and invigorated as we co-construct an embodied understanding that performance and theatre-making can be a life-long and life-affirming vocation.
About Dave and Ayo:
Ayodele Scott
Born to a Krio market trader in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Ayodele was first rewarded with gifts and money for performing aged eleven.
Ayo won the 1983 Sierra Leone National Actor’s Award.
In 1987 Amadu Maddy, appointed Ayo as his lead collaborator in Gbakanda Afrikan Theatre when he came on a two year scholarship to Leeds University.
On joining David Evans and Imùlè Theatre in 1993 Ayo had already worked with Wole Soyinka, Augusto Boal, Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski.
Ayo toured for twelve years with David and Imùlè before expanding his career into music and dance.
Recent theatre projects include Black Man Don’t Float (Gecko) and Hamlet Voyage by Rex Obama.
David Evans
Born in Nigeria, for sixteen years David encountered Yoruba performance events including marketplaces, family celebrations, street performance, masquerades and touring theatre.
David trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1977- 80
Four years in English theatre - including nine months at the Bristol Old Vic - were followed by teaching and the founding in 1990 of Imùlè Theatre. This combined his environmental concerns with a Yoruba performative aesthetic.
On joining forces in 1993 with Ayodele Scott, Imùlè Theatre adopted Agbo Play as its pre-eminent theatre genre.
Imùlè practices extended to David’s research in applied theatre and in 2022 he was awarded his PhD.
Saturday 28th September 2024 from 10.30-4.30
About the Workshop
Agbo Play fuses performers and spectators in a form of African theatre typically played in the open air in yards, compounds and communal gathering places. It involves drumming, dance and song as stories are playfully ‘pulled’ into the performance space and bodies of the participants. It is a collective celebration, restoring the physical, social and spiritual wellbeing of the ‘gbogbo’ – the ‘flock’ or community. Agbo’s function is to serve the social, spiritual and physical well-being of all participants. Whilst its practitioners may be conspicuously virtuosic in their performance abilities, their energies are primarily focused on achieving the playful and reflective engagement of the spectators. Stories are not ‘told’ to an audience but ‘pulled’ into the playing place – the Agbo. Narratives become increasingly manifest as visceral experiences in the bodies of the actors and the gathered community.
Workshop Content
This will be a physical exploration of the relationship between play, story, actor and audience. We will animate proceedings with fragments from our current production of ‘Native Wit’. Participants will encounter key concepts which underpin the creation of our work and throughout the day apply them to their own theatre making experiments. The day’s work will conclude with the participants’ sharing their novel material in our own, unique Agbo Play.
By the end of the workshop everyone will feel empowered and invigorated as we co-construct an embodied understanding that performance and theatre-making can be a life-long and life-affirming vocation.
About Dave and Ayo:
Ayodele Scott
Born to a Krio market trader in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Ayodele was first rewarded with gifts and money for performing aged eleven.
Ayo won the 1983 Sierra Leone National Actor’s Award.
In 1987 Amadu Maddy, appointed Ayo as his lead collaborator in Gbakanda Afrikan Theatre when he came on a two year scholarship to Leeds University.
On joining David Evans and Imùlè Theatre in 1993 Ayo had already worked with Wole Soyinka, Augusto Boal, Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski.
Ayo toured for twelve years with David and Imùlè before expanding his career into music and dance.
Recent theatre projects include Black Man Don’t Float (Gecko) and Hamlet Voyage by Rex Obama.
David Evans
Born in Nigeria, for sixteen years David encountered Yoruba performance events including marketplaces, family celebrations, street performance, masquerades and touring theatre.
David trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1977- 80
Four years in English theatre - including nine months at the Bristol Old Vic - were followed by teaching and the founding in 1990 of Imùlè Theatre. This combined his environmental concerns with a Yoruba performative aesthetic.
On joining forces in 1993 with Ayodele Scott, Imùlè Theatre adopted Agbo Play as its pre-eminent theatre genre.
Imùlè practices extended to David’s research in applied theatre and in 2022 he was awarded his PhD.
Saturday 28th September 2024 from 10.30-4.30
About the Workshop
Agbo Play fuses performers and spectators in a form of African theatre typically played in the open air in yards, compounds and communal gathering places. It involves drumming, dance and song as stories are playfully ‘pulled’ into the performance space and bodies of the participants. It is a collective celebration, restoring the physical, social and spiritual wellbeing of the ‘gbogbo’ – the ‘flock’ or community. Agbo’s function is to serve the social, spiritual and physical well-being of all participants. Whilst its practitioners may be conspicuously virtuosic in their performance abilities, their energies are primarily focused on achieving the playful and reflective engagement of the spectators. Stories are not ‘told’ to an audience but ‘pulled’ into the playing place – the Agbo. Narratives become increasingly manifest as visceral experiences in the bodies of the actors and the gathered community.
Workshop Content
This will be a physical exploration of the relationship between play, story, actor and audience. We will animate proceedings with fragments from our current production of ‘Native Wit’. Participants will encounter key concepts which underpin the creation of our work and throughout the day apply them to their own theatre making experiments. The day’s work will conclude with the participants’ sharing their novel material in our own, unique Agbo Play.
By the end of the workshop everyone will feel empowered and invigorated as we co-construct an embodied understanding that performance and theatre-making can be a life-long and life-affirming vocation.
About Dave and Ayo:
Ayodele Scott
Born to a Krio market trader in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Ayodele was first rewarded with gifts and money for performing aged eleven.
Ayo won the 1983 Sierra Leone National Actor’s Award.
In 1987 Amadu Maddy, appointed Ayo as his lead collaborator in Gbakanda Afrikan Theatre when he came on a two year scholarship to Leeds University.
On joining David Evans and Imùlè Theatre in 1993 Ayo had already worked with Wole Soyinka, Augusto Boal, Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski.
Ayo toured for twelve years with David and Imùlè before expanding his career into music and dance.
Recent theatre projects include Black Man Don’t Float (Gecko) and Hamlet Voyage by Rex Obama.
David Evans
Born in Nigeria, for sixteen years David encountered Yoruba performance events including marketplaces, family celebrations, street performance, masquerades and touring theatre.
David trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1977- 80
Four years in English theatre - including nine months at the Bristol Old Vic - were followed by teaching and the founding in 1990 of Imùlè Theatre. This combined his environmental concerns with a Yoruba performative aesthetic.
On joining forces in 1993 with Ayodele Scott, Imùlè Theatre adopted Agbo Play as its pre-eminent theatre genre.
Imùlè practices extended to David’s research in applied theatre and in 2022 he was awarded his PhD.