Download Technical and Artistic Elements in the Production of

A Journal of Theatre & Media Studies
Vol. 1. No. 2, April, 2016
Technical and Artistic Elements in the Production of
Geoffrey Agbo‟s“Gramma Don Do” at the Cultural
Centre Board Theatre, Calabar
Esekong H. Andrew
Department of Theatre and Media Studies
University of Calabar, Nigeria
&
Austin Achoakawa
Department of Theatre and Media Studies
University of Calabar, Nigeria
Abstract
The paper is an analysis of the technical and artistic production
elements used in a satirical play “Grama don Do” produced by the
University of Calabar Theatre at the Cultural Centre Board Theatre,
Calabar. In the first instance, the paper examines the theoretical thrust
of the production and proceeds to analyze the script from the social
and cultural perspectives, which may have contributed to the shaping
of the play. At the next level, the paper falls back to the elements of
drama in Aristotle‟s theory of tragedy, which provides a classic
structure with which to critically assesses the production in question
using plot, characterization, thought, diction, melody and spectacle
where the technicalities of lighting, setting, sound, pyrotechniques,
costume and make-up were considered in relation to how they
enhanced the artistic interpretation and the delivery of the play‟s
message to the target audience.
Introduction
The fact that every stage production has technical and artistic
components is not strange, but the innovation or peculiar approach in
utilizing the elements in any given production could call for a close
examination and analysis. The essence of closely examining production
elements would be to understand the situation under which the director
or designer engaged certain solutions and the total effect of such
solutions in communicating value to target audiences. While the script
could have its clear direction, its interpretation for stage production
could introduce certain nuances that are either simply the director‟s
signature or that were seen to be inevitable in driving home the
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message of the production. Whatever innovations are introduced on
stage are usually within the ambiences of available environmental
resources and limitations – physical, social and cultural. In the
production of “Grama don Do”, these facts were, again proven to be
correct. The product was made for a peculiar audience, using controlled
resources towards realizing the set objectives.
Theoretical Framework
The interpretation of “Grama Don Do” staged at Cultural Center Board
Theatre finds it theoretical thrust in Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre,
which is rooted in that form of theatre performance that does not
struggle for a place with reality but discusses reality. Brecht's view is
that theatrical illusion should be partial so that they can always be
recognized as illusion; that art is a mirror with which to reflect reality,
but not a hammer with which to shape it. These strands of Brecht's
theory became a guide to create an appreciable theatre experience,
which yielded some form of alienation as advocated by the theorist
without creating any form of division or distanciation between the
performance and the audience. In observance of the Brechtian view, the
performance was audience centered. Actors spoke directly to the
audience at many points in the play, making contact and statements
which elicited responses from the audience members. Entrances and
exits were created through the aisle and walk ways of the auditorium.
Most of the lighting, equipment and rigging positions were in full glare
of the audience. Prince and Jackson affirm this feature of Brecht‟s
theory, saying “...Brecht never tried to hide the mechanics of the stage
such as lighting instruments or scene shifting. Nothing was masked or
hidden from the eyes of the audience the way it was in productions of
realists” (336). While observing the Brechtian concept as the
background theory, the play also adopted the musical theatre
presentational form. The production style in “Grama don do” was nonrealistic. (What does the musical theatre presentation form entails?)
„Grama Don Do‟: The Synopsis
Grama Don Do‟, written by Geoffrey Agbo, (1967 – 2013) is a satirical
play with a clear structure and arrangement of incidents centered on
conflict at two levels – the first is between a couple with different
socio-economic and cultural orientation and the other between two
intellectuals with different academic backgrounds and exposure. Okoro,
the central character is illiterate, but married to Queen, a school
teacher. Andy is Okoro‟s brother, highly educated in Philosophy but
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jobless. Every character has an area of comparative strength, but
instead of pulling forces together to overcome common challenges,
they prefer to live in turbulence until the landlord calls them to order
and instill into them some words of wisdom. Between the hilarious
dialogues and grammatical „bombardments‟, the play communicates
the need for people to synergize to realize optimum value from their
relationships. The rendition blends the musical form with regular
dialogue in a diehard comedy that „serves another tension-relieving pill
to the audience‟ and helps them to unwind after the pressures of the day
or season.
The idea of the play is rooted in contemporary Nigerian consciousness
where social, cultural and economic circumstances interplay to create
conflict which ultimately shapes the lives of the citizenry. Conflict
arising from social, cultural and economic strain often felt in most
interaction spaces, particularly homes has become thematic in many
Nigerian plays including Nwamuo‟s The Squeeze, Soyinka‟s The
Beatification of Area Boy, Rotimi‟s Man Talk, Woman Talk, and a
number of others. Each play is from the experiential perspective of the
playwright and the message is usually tailoured to meet the needs. The
style adopted is also dependent on a number of factors which may
include the playwright‟s artistic inclination and the sum temperament
of the target audiences.
The Plot
The plot of „Grama Don Do‟ is simple and, typically could be
segmented into 3 sections – the beginning, the climax and the
resolution. The beginning is when the cause and effect chain is
developed. In this case, it was when Andy started behaving
irresponsibly to provoke Queen, and when Okoro and Queen began
mild domestic tussles. There was also the climax when all the major
characters entangled in a free for all fight and the resolution where the
landlord came in to settle the issues. The plot fits into a triangulated
structure which has become conventional with many scripts.
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Middle
Beginning
End
Climax
Rising Action
Falling Action
Exposition
Denouement
Figure 1 (A&B): Gutar Fretag‟s Structure of Play
So many things happen between the play script and the stage, which are
determined by controllable and incidental elements. Like in many
productions, so much happened between the script of “Grama don Do”
and the stage production. Apart from the usual directorial initiatives
and actors‟ interpretational peculiarities, one significant development
was that the director extended the script to introduce a different
dimension of resolution to the conflict. While the original script ended
in an unresolved fracas between the principal characters, the extended
form sought a deliberate resolution to the conflict in a more amicable
manner. Another character, the landlord was introduced as part of this
innovation to lead the process of resolving the multi-layered conflict
between the characters. Consequently, new scenes and new lines were
created for all the characters involved to resolve amicably and to leave
a lesson for the audience. In the new scene, the landlord, playing the
role of an arbiter advised Okoro to proceed to adult school to acquire
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literacy which would help him relate with his wife within an
approximate intellectual level. Andy was told to consider
entrepreneurial approaches in business having not been able to find a
job even with a Masters degree. Queen was told to be more respectful
toward her husband and in-law. These pieces of advice coming from an
elderly landlord were more likely to be taken seriously. The new script
ended with a dance of merriment to indicate mutual agreement and also
to stretch the musical form adopted in the play production. In all these,
there was a strong synergy between the director, performers and the
technical team in making innovations, using a participatory approach. 1
Characterization
Characters for the play studied was carefully created to enable the
playwright develop the needed tension and create the level of conflict
that was required to deliver the message in the play. As agents of the
plot, every character came with an attitudinal flavour intensified by
thought, speech and action to carry the part. In this play the
characterization was both explicit and implicit. It was explicit in the
sense that the playwright took time to describe the characters at the
inception (“Grama don do” 7), and implicit to the extent that the
audience from their background of relating with such characters were
able to deduce for themselves the character types and their propensities.
In the typical Nigerian setting where the play is set, the taxi driver or
teacher image is common as people encounter them regularly. The
grammarian graduate image and frustrated job seeker is equally well
known. The „playgirl‟ character played by Andy‟s girlfriend is also a
popular archetype across many cultures. Perhaps the challenge in this
production was to find casts who would carry the characters easily,
considering the challenges of packaging the production within an
unusually short time. The process of selecting actors or performers to
meet the required attributes of characters in a given theatre production
is largely the discretion of the director. In the case of this production,
the director utilized a casting style know as table casting- (an informal
casting process based on a director knowledge of a performer's creative
traits, talents and abilities). Thus, he sought for actors who could not
only act, but could also, sing and dance; actors who were total
performers with idiosyncrasies that best fit into the roles in the play. As
such, the production had Victor Nwankwo cast as Okoro, an illiterate
Igbo taxi driver for his natural ability to mimic this character;
Onyinyechi Obiesie cast as Queendarlyn, a primary school teacher with
a certificate in education (NCE) who lords over the husband;
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Ofonmbuk Jackson cast as Andy mostly because of his natural
inclination towards grammatical verbosity and appearance as an
academic, and lastly the Landlord cast for his elderly appearance and
strong voice. The dancers, chorus and the orchestra were chosen
respectively for their abilities to perform the various roles.
The director employed the table casting technique as a result of the
short period given for rehearsal before performance proper. Thus,
within the space of ten to fifteen days of rehearsal as against the
traditional three months for dramatic performance rehearsals in a
professional theatre setting, the experience, creativity and ingenuity of
the cast yielded amazing results. The table below deepens the
understanding of traits of “Grama don Do” first choice dramatis
personae.
S/N
CAST
CHARACTER IN
PLAY
Okoroigwenwogbo
(Okoro)
1.
Victor
Nwankwo, mid
20s
2.
Onyinyechi
Obiesie, early
20s
Queendarlyn (Queen)
3.
Ofonmbuk
Jackson,
early 20s
Andrew (Andy)
4.
Armstrong
Elemi, early 30s
Landlord
5.
Chimdinma
Okereke
Kalu,early 20s
Sex worker
SOCIAL, TYPE AND
MOTIVATION
Late 40s, illiterate, taxi
driver, seeks to
overcome educational
barriers, but helpless
and adamant.
Early 30,NCE holder,
primary school teacher,
proud and disrespectful,
regrets marrying an
illiterate driver
Mid 30, unemployed
graduate, M.A. holder
in Philosophy, prides
himself as cynosure of
women, grammatically
verbose/proud.
Early50s, peaceful,
enlightened, attained
late education.
Mid 20s, adamant, and
lousy.
Source: Fieldwork.
In the table above, all but the sex-worker constituted the principal cast
in the play production. It must be restated for emphasis that though the
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original script has a total of three characters: Okoro, Queendarlyn and
Andy, additional characters – the landlord, singers and dancers were
created in the play to extend the vision, ease interpretation and deliver a
strong message.
It was also necessary to double-cast to forestall any eventuality
whereby a character becomes indisposed and the production
jeopardized. In doing this, the director found alternative characters that
possess the requisite skills approximate to those in the front-line choice.
The following alternatives featured in rehearsals:
Okoroigwenwogbo (Okoro)
Queendarlyn (Queen)
Andrew (Andy)
Landlord
–
–
–
–
Bana Patrick Adie
Chimdinma Okereke
Marvellous Eneji
Marshal Bassey
On the whole, the play recorded a total of twenty seven cast members,
including dancers, chorus and orchestra.
Theme/Thought:
The play was presented as a combination of „slice of life‟ and as a
didactic piece. One could say that the play is themed on the need to
establish domestic harmony irrespective of family extensions, and
secondarily, creating economic alternatives when the expected is not
forth-coming. These thoughts in the play were well expressed in the
lines and language of the various characters. Listening to all the key
characters, one could deduce their social background, their economic
disposition, their proclivities, expectations and many more. The
essential thematic qualities of the play were also succinctly relayed in
the course of the performance in the careful delivery of lines.
Diction/Language:
The diction in “Grama don Do” is a mixture of English (as delivered by
the grammarian Andy and Queen, Okoro‟s wife) and Pidgin English, a
popular Nigerian variation of adulterated English. The lingual
combination in a typically dramatic format is appropriate to drive home
the message of the production. If diction in Aristotle‟s opinion has to
do greatly with “a command of metaphors …as the mark of genius”
then there is plenty of metaphorical use of language by all the principal
characters. An instance is the beginning of the script where Okoro
castigates himself for sleeping like a “pregnant python” and his wife for
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chattering like a malfunctioning motor spark plug (Grama don Do 9).
Another instance is found in the extra lines introduced by the director
to intensify the conflict – the barrage of abuses that Queen and Okoro
rain on each: “You are a rotten bucket of mosquitoes”, you are a
destitute… a big liability, etc. All these expressions are apt in the plot
as they help to enforce the severity of the rancor between the characters
and make the audience to share in the tension.
Melody/Rhythm:
Technically, this should occur as a steady beat across a production in
all the other elements to create a unifying mood, but in this production,
rhythm was simplified and plotted in as musical element, fully
integrated in the production to contribute to the unity of the plot in its
entirety to the extent of becoming part of the narrative. Musical theatre
therefore formed another aesthetic style that was incorporated to deliver
the message in the performance. The play text is a comedy often
criticized as being feeble and shallow in theme, but the production team
threading on the fancies of Bertolt Brecht's theatre milieu, transformed
it into a musical-comedy with stronger and enhanced content. This
should not be confused with operatic theatre (in which singers and
musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score,
usually in a theatre setting). “Grama don do” as staged was fashioned
to educate, excite, entertain and communicate to the audience via music
accompaniment. The incorporation of music into the performance or
transformation of the performance into a musical theatre was tied to the
fact that music is one of the most effective means of communication
and edutainment. Therefore, the blend of music into the performance
was pivotal in deepening the thematic import of the play. The actors at
some point in the play production sang their lines with the
accompaniment of on-stage live band, which constituted the orchestra
and a chorus that served as back-up singers. For instance, the opening
scene had Queen at the center of the conflicts in the performance
singing these lines to her husband:
Okoro, look at me
Respect me
I'm not a full house-wife
I am a working class...
The Chorus repeats the refrain while Okoro the husband took his turn
to also sing his lines in reaction to his wife's message:
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Queendarlyn wey my food?
I say wey my food?
I don dey loose temper
This house na my house.
The chorus also re-echo Okoro's bit of the song. These, amongst other
created and adapted Nigerian secular music were infused in the play
performance, not only to entertain, but also to communicate and teach.
Other characters like Andy, Okoro's brother and the landlord had their
moments to sing their lines in response to other characters and
situations in the play. This blend of music into the performance is
another strand of Bertolt Brecht's theatre tradition explored in the
performance. Liwhu Betiang authenticates this thought in his remarks:
The advent of Brecht's epic drama has more than any
dramatic literary tradition, employed the use of song
and melody, both as a plot device and as a means of
alienating the audience from the action in a
comprehensive, total Wagerian theatre tradition.
While music and songs remain pleasurable
accessories on their own, they also complement each
other in a contra-punctual relationship (92-93).
In “Grama don Do” the music was produced live by the University of
Calabar Performing Company (UCPC) Band.
Spectacle:
Popularly used to refer to everything seen and heard on stage, spectacle
may not ordinarily be literature-dependent, but it draws largely from
the ideas expressed in the script and the case in the production under
review was not different. Nevertheless, in the play production under
review, the resourcefulness and creativity of the designers, and the
equipment they used intensified the spectacular effects. Designers in
the various categories understood the pull of spectacle as a production
element and used it both to enforce the message in the production and
to excite the audience.
Scenery and Props: The setting described in all the three scene of the
play as manifested in the sitting room of Okoroigwenwogbo‟s house is
realistic. Similarly, the props consisting of set and dress properties –
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books, spare motor parts, teaching aids, posters and curtains are also
realistic, but since the concept and style of the production was nonrealistic, the setting also had to change accordingly to selective realism.
Okoro‟s house was set on stage right, while the band stand was set
stage left with risers at three levels for the singers and some
instrumentalists with wind instruments. The designer juxtaposed
realism in the sitting room area with fantasy setting in the stage area
occupied by the band and the chorus. The unifying motif in the setting
was a painted brick wall, which stretched across the stage from end to
end, punctuated by props, entrances, exits and window openings. Both
set and props, being non-realistic in some cases were made to suggest
the location, rather than portraying them. The setting was contiguous
and there was no need for scene change throughout the production.
Many properties and set pieces served both depictive and decorative
purposes. A good instance could be seen in the mechanical spanner of
the taxi driver 'Okoro' that appeared larger than life. Okoro only made
reference occasionally to the spanner but never used or touched the
spanner throughout the performance. But the spanner as prop was
dominant enough to carry the reference.
Plate 1: Showing the Set and as Designed by Esekong Andrew.
Lighting, Pyrotechniques and Sound: Parkans flood lights were used
to illuminate the entire stage. Follow spots were also used in specific
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scenes where emphases were desired on certain actors such as when
Queen would render musical lines inter-changing with Okoro or Andy.
Strobe light was used towards the end of the production in the dance
scene for special effect. Pyrotechniques as fog and bubble machines
were also incorporated in the dance scene to heighten the spectacle.
With regards to sound, there was no abstract recording; all sound
elements were realistically delivered either by the actors or as music
from the band. Performers used pin-up miniature microphones to
enhance sound projection particularly when singing with the band.
Lighting, sound and pyrotechnics were professionally handled by
Molinta Enendu, assisted by a few competent technicians.
Costume and Make up: Costumes for all the performers were realistic
and contemporary, same with the make-up. In all cases, the principal
characters were dressed and made up to enhance role interpretation.
The Chorus wore a uniform black and white so as not to interfere with
the dominance of principal characters. In like manner, the Band was
also uniformly costumed.
Technical Challenges: Few technical problems were encountered
during production, most of which were location related. Perhaps the
foremost was the poor stage floor. The floor of the stage had become
weak over the years and was in need of serious repair. Actors were
often stepping into soft spots on the stage and this affected their
blockings to a large extent. Another architecture related flaw was the
issue of leaking roof. It rained during the production and the roof over
the stage was leaking right onto the set. This again affected the
blocking and at some point Andy smartly adlibbed, asking the landlord
to repair the roof of his house.
Another technical issue was that light rigging points were limited. This
was worsened by the fact that many of the power socket points were
not functional. So power was drawn from distant points and this needed
more cables than expected. With respect to sound management, some
pin-up microphones were failing, causing uneven sound delivery to the
audience. There was also a situation of poor placement of loud speakers
which led to poor distribution of sound. The auditorium, filled to
capacity was not adequately covered by the existing speakers.
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Conclusion
„Grama don Do‟ was a unique theatre experience, a kind of revival in
stage production drawing a wide audience patronage, special guests
who spent most of the evening at the performance venue 2. It was
encouraging to the cast and crew to find a large gathering of art
converts who were ready to join the crusade for cultural literacy and the
band of communicators through the arts. From artistic and technical
perspective of directing, the experiment with the Bretchian concept was
successful and may have been enhanced by the „musicalization‟ of the
production. It was such that even after the performance, the musical
compositions continued to reverberate in the ears and minds of
audience members. The message was also clearly delivered and this
was sufficient proof that contemporary audiences probably need spicy
and spectacular theatrical forms to attract and sustain their attention.
Works Cited
Agbo, Geoffrey. Grama Don Do‟. Calabar: BAAJ and Omnix, 2000.
Betiang, Liwhu . Fundamentals of Dramatic Literature and Criticism.
Abuja: Thumbprint, 2014.
Cassady,
Marsh.
Theatre:
An
Introduction.
Chicago:
NTC/Contemporary Publishing, 1991.
Nwamuo, Chris. The Squeeze. Calabar: Centaur, 1989.
Prince, Nany and Jackson Jeanie. Exploring Theatre. New York: West
Publishing, 1997.
Rotimi, Ola. Man Talk, Woman Talk. Lagos: Apex Books, 2007.
Soyinka, Wole. The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian
Kaleidoscope. Ibadan. Spectrum, 1999
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