Welcome Address

Department of Theatre Arts, Osun State University is one of the departments in the Faculty of Culture of the University. Among the objectives of the department are to

1. equip students with grounding in the theory and practice of the Theatre Studies;
2. endow students with stagecraft and creative insights;
3. prepare them for postgraduate studies in the discipline and careers in management, teaching, broadcasting and cultural administration
4. train a cadre of self-employable Nigerian corps of writers, critics, publishers, actors, culture managers, film makers, entertainers (in the bourgeoning home video industry), theatre managers and arts administrators, directors, technologists and administrators;
5. produce expert researchers/ethnographers for cultural centres, tourism, museums, archives as well as public relations establishments, and
6. inculcate in the students the discipline and ethics of the profession, guarantee truth, respect for humanity for development purposes, peace and harmony within and outside national and international boundaries.

Location:        Ikire Campus

Brief History

The Department of Theatre arts was created from the Department of English and Literary studies, and was officially inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor, Osun State University on July, 2021. The management of Osun State University, Osogbo, under the able leadership of Professor Labo Popoola embarked on the expansion of academic programmes of the University. College of Humanities and Culture greatly benefited from this progressive policy as six additional programmes were added to the list of available academic programmes in the College. The paper work on the creation of the programmes was completed in due time and the university invited the NUC resource verification team to examine the six new programmes in the month of July, 2018. The resource verification exercise was a huge success and one out of the six programmes is the THEATRE ARTS which was domiciled in the Department of English and Literary Studies until July 2021.

At present, the Department has 9 academic staff and 2 non-academic staff. The process of recruitment of teaching staff for the department is carried out as the need arises. The pioneer Coordinator of the Department was Dr. Adewale Christopher OYEWO. The current Ag. Head of the Department is Dr. Azeez Akinwui SESAN.

Mission

Training of well skilled graduates that can apply the knowledge gained in the Department of Theatre Arts to engage actively in interdisciplinary fields of theatre and literary studies. This is in line with UNIOSUN’s mission statement of producing graduates that are globally competitive and locally relevant.

Vision

Graduates from Theatre Arts programme in UNIOSUN will be relevant and become professionals that would impart positively on theatre and culture industry in Nigeria and the whole world. The relevance will be further established with the ability of the graduates to function effectively in the interpretation of life realities.

Academic Programmes

A. Theatre Arts

PGD Theatre Arts

MA Theatre Arts

PhD Theatre Arts

Physical Development

The Department has a modern Pit Theatre with the state of art resources. The Department also has dance and media studios.

Research Activities

The research activities of the Department covers dramatic literature and criticism, play directing and production, applied theatre, film theory and criticism, theatre for development/community theatre, performance theory and technical theatre.

Journal

The Department has a journal title – IDAN: The Journal of UNIOSUN Theatre Arts Department

Grants and Awards

Members of the Department have won some grants and among these are travel grant to attend Creative Writing Workshop and performance grants to perform a play at two different occasions at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON), Lagos.

Community Empowerment Service Project

The Department has been using theatre for development (TFD) to educate some members of the society. Similarly, the Department has been using children’s theatre to teach some social issues to school children. The Department also does training to practitioners under the arrangement of town-gown collaboration. The pictorial representations of the community empowerment service project are as follow: