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| Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters, Creator and Producer of SARO |
“I
want to appeal to their (audiences’) sense of aesthetics.I want to appeal to
their sights through the sounds. I want them to feel they are in an
international performance…
they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun”.
they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun”.
May we meet you; and what is your role
in the project, SARO…?
I am Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters, founder of Terra Kulture. I am the producer
and creative mind behind Saro- the Musical.You are a lawyer, how come this penchant for the arts?
I think, most of us while in school didn’t know what we liked and we stumbled into most of the courses we did. If you look back in the 80s and 70s, there were few career counseling institutions; so most of us, if you were not good in Maths, you did law; if you wanted a professional course and if you were good in sciences, you did medicine. It was one of those things. I stumbled on law. With benefit of hindsight, if I grew up in a country culturally developed, I probably would have studied history, music, literature or dance. These are the things that make me happy.
How
did you conceive of the story of SARO…?
I woke up one day and wrote
the story, which I believe is very relevant to our society, and to our youths.
I looked around me: what is the story of an average Nigerian? What is the story
of the average settlers of Lagos? Most people here are not indigenous Lagos
people. Most of us came here, just like in America the land of Freedom; and
that was what I decided to explore… many people want to come to Lagos; and when
they come into Lagos all of a sudden, they become Lagosians... And I wanted a story that
reflected music and dance. It is that simple. So in showcasing our music and
dance, I needed to weave a story around it.
The most natural thing that
came to my mind was to come up with a story of people that make up Lagos. In
trying to do that, I said to myself, who best can represent a true Lagosian?
There are different types of people that represent Lagos. You have the Saros,
the Aworis, the indigenous Moslems, the Afro Brazilians etc. You know, the
Saros spoke to me simply because they are free slaves from Sierra Leone. More
importantly, my mother-in-law is also of that stock.
You plan to export the play to outside Nigeria, what are the ingredients that will make it of international potential?
Looking at Nigeria generally, most of our educated people can thrive or succeed anywhere in the world. In Hollywood, for instance, there are so many Nigerians under various pseudo names but doing acting or directing or doing all sorts of things. Some of the cast members that we have are people who have worked abroad. We have one or two persons who have been in Broadway Shows. We did a very elaborate selection process. It took us about a month or more to do all the auditions, to sift through the hundreds that turned up for the auditions.
Ninety percent of the cast members are trained dancers, singers and musical artistes. They actually studied their vocations in school -- some of them in America, some in England and some in Nigeria. We are not dealing with rookies. They are not there by accident because we wanted to be sure we get the best and to get a theatrical package that we could roll around the world.
I am not looking at Lagos as the audience only; that is why I am so particular about the interpretation of what I have written. It is very clear to me what I want to achieve. It is very clear to me the quality of people I need to take to where I want to be. If you go through the CVs of the cast members, you will be so amazed at the quality of people that we have.
What does it take to achieve such an ambitious package?
I do not know where I got the strength from. You know my belief? If you want to be great, you have to do great things. You cannot afford to be timid. Running Terra Kulture has also taught me that, if you want to establish a business, you must have a certain level of strength of character. In an industry where it is not easy to come across money and in a situation like ours in Nigeria where you don’t get government funding, we have to internally generate our own funds to be where we are, nine years after; it is not a fluke. This has built a sense of strength in me coupled with my belief in God. I am not somebody who shies away from big dreams. My dream is this: to produce the best and the biggest stage production Nigeria has even seen. That is the attitude.
What are the other challenges besides finance?
As I told you, you are as good as your team. In any company like Terra Kulture, I am as good as the members of staff that work with me. If they are useless and hopeless, we are not going far as an institution. Team building is extremely important and the quality of your staff. That was why I told you that the selection process was elaborate. Am I going to spoon-feed an actor on how to play his role now or the music director on how to arrange his music? No way.
Z-mirage Multimedia Company -- there is no other technical company in Nigeria that rivals them. The CEO, Alhaji Teju Kareem has agreed to be our partner because he shares the vision. This is something he has always wanted to do as well. Then we have a formidable media team directed by Jahman Anikulapo, which also is a pretty comprehensive body. Really, at the end of the day, if you have very intelligent, sophisticated people in terms of their vision, the sky is your limit. So, the only hitch that we might have is funding. We can be sure of that.
Musical theatre is rare on the Nigerian stage; what kind of music are we looking at; and how would this be realized on stage?
We have a musical director; we have somebody who is going to do the sound engineering and the sound direction -- all of that is there in the technical bits. As a music lover, I have an ear for music. I selected 90 percent of the music that we are using. What I have done is look at our music over the years -- ranging from Highlife, to Hip-Pop, Afro-pop, Jazz and fusion of all kinds of music… and tried to create different scenes that have the different forms of music.
We try to celebrate the old plus the new. So, you will see music from Victor Olaiya, music from P-Square, music from Lagbaja, music from Sir. Victor Uwaifo. You are going to see even Ghanaian and Zairean music… you would remember a time they were dominating us in the likes of Awilo…There will be a performance in Saro that will fuse all these different kinds of music; showing us how our music has evolved over the last 20/30 years. But this will be done through storytelling and dance!
Fun! Come there, be blown away. I want to appeal to their (audiences’) sense of aesthetics. I want to appeal to their sights through the sounds. I want them to feel they are in an international performance… they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun.
Of course, No! if we did that, we won’t be able to do future productions. Going forward, we intend to do a lot more. Maybe every year or so; people have to learn to pay. To have anything good done, you have to pay. If people pay $50 or a $100 to see shows abroad, they should be able to pay for this. People paid to see Fela-on-Broadway and we are going to be better than that. So, what are we talking about? They should dig deep and get ready to savour a great musical.
You plan to export the play to outside Nigeria, what are the ingredients that will make it of international potential?
Looking at Nigeria generally, most of our educated people can thrive or succeed anywhere in the world. In Hollywood, for instance, there are so many Nigerians under various pseudo names but doing acting or directing or doing all sorts of things. Some of the cast members that we have are people who have worked abroad. We have one or two persons who have been in Broadway Shows. We did a very elaborate selection process. It took us about a month or more to do all the auditions, to sift through the hundreds that turned up for the auditions.
Ninety percent of the cast members are trained dancers, singers and musical artistes. They actually studied their vocations in school -- some of them in America, some in England and some in Nigeria. We are not dealing with rookies. They are not there by accident because we wanted to be sure we get the best and to get a theatrical package that we could roll around the world.
I am not looking at Lagos as the audience only; that is why I am so particular about the interpretation of what I have written. It is very clear to me what I want to achieve. It is very clear to me the quality of people I need to take to where I want to be. If you go through the CVs of the cast members, you will be so amazed at the quality of people that we have.
What does it take to achieve such an ambitious package?
I do not know where I got the strength from. You know my belief? If you want to be great, you have to do great things. You cannot afford to be timid. Running Terra Kulture has also taught me that, if you want to establish a business, you must have a certain level of strength of character. In an industry where it is not easy to come across money and in a situation like ours in Nigeria where you don’t get government funding, we have to internally generate our own funds to be where we are, nine years after; it is not a fluke. This has built a sense of strength in me coupled with my belief in God. I am not somebody who shies away from big dreams. My dream is this: to produce the best and the biggest stage production Nigeria has even seen. That is the attitude.
What are the other challenges besides finance?
As I told you, you are as good as your team. In any company like Terra Kulture, I am as good as the members of staff that work with me. If they are useless and hopeless, we are not going far as an institution. Team building is extremely important and the quality of your staff. That was why I told you that the selection process was elaborate. Am I going to spoon-feed an actor on how to play his role now or the music director on how to arrange his music? No way.
Z-mirage Multimedia Company -- there is no other technical company in Nigeria that rivals them. The CEO, Alhaji Teju Kareem has agreed to be our partner because he shares the vision. This is something he has always wanted to do as well. Then we have a formidable media team directed by Jahman Anikulapo, which also is a pretty comprehensive body. Really, at the end of the day, if you have very intelligent, sophisticated people in terms of their vision, the sky is your limit. So, the only hitch that we might have is funding. We can be sure of that.
Musical theatre is rare on the Nigerian stage; what kind of music are we looking at; and how would this be realized on stage?
We have a musical director; we have somebody who is going to do the sound engineering and the sound direction -- all of that is there in the technical bits. As a music lover, I have an ear for music. I selected 90 percent of the music that we are using. What I have done is look at our music over the years -- ranging from Highlife, to Hip-Pop, Afro-pop, Jazz and fusion of all kinds of music… and tried to create different scenes that have the different forms of music.
We try to celebrate the old plus the new. So, you will see music from Victor Olaiya, music from P-Square, music from Lagbaja, music from Sir. Victor Uwaifo. You are going to see even Ghanaian and Zairean music… you would remember a time they were dominating us in the likes of Awilo…There will be a performance in Saro that will fuse all these different kinds of music; showing us how our music has evolved over the last 20/30 years. But this will be done through storytelling and dance!
Fun! Come there, be blown away. I want to appeal to their (audiences’) sense of aesthetics. I want to appeal to their sights through the sounds. I want them to feel they are in an international performance… they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun.
Of course, No! if we did that, we won’t be able to do future productions. Going forward, we intend to do a lot more. Maybe every year or so; people have to learn to pay. To have anything good done, you have to pay. If people pay $50 or a $100 to see shows abroad, they should be able to pay for this. People paid to see Fela-on-Broadway and we are going to be better than that. So, what are we talking about? They should dig deep and get ready to savour a great musical.
So, it is just an easy way of
representing who Lagosians are and also talking about the free spirit
that these people brought with them. And being a music lover, I see music
as a form of freedom. I express myself through music; I love to dance and I
love to listen to music. In the writing of the story, I had to create emotions;
that is why you have the love story, the success, the failure and just all that
depict the everyday scene you find in Lagos; hence the beach, the police; the
motor parks… all those things that make Lagos what it is are all the facets we
are going to feature in this play.
What
are the other challenges besides finance?
We went for the best. The
music director, Ayo Ajayi, is the best. The executive director, Makinde,
is the best. The other directors -- Kenneth and Gbenga, I have worked with
them, I have studied them over the years at our long running project Theatre@Terra,
and they are phenomenal at what they do. Kenneth is good at stage and Gbenga is
good at dance. Like I told you, the cast members are fine. We have partners
that have come onboard since we started.
What message do you have for your audience out there?
Fun! Come there, be blown away. I want to appeal to their (audiences’) sense of aesthetics. I want to appeal to their sights through the sounds. I want them to feel they are in an international performance… they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun.
Fun! Come there, be blown away. I want to appeal to their (audiences’) sense of aesthetics. I want to appeal to their sights through the sounds. I want them to feel they are in an international performance… they could be in Paris, New York or anywhere in the world when they step into the theatre… because we are going to alter everything… we are doing what has never been done in Nigeria… it is not for the faint-hearted. But we intend to do it right. People should just come and have fun.
However, is the gate going to be thrown open to public viewing?
Of course, No! if we did that, we won’t be able to do future productions. Going forward, we intend to do a lot more. Maybe every year or so; people have to learn to pay. To have anything good done, you have to pay. If people pay $50 or a $100 to see shows abroad, they should be able to pay for this. People paid to see Fela-on-Broadway and we are going to be better than that. So, what are we talking about? They should dig deep and get ready to savour a great musical.
Of course, No! if we did that, we won’t be able to do future productions. Going forward, we intend to do a lot more. Maybe every year or so; people have to learn to pay. To have anything good done, you have to pay. If people pay $50 or a $100 to see shows abroad, they should be able to pay for this. People paid to see Fela-on-Broadway and we are going to be better than that. So, what are we talking about? They should dig deep and get ready to savour a great musical.
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