A THIRTEEN-man cast and I just returned from performing the London showing of Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Winter’s Tale’, on a stage built in honour of the bard himself. Shakespeare’s Globe is a replica of the one William Shakespeare practised on as an actor and playwright, and it played host between late April and early June to 37 international touring companies from around the world including the Nigerian-based “Renegade Theatre”of which I am artistic director.

IN every sense, it was another interesting session of talent hunt as school pupils drawn from about 50 schools, last week gathered at the Cinema Hall 2 of the National Theatre for the 2012, National Troupe of Nigeria for the troupe’s third edition of story telling competition.

NIGERIA can be a beautiful haven if we don’t allow her oil wells to soil her soul. She needs the creativity and the magical touch of the mystery of Arts. The nation is good but it needs to allow the Arts and entertainment to make her beautiful. We need to rebrand her but we need the clean artistic touch on her education, morals, environment and culture to make her beautiful.

AN anthology of poetry, Reverberations Abroad, a 107 page book with a lovely gloss paper-back recently published by Authorhouse, United States of America, is a collection of poems which echoes the voices of some Africans who live and work outside the continent.

Unoma Azuah and Chika Unigwe are two Nigerian contemporary writers that have through their works attracted international and local attentions. The two writers, who both graduated from the Department of English, University of Nigeria, Nsukka have been very prolific in their writing and have consistently used their Diaspora experiences to comment on contemporary life and debates.