Aquatic theatre: women as performing audience

Abstract

Aquatic theatre is an art form that was established from the days of classical theatre. In Africa the art form exists in traditional communities and is occasionally exhibited during communal festivals or important visitation of high ranking government officers. In recent history, this form of festival art is beginning to gain popularity among its audience in the Niger Delta. But have not been researched adequately particularly on the subject of aquatic theatre audience. It is against this backdrop that this study takes a critical look at woman participation in aquatic theatre and their role as performing audience. The essence of the study is to give visibility to women who are given less scholarship focus in traditional festivals. The methodologies employed in this work are the literary, the artistic and the participation observation methods. This study was able to highlight the effective ways female audience serves as a catalyst to performers by building the tempo and increasing efficiency during the performance thus creating a good performer-audience relationship.

Keywords: Aquatic theatre, women, performing audience, festival, traditional