INTRODUCTION: DRAMA, THEATRE AND SOCIAL PRAXIS

Abstract

Art, the artist and the audience the ancient triad of creativity, the three literal 'A's of artistic communication have always been in constant interaction, in different social contexts, from the dawn of creation. The artist derives initial inspiration from the audience, essentially a microcosm of society, and goes ahead to create the art, which, in turn, recreates and reflects society, and which further inspires the artist to create for another target audience engendered by the same society in a perpetual cycle of inspiration and creativity. Since the audience is invariably an integral part of artistic communication, then, art for art's sake, the literary fad of artists elsewhere, is clearly an illogical proposition at least for us, in this part of the world. Contrary to the facile claim by Oscar Wilde, an unrepentant apostle of the aesthetic theory, that "art expresses nothing but itself, art is, indeed, the expression and reflection of the totality of the human condition. The critical weapon in the African writers' socio-political crusade is the creative art, which finds utmost expressiveness in drama and theatre, a pair of arts as old as the human society. In their various manifestations - in drama and theatre are social arts print, on radio, stage or screen which, much like the social sciences, find a common reference point in the society, unarguably the raison d'être of all forms of creativity. Thus, it is the triadic essence of drama, theatre and social praxis, which constitutes the thematic focus of this introductory essay.