Theatre Under French Rule
French Upper Volta, a colony of French West Africa, was established on 1 March 1919. It became the Republic of Upper Volta in 1958, and gained independence from France in 1960. During colonial times, there was no real emergence of a national theatre, with Burkinabè troupes mingling with those of the rest of Francophone West Africa. In the 1930s and 1940s, Burkinabè students studied at the William Ponty Normal School in Dakar, Senegal, and were greatly influenced by contemporary Western theatre.
In the 1950s, following the appointment of Bernard Cornut-Gentil as High Commissioner of French West Africa, it was decided to develop cultural centres in the major cities of the federation, and to begin holding competitive drama festivals. In 1955 and 1957 the Banfora Cultural Centre Troupe gained notice for its performances in these West African drama competitions. Influenced by France, Western-style theatre became common in West Africa. Even the Christian church, previously reluctant to associate with theatre due to its animist roots, began to form troupes of its own to spread the liturgy.
Read more about this topic: Theatre Of Burkina Faso
Famous quotes containing the words theatre, french and/or rule:
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)
“Nothing is ever simple. What do you do when you discover you like parts of the role you’re trying to escape?”
—Marilyn French (b. 1929)
“The world is filled with the proverbs and acts and winkings of a base prudence, which is a devotion to matter, as if we possessed no other faculties than the palate, the nose, the touch, the eye and ear; a prudence which adores the Rule of Three, which never subscribes, which never gives, which seldom lends, and asks but one question of any project,—Will it bake bread?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)