Press Cuttings
Read an article about Iroko Theatre that appeared in the Newham Magazine in April 2007
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"Afro Style" (The Guardian 17/10/2001)
"A Giant Step Forward" (The Guardian 17/10/2001)
"Taking Centre Stage" (The Guardian 27/03/2002)
"Out of Africa" (LDV Magazine Spring Issue 2002)
"Village people learning about HIV" (Newham Recorder 12/09/2001)
"Drumming Up Stage Skill" (Newham Recorder 05/11/2000)
"Afro Style"
By Liza Ramrayka, The Guardian 17 October 2001
It's a rainy October day in south-west London and the year four and five pupils (aged between seven and nine) at Priory CE primary school are sitting in the gym hall, surrounded by the usual paraphernalia of climbing ladders, ropes and basketball hoops. Before them sit four colourfully-clad figures. One stands up and booms across the hall: "Ah, ah, oko-we!" The children chorus back: "Ah, ah, oko-we!" Then suddenly, to the delight of their young audience, the four figures begin to dance, sing and drum out African rhythms. Some year fours are enlisted to mimic the group's movements; they giggle to their seated friends, who are wriggling and clapping to the music. As the spectacle stops, little arms punch the air and the room fills with cheers.
The creators of this carnival-like atmosphere are members of east London's Iroko Theatre Company, which uses traditional African theatre art to enhance the self- confidence and knowledge of children and young people, including those with special needs. Set up in 1996, the group provides a range of activities in schools, youth centres, hospitals and young offenders' institutes across Britain. Last year, Iroko worked with some 90,000 children and young people, through oral storytelling performances, music and drama workshops. Participants learn about African culture, while storytelling covers topics from team work to racial harmony.
Today's session is part of Priory's celebrations for black history month. Its week-long programme includes a three-day residency by Iroko, which involves children learning about African instruments and hearing traditional folk tales. Alex Oma-Pius, storyteller and artistic director of Iroko, says African theatre arts are a good medium for raising awareness and encouraging learning. "The idea is to enable children and young people from different backgrounds and abilities to understand other arts and cultures," he says. "This helps cement racial harmony which is vital in today's multi-cultural Britain."
The theatre company undertakes in-service training for teaching. This involves Iroko demonstrating its work to teachers, followed by a workshop that focuses on elements of storytelling which are useful for developing children's imagination, language and communication skills. For early years teachers, the activities introduce them to basic counting chants, musical games and movements that can enhance numeracy skills. Iroko's work with primary and secondary school teachers aims to equip them with new ideas for drama, dance and music.
A trained theatre director and actor, Nigerian-born Oma-Pius set up Iroko when funding for a similar project he was involved in was cut. The company's name refers to the eponymous African tree, which provides the wood for its drums and masks. Today, Iroko comprises four core performers (employed on a freelance basis) and a full-time administrator/fundraiser, whose post is funded by a grant from BBC Children in Need.
Iroko has seen demand for residencies and more in-depth work shops grow over the past year. Funding from the Baring Foundation and London Borough Grants has enabled Iroko to conduct residencies in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and outer London. A millennium lottery grant resulted in a three-day residency for Newham leisure services, culminating in a masquerade involving young people living in the London borough.
While Iroko charges a fee for its performances and workshops, ranging from £200 for a one-hour performance to £1,750 for a week's residency, Oma-Pius says that the company needs to raise additional funds to be able to employ at least two full-time performers and ensure continuity and artistic development. Winning the Guardian award is a move towards this. Iroko plans to redesign its publicity and marketing in order to raise its profile. It hopes to work in geographical areas where access to minority ethnic music is limited. A forthcoming project funded by Yorkshire Arts to work with schools in Leeds is Iroko's first step in this direction.
(View the article at The Guardian web site)
"A Giant Step Forward" (selected excerpts)
By Alison Benjamin, The Guardian, 17 October 2001
Small charities win top Guardian award for innovation.
Smaller charities rarely get the recognition they deserve. Too busy trying to make ends meet while delivering their crucial services, they have little, if any, time to devote to raising their profile. And working at a mainly local level does not lend itself to securing national coverage.
The five winners of the Guardian Charity Award 2001, for small and medium-sized social welfare charities, are no exception. Each faces an annual struggle to secure funding from a variety of sources while providing invaluable help to disadvantaged groups.
Without the recognition larger charities enjoy, it can be a tough task. But the Guardian award, backed this year by Sainsbury's, offers a leg up. One of this year's winners, Iroko Theatre Company, which uses traditional African storytelling, music and dance to enhance children's confidence, is typical in hoping that the award will strengthen its case for support when it applies to future funders.
Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor, who presented the prizes at a ceremony at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, pointed out that past winners had indeed successfully used their £5,000 prizes as seed funding to attract larger pots of money. "It is disproportionally difficult for smaller charities to gain publicity - which is why our awards go for this scale," he said.
Simon Armson, chief executive of the Samaritans and chair of the judging panel, said of this year's winners: "We were particularly looking for innovation, and each was able to demonstrate creative thinking and a pioneering spirit, while their projects have the ability to be replicated across the country and reach parts of the community that others cannot reach."
Iroko and another winner, ClearVision, which produces specially adapted books for visually impaired children to share with their sighted family and friends, already operate nationally. Yet both charities say that many people who could benefit from their service remain unaware of their existence.
For that reason, they will be putting some of their prize money into boosting publicity materials to help spread the word. Iroko will also be producing a pack to help teachers put into practice the lessons from the group's workshops. "It's amazing how our African art can engage pupils who are resistant to formal teaching methods," said Alex Oma-Pius, Iroko's artistic director.
(View the full article at The Guardian web site)
"Taking Centre Stage" (selected excerpts)
The Guardian, 27 March 2002
Now in their 10th year, the Guardian Charity Awards have made a big difference to past winners. Raekha Prasad looks at the progress made by last year's recipients.
For most charities, making ends meet is a task more pressing than making headlines. And with scores of new charities registered each week, it's ever harder to stand out from the crowd. But the launch today of this year's Guardian Charity Awards offers up-and-coming voluntary groups a rare chance to catch a shaft of limelight.
As well as looking for a contribution to the community that stands out, the judges of this year's award are also hoping to receive entries that demonstrate innovation. The Iroko Theatre Company, another of last year's winners, offers a pointer in that direction.
The group, which uses traditional African storytelling, music and dance to enhance children's confidence, received a surge in interest in its approach after winning the award. The company is performing live this week at Charityfair 2002, where the awards are being launched.
"Until we received the award, we sent out a dreary black-and-white brochure to schools," says Carol Edozie, Iroko's administrator and fundraiser. Some of the prize money has gone towards new publicity material - the first time it has been updated in the organisation's six-year history. As a result, Edozie says Iroko has been inundated with requests from schools to work with pupils. In addition, the company is developing a pack to help teachers put into practice the lessons from the group's workshops.
(View the full article at The Guardian web site)
"Out of Africa"
Extract from "LDV Magazine" - Spring Issue 2002
An award-winning theatre company that specialises in traditional African storytelling, music and dance has been boosting the confidence of children throughout Britain with the help of an LDV minibus.
"Winter term is coming to a close in Barking, East London as 90 children sit cross-legged and transfixed in the assembly hall of Northbury Junior School. In front of them are five figures clad in colourful blue and yellow African dress, bearing traditional African drums and percussion instruments. One stands up and puts a comforting arm around a little boy standing nervously at one side.. and encourages him to play God.
It is a class for characterisation of the highest order, for we are at the start of a story that is being enacted and improvised by the school's seven to eight-year-olds.
The boy, who is being asked to play Nyame, the sky god, booms out with growing confidence a call to the lower gods in the room for advice on what should be done about the wars poverty and starvation afflicting earth. "Fight fire with fire" and "leave them to it" are some of the responses the children shout out until Nyame's helper, Ananse the spider, reminds Nyame of how he was driven away from earth by Man who had set the world on fire. With a majestic flourish, Nyame sends Ananse back to earth to announce that he would be sending a saviour and that the people should prepare for his arrival.
It is the cue for the five performers to drum out African rhythms as the children jump up and sing a jubilant African chorus. As the story becomes even more familiar, the excited youngsters dance and sing in various African languages to celebrate the arrival of baby Yesu.
The creators of this African version of the Christmas story are members of London's IROKO Theatre Company which uses traditional African theatre art to enhance the self-confidence and knowledge of children and young people, including those with special needs.
IROKO - the name stands for the strong African tree that provides the wood for the company's masks - was founded in 1996 by Nigerian-born Alex Oma-Pius. "From working as a theatre-in-education volunteer, I discovered that many schoolchildren knew little about other cultures, especially African culture" he said. "Those with African parentage especially were showing an apathy, borne out of ignorance, that was blocking their self-esteem."
Alex founded IROKO Theatre Company in 1995 to redress this problem. But IROKO is not just aimed at black children - it provides a range of activities for all races in schools, youth centres, hospitals and young offenders' institutions across Britain. Throughout 2001, the company worked with some 90,000 children and young people, through oral storytelling, music and drama workshops. As well as learning about African culture, the sessions have a wider role in promoting team work and racial harmony.
Today's work is part of a three-day workshop residency resulting in every child having a role to play in a one-hour school performance of the nativity, viewed from an African perspective. As well as being able to express themselves through drama, dance and music, children in IROKO workshops get to learn more about African through its musical instruments and hearing traditional folk tales.
The company also conducts in-service training or teaching. This involves demonstrating its work to teachers, followed by a workshop that focusses on the role of storytelling in helping children develop their imagination, listening and communication skills. Early years teachers are also introduced to basic counting chants and musical games and movements that enhance numeracy.
IROKO is also producing a pack to help teachers put into practice the lessons they have learned, with the funding coming from a £5,000 Guardian Charity Award the company received last year in recognition of its outstanding work as a social welfare charity. The award came on top of winning the NatWest Community Involvement Award.
IROKO now has five core performers, employed on a freelance basis and an administrator, Carol Edozie, whose post is funded by a grant from BBC Children in Need.
Its award-winning success has seen demand for residencies and in-depth workshops escalate over the past year. Funding from the Baring Foundation and the Association of London Government has enabled IROKO to conduct residencies in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and outer London, and a grant from Yorkshire Arts has seen IROKO's work extend as far north as Leeds.
"The extra miles have brought the need for better transport. Until two years ago, we only had the use of a single car, which was very limiting. If a school wanted a music workshop, we just couldn't offer it unless it could provide its own instruments, said Alex. Fortunately funding from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts enabled IROKO to invest in a 13-seat LDV Minibus.
"Village people learning about HIV"
Extract from Newham Recorder - 12th Sept 2001
The impact of HIV and AIDS on a fictional African village was explored by a group of children in a play devised and staged by them. Youngsters involved in a course at the Hamilton Road Centre, West Ham, took just four days to rehearse the show featuring music and dance. They presented it to an audience of family and friends.
The 10 to 13-year-olds were guided by a group of professional actors, musicians and dancers from IROKO Theatre Company based in West Ham. The play was about a popular teenager who becomes unwell and is given a blood transfusion as part of her treatment. A few months later she learns she has contracted HIV from the transfusion. This then causes the villagers to shun her.
The aim of the play was to show that even if somebody has a disease, people shouldn't be scared of that person. They should try to help and be their friend. It doesn't change who that person is just because they are sick.
The youngster taking the lead role said "The play has given me the confidence to believe in myself and shown me that everyone should be treated with respect and as an equal". The storyteller in the play said "I told the audience about Anna having HIV. I also told the other villagers about the disease and was trying t explain to them that it's not as deadly as they think. "From taking part I have learned a lot more about my African culture and singing, dancing and drama".
Alex Oma-Pius, Artistic Director at IROKO, said: "I'm really pleased with all the children. I have noticed a great improvement in their development. "They have all become far more confident and by the end of the four days had really opened up. They all worked very hard on the play which was chosen and devised by them."
The course called 'Exploring African Drama' was part of Newham's Summer School programme.
"Drumming Up Stage Skill"
Newham Recorder - 5th Nov 2000
The drums of Africa beat out in West Ham in an exciting stage performance from the IROKO Theatre Company that also featured local youngsters.
Backed by a £4,450 Millennium Festival Award, the Company held pre-show workshops for wannabe performers. These covered the mime, music, dance, mask-making and masquerade skills that would be utilised for the exhilarating stage show at the Hamilton Road Centre.
Artistic Director Alex Oma-Pius said the project was aimed at stimulating young people's interest in performing arts while offering them the unique opportunity for in-depth study of African theatre. A dozen young people from the Stratford area attended the two days of workshops and all got the chance to join the fun, many tasting stage life for the first time in their life.
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