Jos Festival Of Theatre Returns For A 16th Edition This May

Jos Festival of Theatre (JFT), an annual six-day celebration and immersion into Nigerian and foreign theatre repertory organized by the Jos Repertory Theatre (JRT), is back for its sixteenth edition.

Scheduled to hold May 16 – 20, 2025, at the Alliance Francais, Jos, the festival will typically feature debut directors – Mark Musa, Osasogie Guobadia and Uvie Giwewhegbe, alongside a mix of Nigerian and international plays.

Veterans of JRT training and performances over the past decade, Musa will be directing his own play ’I Do (Do I?), while Guobadia will direct ‘Spirit’ a Pidgin adaptation of Swedish playwright, Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Ghosts’. Giwewhegbe, who holds a shorter theatre experience, will make her directorial debut of her own play ‘This Is How The Day Ended’ at the festival.

Other plays set to showcase at the festival include Czech classic play ‘The Protest’ by Vaclav Havel. The Protest is a sequel to Havel’s ‘The Audience’ which the JRT toured the Czech Republic in 2022. There is also American playwright Arthur Miller’s ‘A View From The Bridge’ – a migration

Together the plays will address issues of migration, marriage, politics, revolt, change, economic inequalities and abuse of power as it explores the festival’s theme, what it feels like ‘Creating Theatre in These Times’.

Additionally, the festival will feature artistic gatherings and meetings aimed at resuscitating NANTAP Jos, as well as conversations around arts management fulfilling an objective of its supporter, the DeVos Institute for Arts and Non-Profit Management; experiences two sets of interns from Nigerian universities will benefit from.

Jos Festival of Theatre 2025 is a collaboration of the Jos Repertory Theatre and the United States Government Exchange Alumni Association of Nigeria (USGEAAN), with the support of the DeVos Institute for Arts and Non-Profit Management, Washington DC, Oluwanifemi Bolatito Foundation, Maisie Pearls Fashions, Jos Business School, Grand Towers Limited, Alliance Francais Jos, among others.