PROJECTS

The Illuminateheatre Annual Children’s Day festival celebrates and empowers youth aged 11–22, focusing on those from disadvantaged communities. It offers transformative experiences that spark creativity, support learning, and build confidence. Held during a pivotal stage in young lives, the event aims to inspire, uplift, and help shape the next generation of leaders through meaningful engagement and opportunity.

Open Studio is a quarterly event that unites artists, scholars, and activists to share work, exchange ideas, and collaborate across disciplines. It fosters dialogue between the civil and creative communities, offering a platform for presentations, discussions, and connection. By creating an inclusive space where creativity, activism, and scholarship intersect, Open Studio encourages innovation, mutual learning, and public engagement with cultural and intellectual leaders.

The Migrant is a multimedia dance performance that delves into the complex realities of migration in Africa. This project draws upon the personal migration experiences of the performers, transforming their stories into a powerful artistic expression. Through a dynamic blend of dance, multimedia elements, and oral history, the performance explores the emotional and physical journeys of migration, capturing the lived experiences of the dancers.

Art Mobile, Lagos is a gathering for street performances, rituals, talks, and discoveries by international literary activists and artists. It fosters engagement, collaboration, and exchange through workshops, screenings, exhibitions, and symposiums. Inspired by the Nigerian doctrine of Odun, it channels vital energies through seasonal, communal gatherings to inspire, teach, and connect across creative disciplines.

Theatre on the move! IlluminateTheatre, in collaboration with Theater-X Berlin, reclaims public spaces in Lagos through “Naija Area,” part of the FESTIWALLA festival. Inspired by Lord Lugard’s Dual Mandate, this performance deconstructs colonial ideologies, explores post-colonial identity, and reclaims African narratives. Using dance, voice, and movement, it critiques historical and ongoing oppression while celebrating Pan-African resistance and resilience.

Activate! – ChoreoXChange on Bodies in the Street brings together artists from Berlin, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Tallahassee, Riga, and Lagos to explore movement, protest, and collective memory. Through walking, performance, and storytelling, the event maps activist practices—from krumping to blockades—shaping vibrant, futurist, community-driven worlds of resistance, creativity, solidarity, and hope.

MAN'STER is a multimedia dance performance responding to manhood as a social phenomenon. The piece explores masculinity from a diverse perspective. It highlights male dominance in the context of power manipulation in politics, social affairs and pays strict attention to his cultural representation.

Olugba is a total theatre performance portraying immigration as perceived from our perceptive as Nigerians and how it has affected the global scene. The performance is self-realization and encouragement to African youths to stay in their home country and tackle the moribund situation.

This experimental film collage and live performance presents an African perspective on the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, where Western powers divided Africa into colonial territories. The work draws a parallel by enacting a visible division and reorganization of Europe itself, highlighting the external imposition and control behind the colonial process. It challenges historical narratives by focusing on the impact of this partition from a postcolonial viewpoint.

This research-based performance focuses on the trauma, challenges, and struggles of young people in Lagos. It engages youth through verbal communication on the streets, exploring daily life genres and addressing critical issues like sexual assault, feminism, illness, masculinity, and drug abuse. The work sheds light on their experiences, creating a raw and honest reflection of the complexities faced by young people in their communities.

This dance piece, rooted in Nigeria, highlights the struggles of young people growing up there. Inspired by everyday experiences—surviving in the ghetto, riding Danfo buses, facing robbery, and job hunting after graduation—it uses body movements to reflect these realities. The performance deeply explores Nigeria’s current socio-political and economic crises through the perspectives and stories of its performers, offering a powerful social commentary.