ROLES OF THEATRE MANAGER IN THE MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINANCE OF PERFORMANCE BUILDINGS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The Performance buildings in Nigeria serve as popular outlets for entertainment, education and relaxation. They also serve as custodians of people’s heritage as well as reservoirs of culture and tradition. The study notes that the Public Performance Buildings in Nigeria are challenged by neglect, inadequate funding, lack of awareness and patronage when compared to Privately-owned theatre Buildings which are well funded, maintained, sustained aside attracting adequate publicity, quality performances in conducive environments. In view of this, the study examined the role of Theatre manager in the management and sustainability of theatre in Nigeria noting that his/her duty accentuates both the profit and survival of the theatre. As applicable to every research work, the need to adopt theoretical approaches to guide this study is imperative. To this end, Maintenance Optimization Model (MOM) and Multiple Stakeholder Theory propounded by Fons Trompenaars and Peter Woollians (2010) were considered applicable to the study. The study adopts both Key in format Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) as instruments for data gathering and contextual analysis. The study discovered that the roles of theatre manager in government-owned theatres are not well-defined and lack operational model when compared to privately-owned theatre. The study therefore identifies the need for a robust and sustainable theatre model which can facilitate adequate maintenance and sustenance of performance buildings based on effective management and utilization of available resources.