Jumoke Olatubosun is an actor of no mean consequence and those who saw her excellently play three roles at the ninth Jos Festival of Theatre will agree. She was Ruby in August Wilson’s play King Hedley II, Moriam in Sefi Atta’s Last Stand and Joko in Body Parts by Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba.
Born Olajumoke Michelle Olatubosun, the actor from Ekiti State grew up in Kwara State before marriage took her to her current base of Jos, Plateau State.
So how did acting start for her?
“I attended University of Ilorin Primary School and students of the University of Ilorin used to have project plays in 400 level and they would come to the primary school to get the children to play little children in their plays. That was how I stumbled into acting some 30 something years ago,” she said.
But back then Jumoke had a little challenge, which was that there were really no role models she could look up to.
“Back then, you had to go professional, study medicine, engineering and accounting,” she explained. She said this is because people regarded those studying theatre arts then as not having something better to do. She was to train as a business administrator but the acting passion just never left her.
“Acting is something that I have always loved doing, I just enjoy it. I believe actors are one of the most intelligent human beings. To be an actor I believe it takes a certain level of great intelligence, assuming different roles, different times, different ages and settings, different communities,” Jumoke said.
She admits that acting takes a lot of hard work and that to be an actor one has to do a lot of research to find yourself in the situation or position you have been given.
“Taking the three plays I have done at the ninth Jos Festival of Theatre, I have to do a little bit of research to find out how best I can interpret the roles, one as Ruby in a black American setting. I had to understand what obtained then. We are looking at 1940/1948 in that frame of time, there were certain things that were predominant. The particular setting depicted is the generation where black Americans were jobless. A lot of them had a picture of what success is. They identified success with having money and not necessarily working for it. And most of them amazingly owned guns and all that. They wanted to be celebrities, stars. Some of them came from broken homes and a lot of these things have a way of affecting little children growing up even in our society,” she stated.
Jumoke explained that she had to do a lot of research to find out how best she could represent the character of Ruby including understanding the psychological makeup of Ruby. “What was her status? How old was she? Was she strong? Was she a fun loving person? She used to be a singer who sang in nightclubs so it affected my characterisation to a large extent,” said Jumoke.
Jumoke, who said she lives and breathes acting, stated that she enjoys having a challenge where she can act a character that is different from her person.
Jumoke, who is also into business, explained that she heard about the Jos Repertory Theatre after getting married and moving to Jos.
“Of course, I had been doing movies as well. I went for audition and was able to get a role with the Jos Repertory Theatre,” she recalled.
Talking about the challenges she has endured during her career, she mentioned getting into character to be a major one. Because, she said, it is good when you get your lines, but more than getting the lines, I also wants to assume the character has been given.
“That is why most times I go out of my way to understand who this character is because at the end of the day, when the audience sees what I am doing, I want it to be believable. I don’t want them to see me, I want them to see the character, to enjoy the character, get the message. So that when they are looking at me, they are seeing the character I am trying to depict,” she said.
Another challenge for her is funding, which she said is the general thing people in the arts are all experiencing, “though I have made up my mind that whether I am paid or not, but I wish to be paid, acting is something I can do without being paid”.
But she eventually found a role model in the person of the late Prof Zulu Sofola.
“I wasn’t really inspired; I didn’t look at theatre arts as something I could study because I didn’t really get a role model, someone I would look up to and say, ‘yes, this is someone I admire so much and this is someone I would love to be like’. Perhaps the only person I respected would be the late Prof, Zulu Sofola. Then she was a lecturer at the University of Ilorin, a very intelligent and disciplined woman. That is one thing I love, anything I do, I love to be disciplined in it. A lot of people in our day and time just do things haphazardly and give the excuse that because I am an actor, no, there is a discipline that goes with acting. Acting is an honourable profession, such that I wouldn’t mind my children going into it”.
