Tosan Edremoda-Ugbeye’s voice is very unique. She has been a teacher, scriptwriter, voiceover artiste and singer, but would rather be referred to as an actor. The artistic director of King’s Theatre Limited, which she founded, tells Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, why she would rather be an actor.
Are you still in touch with Chuck Mike?
Tosan Edremoda-Ugbeye
Yes, from time to time.
How was the experience teaching in his school like?
at performance studio workshop, I taught there for 10 years and it was wonderful from 1991 to 2001. It was through that experience that I met a lot of young artistes that I still work with now. Sometimes I work for them now. So, that was a great experience. Every year he had a workshop where he had a major production that he would do and he would train young artistes for about, I think a three-month period in different part of performance and I used to teach acting and speech for him. Actually, he did improvisational acting and I did method acting. So, I taught method acting and speech and voice, two different subjects for him. So that was a nice break and he would usually come round at a time that I was free enough from LASU (Lagos State University).
You did 10 years as well at LASU?
Yes, I did. I taught in the English Department before the Theatre Department was in existence. I was just there at the beginning of the theatre diploma programme and I taught for about two years. Basically, I taught drama and theatre courses in the English Department before the Theatre Department came into being.
You left LASU, what happened?
Whenever people ask me, what do you do? in fact, on my passport it is written, Actor. So, basically, that is how I view myself. So, even if I do any other thing that is how I view myself. It was getting to a point where I would look into the classroom and I couldn’t remember whether I was teaching 400 level or 200 level or 100 level. And I said no, I am being unjust to these young people. And I should just go and do what I am most interested in doing. Even though I think that basically, if there is a call on my life, it is to teach because even while I perform, I still find myself teaching. In fact, I do handle trainings right now in the area of voice, speech, acting, presentation and so on. It is something that I still do.
What you did with Chuck Mike is about the same thing you did with PEK Repertory Theatre?
He used to use the space that was known as PEK Repertory Theatre, so PSW was housed at PEK so a lot of people would say that. But actually, PSW or Collective Artistes, which is the umbrella organisation, was housed within PEK. So I actually worked for PSW at PEK Repertory Theatre. But at the time that JP Clark was there I was just a student back then. I just remember coming there to see rehearsals at one occasion but I started working with Chuck Mike in 1991.
You are artistic director for Kings Theatre; what does that involve?
Right now I am really doing more planning than anything else because I have found that without the right funding, we really can’t do anything. Right now people are packaging like mad so you have to really be out there. That is something that I have not mastered as yet. So I would say that artistically, that what we do is rewrite. I mean, I personally I write, I direct and I teach and I also consult in the area of performance. That is really what Kings Theatre does. But as for putting on productions, which was the reason why I actually created the company, we haven’t done that really in a while. That is something I am seriously looking forward to and driving towards doing. As an individual, I have been doing work but as a company, we really haven’t done much in the last four, five years.
Is that your voice that greets callers when they call…
Airtel and Etisalat, yes (laughter).
When did you discover that you could do something with your voice?
Quite early on, I was 14 years old. I was in Holy Child College and we used to go for Mass at St. Gregory’s Collage and one of the very perceptive priests there noticed my voice. He said you could come and read for me during the Mass. So I said okay. And of course I would go. He used to have Mass on a radio programme and I would read part of the scripture there. That was how it started. And at the university I had a roommate who was a film student and she said I need your voice to do a voiceover for this documentary on Wales. I said, okay, sure, I will do it (laughter). So I have been doing it informally for a long time. But I really started doing it formally in 1991 or 1992 when I think there was a strike, an ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities). I walked over to one of these studious. I saw Segun Arinze there. He was the one who got me my first voiceover job. Since then I have been doing that.
So when did French and German or is it Spanish come along?
My father was a diplomat and so I grew up in different places and the first couple of postings that he had after I was born, the first was to Guinea Conakry and to Zaire and those two places were French speaking. So, as a child I grew up speaking French and for years I spoke French. Another one of his postings was Ivory Coast so at school I did French O’Levels so I grew up speaking French without ever having studied it. But it has been a while since I have actually used that ability so I don’t know how fluent my French is any longer. But luckily I have a daughter who studied French so maybe she will keep me on my toes about it. But I have a good understanding of it. And also, we lived in Italy when I was a child. Whenever I hear Italian I can understand every word but I don’t know if I could still hold a conversation in Italian. So I grew up with all these different influences.
But you can speak Itsekiri fluently?
Oh yes, that is my native tongue, mother tongue.
These days you find that when people speak English they stumble in their mother tongue.
I know. My mother was very strict about it. Like I said, my father was a diplomat so really, his work was about representing Nigeria, our culture, values and traditions, and he took it very seriously. And my mother was very strict, she used to say to us when we lived in other countries, if she spoke to you in Itsekiri and you answered in English she would say in Itsekiri that she does not understand you. Until you spoke to her in Itsekiri she would pretend she didn’t understand. So we were forced to speak it and I think it was one of the best things my parents did for me.
Did you do that for your children?
Yes, they can speak. Except my son, who hasn’t started speaking yet but he understands and when I took him to school in Canada, I was speaking to him in Itsekiri and he understood. So, yeah, I think it is very important to have a Nigerian language whatever it is to know some of your own culture. Of course you know values are intrinsic within language so without the language you can’t have the values of the people so.
You were in Flower Girl. Is Mitchell Bello one of your students?
No, she is not. But many years ago her mother was the CEO of Masuma Africa and I had auditioned for her years earlier and now Michelle is a film maker and I think some of my young friends, some of whom were my students worked along with her so I think that perhaps when she was looking for someone to play the role of Damilola’s mother that is how my name came up.
You have taught quite a number of young people and often you find older people talking about the good old days when things were better done. Do you think that among these young people you have found those who will keep this going?
Oh gosh, yes. If we turn to the Bible it says that the person that is being taught will always on some level be greater than the one that teaches him. I mean, Jesus himself said that we would do greater works than what he did. And if you are a believer you would know that he was God. So, how is it possible that God will tell you that you will do greater works than what he did? There is so much in terms of knowledge that they would do more but they are doing more in terms of exposure, in terms of who they can reach, in terms of the way that they can portray their message. Because right now you can put stuff on YouTube, there are so many outlets. There is no excuse for a creative person now not to do creative work. Except really your hands are tied somewhere and you cannot have access to a computer, the internet. So, they are doing greater works already. But in terms of discipline and in terms of the craft, I believe that anybody I thought should be able to hold their head up and be a proud theatre practitioner, definitely. Especially people who went through PSW under Chuck Mike, who we taught there. I mean, all of them, I see them now and I am very proud.
