BAP: A QUINTESSENTIAL POWER HOUSE OF SCREEN AND STAGE AT 53
By Bukola Lasisi
Beautiful, dutiful and colourful. Those words aptly describe her. She is in theatre but does not give rooms for theatrics. Call her a benevolent dictator while calling shots, you won’t be wrong. Her eyes are always on the goals. Focused and determined. She immerses her total being into a project like the last before the last breath. She is detailed with the eagle eyes that are capable of seeing beyond the skin. Firm, yet funny. She has a heart of Gold that could make the pope go green with envy.
Bolanle Austen-Peters is a Nigerian business woman, lawyer, an art enthusiast, and an award winning film and theatre director who has changed the perspective of the Nigerian theatre industry. She is the founder and Managing Director of Terra Kulture, the foremost Nigerian art and culture centre located in Lagos, Nigeria.
Bolanle, an indigene of Ekiti was born in Ibadan, Oyo State in the south-western region of Nigeria, on the 4th of February 1969. She was born to Aare Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Yeye Modupe Babalola as the last child of her parents. Bolanle’s father was a disciplinarian as such, the position of a last child did not earn her any special privilege. He was able to instill in his children the values of integrity, honesty, hard work and believe in God. These are the fundamental principles that have guided Bolanle’s life till date.
“My dad, a Lawyer is a highly principled and disciplined person, he therefore instilled in us those vales. He’s a disciplinarian and trained us all to be focused. He gave us room to be free with him and to always express our views on issues. He raised us to be independent and taught us to strive to do the best of our abilities in anything we set out to do”
As an example of her father’s determined spirit, she points out that despite being in his eighties, her father had established the Afe Babalola University and in less than five years built the school to one of the leading Universities in Nigeria.
She had her secondary education at both the Command Secondary School. Ibadan and the International School Ibadan. After her SSCE, she went for her undergraduate studies at the University of Lagos, where she studied law. Thereafter, she went for her masters in International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The quintessential business woman didn’t start out her career or education pursuing art. She has organised, managed and attended numerous workshops and seminars both within and outside of the United Nations system on various issues. Prior to that, she served as a lawyer with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Switzerland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations Development Programme. She returned to Nigeria in 2001 as a consultant to UNDP Lagos.
Bolanle Austen-Peters and her husband decided to relocate to Nigeria in 2002. Meanwhile, while working with the United Nations, Bolanle realized she was fascinated by museums and art exhibition centres. So on getting to Nigeria, she observed that art and culture had been neglected in the country. However, she knew the sector was worth billions, and a major contributor to economic growth abroad. Therefore, she concluded she was going to mine the gold in the industry, and also be an employer of labour. She was also passionate about creating employment opportunities thereby curbing the unemployment rate in Nigeria
Terra Kulture was established in 2003. It was born out of Bolanle’s passion to preserve the Nigerian culture. She started with stage musicals, instead of the normal stage play known in Nigeria. The pattern was new and nobody believed it or understood what she was doing. Although she was discouraged at the low patronage at first, Bolanle kept pushing. Today however, the Nigerian art and culture organisation, Terra Kulture, an educational and recreational organisation set up in 2003 to promote the richness and diversity of Nigerian Languages, Arts and Culture is thriving.
Asides her excellent accomplishment at Terra Kulture, Bolanle is also the founder and CEO of BAP Productions, a company with which she has raised the bar of production in the theatre industry in Nigeria since 2013. Her first known work under Bolanle Austen-Peters Productions, ‘Saro the Musical’ received affirmations from international media houses including the BBC and Sky News. Following the success of SARO the Musical, Bolanle’s BAP also produced WAKAA! the Musical. This second musical turned out to become even more successful than the first. It became the first Nigerian musical ever to be staged at London’s famous West End and the Shaw Theatre where it sold out tickets. The success of the second musical better positioned Bolanle as a force to be reckoned with in the Nigerian and indeed theatre industry across Africa. She has since gone on to achieve more success in film, executive-producing the 2016 film, 93 Days which was about the tragic Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. The film featured a wide collaboration of both legendary Nollywood and Hollywood cast and was a box office success. With ‘Fela’ and ‘The Kalakuta Queens’ musical, she produced one of the biggest shows out of West Africa with over 120,000 people watching it in Lagos, Cairo and down south in Pretoria between 2017 and 2020. The musical is based on the real-life story of Nigerian music icon and Activist, Fela Kuti and the women who stood by him. She also directed the blockbuster movie ‘The Bling Lagosians’ in 2019, collision 2021 and other works.
Her musicals were the first Nigerian musicals to be staged in London, Egypt and South Africa. She is described as the woman ‘powering theatre industry in Nigeria by CNN’. She built the first private theatre in Nigeria, and has built an additional four for the Lagos State government.
A close up on some Bolanle’s artistic efforts include;
SARO THE MUSICAL
The story takes us on a journey with four enthusiastic talented singers from the village who plan to find fame and fortune in Lagos, the big city. As they arrive in Lagos with not much more than a hope and a dream we, watch them get schooled in city life with its abrupt lows and surprising highs. It tells a story of their journey from the comfort of their multi-ethnic villages seeking a better life in the city of Lagos, which is seen as a land of freedom and opportunities. On getting to Lagos, they find that not all that glitters is gold and ‘blowing’ will take more than just a stroke of luck. Their dreams of making it appear bleak until the smooth-talking and stylish Don Ceeto swaggers in. Don Ceeto takes the boys home and with some help from Derry Black, he cleans them up and sets them up on the road to stardom. It features lead actors like Gideon Okeke, Patrick Diabuah, Paul Ifeanyi Alumona, and Paolo Sisiano etc. SARO the musical was produced by Bolanle Austen-Peters Productions (BAP) as its first production. It played at Muson Centre in December 2014 and April 2015. It is also the first Nigerian musical that was performed at London’s West End and Shaw Theatre. The musical selection was directed by Ayo Ajayi. While talking about her inspiration for SARO the musical, she mentioned that it was born out of her love for art. “It is a journey that started simply because I wanted to do theatre, because I loved theatre in school. Later I realized that we had more experts and people showing more interest in the project. I said to myself, surely, if we are not known for anything else, Nigerians are known for music, dance, and for our creativity. I think this is where we have an advantage; we write, sing, dance, and act; it’s part of our DNA. So I tried to find and fill the missing link, which I found out was funding and visibility. I decided to write a play and thought that a musical would be better received.”
WAKAA THE MUSICAL
Wakaa the Musical” is a family-orientated 2-hour stage musical extravaganza of drama, comedy, live music and dance. ‘WAKAA!’ which reveals the struggles and challenges young people face in present day Nigeria and abroad, is also a strong satire of Nigeria’s politics, exploring the scheming, intrigues, betrayals and games people play in life. In explaining what birthed the idea of WAKKA, Bolanle Austen-Peters, the producer and directors says that “This is coming in response to growing interests in productions of African origin across the globe, and various calls for us to take this production to the international community. There is a large Nigerian and Afro – Caribbean population in London, who are interested and yearning to see world class productions from Nigeria.”
93 DAYS
Her veer into film was an instant hit. 93 Days is a film that was made to honour the Late Dr Stella Ameyo Adadevoh. Bolanle co-produced the feature film on Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. With 13 nominations, 93 Days emerged the highest nominated film at the African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards. The film also attracted seven nominations at the 2017 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). The film was selected and premiered at the different international festivals such as; The African Festival in Cologne/Germany, RapidLion Awards, The Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, The Johannesburg Film Festival, The Toronto International Film Festival, and the Chicago Film Festival.
Other works
In December 2017, Bolanle Austen-Peters also directed the iconic Fela and The Kalakuta Queens musical and added Moremi the Musical, which tells the story of the 12th century Yoruba legend Queen who liberated the people of Ife from the grasp of their enemies, in 2018. Her direction of Moremi the Musical received rave reviews and accolades from Professor Wole Soyinka who reportedly described it as “a theatrical Landmark in Nigeria’s theatre history.” In partnership with MTN, BAP Productions was able to present on stage the’ Death and the King’s Horseman‘- a play written Prof. Wole Soyinka. Other stage dramas and films include ‘Fela and ‘The Kalakuta Queens’ musical, The Bling Lagosian, Collision etc
The queen of theatre, as she is fondly called has recently secured the rights to produce the biography, which she is also directing. The film, tentatively titled “Funmilayo: The Lioness of Lisabi,” is scheduled to be released in 2022/23. It will chronicle the life of the political activist and will include appearances from her grandchildren Femi Kuti, Yeni Kuti, and great-grandson Made Kuti.
“Having directed the stage version of the story of great women such as ‘Queen Moremi’, ‘Oluronbi’, and ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens’ (the story of the 27 women that danced and married Fela Anikulapo-Kuti), I am interested in telling the story of this phenomenal woman, Funmilayo,” she said, confirming the news.
Over her illustrious career in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur, she has contributed incomparably to the growth of theatre, entertainment and film in Nigeria. In all these, Bolanle has helped empower hundreds, even thousands of Nigerians by providing them with meaningful employment and sources of livelihood.
Bolanle Austen-Peter is married to Adegboyega Austen-Peters and they have two children together.
We at www.shoots.ng wish you many happy returns of this beautiful 53rd birthday anniversary.
Pictutre Credits: @bolabap and internet
