FOREMOST THEATRE SCHOLAR, PROF DAPO ADELUGBA, DIES AT 75

Prof. Dapo Adelugba

One of Nigeria’s foremost theatre arts scholars, Professor Dapo Adelugba, is dead. He was aged 75.

The news of the death of the former head of the Theatre Arts Department of the University of Ibadan (UI), filtered into town on Monday, although he was said to have passed away in Ibadan last week Sunday at about 11.50 p.m.

Born on March 9, 1939, Adelugba studied English at the University College, Ibadan.

While at the university, apart from taking part in a lot of productions such as Wole Soyinka’s Swamp Dwellers, where he acted as the Blindman, he was president of University College, Ibadan Dramatic Society, where he adapted Moliere’s ‘Les Fourberies de Scapin’ (The Trickeries of Scapin) to ‘That Scoundrel Suberu’.

In 1964, he submitted his Master’s degree dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he wrote on Nationalism and the Irish Theatre.

He later joined the teaching services of the University of Ibadan, where he retired in 2004. He spent his last teaching years as emeritus professor at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, from where he finally retired two years ago.