By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Arts Theatre in Lagos will offer the best standard of service delivery and compete for international events when its ongoing rehabilitation is completed.
This was made known by the General Manager of the company, Mr Sunday Ododo, at a one-day Theatre Technology Workshop held at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Hall, Iganmu, Lagos.
According to him, the ongoing revamp of the national monument will make the edifice more beautiful, requiring skillful staff to deliver quality services to customers.
“The new National Theatre will be having a customer base that is international and is used to the best standards of service delivery.
“We will be competing internationally for events like World Trade Conferences, United Nations meetings, AU conferences and others,” Mr Ododo said.
He said that the workshop became necessary to equip the staff mentally in order to function at an international level, promising to actualise a “new National Theatre” that would effectively deliver services and rank among the best public theatres globally.
“As the theatre building is undergoing much-needed revamping, renovation and repairs, it is pertinent to equip those who will run the operations of the ‘new National Theatre,” he said.
He said the capacity building of the National Theatre staff was paramount to improve their skills and make them mentally able to survive modern theatre operations.
The one-day training focused on stage lighting, sound and set design for staff whose job descriptions fall under one of the theatre technologies.
The rehabilitation and redevelopment of the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, is a N25 billion investment financed by the Bankers Committee in a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Federal Government.
As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the rehabilitation with the federal government, the sprawling ground of the monument will be redeveloped into a creative hub for film, fashion, music and Information Technology.