Ola Rotimi

Olawale Gladstone Emmanuel Rotimi, best known as Ola Rotimi , was one of Nigerias leading playwrights and theatre directors. He has been called a complete man of the theatre an actor, director, choreographer and designer who created performance spaces, influenced by traditional architectural forms.

Rotimi was the son of Samuel Gladstone Enitan Rotimi a Yoruba steamlaunch engineer and Dorcas Adolae Oruene Addo an Ijaw drama enthusiast. He was born in Sapele, Nigeria cultural diversity was a recurring theme in his work. He attended St. Cyprians School in Port Harcourt from 1945 to 1949, St Judes School, Lagos, from 1951 to 1952 and the Methodist Boys High School in Lagos, before travelling to the United States in 1959 to study at Boston University, where he obtained a BA in fine arts. In 1965, he married Hazel Mae Guadreau, originally from Gloucester Hazel also studied at Boston University, where she majored in opera, voice and music education. In 1966 he obtained an MA from Yale School of Drama, where he earned the distinction of being a Rockefeller Foundation scholar in playwriting and dramatic literature.

Source: Wikipedia