30 million Nigerians and other stories...

The Season of Soyinka ended yesterday, with people being turned back at the gates when all the seats were taken at the 3 o'clock presentation of The Jero Plays. Some offered to pay the full price and stand at the back of the hall. I'd never seen that kind of thing at a theatre before and it gave me cause to think.

There had been a heavy publicity blitz, newspaper and radio ads, and all the major television stations carrying news of the productions, At 9pm yesterday, NTA's Newsline showed excerpts from the Season and all night long, my phone rang. People in Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, some of NTA's vaunted 30 million Network News viewers, calling to wish me well, to say well done.

I am grateful to God. Very much so. And like Rudyard Kipling wrote, "If you can meet with triumph or disaster, and treat both impostors just the same...then you will be a man, my son".

I got the idea for the Season during a conversation I had in my car last year with a cast member. One thing that's been affirmed time after time in this period is that, whatsoever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.

My friends and theatre lovers stood by me. I'd like to thank the bloggers- Ore, Nyemoni, Nilla, lola, araceli, kiibaati, Babaalaye, 36", snazzy, funmi iyanda, and our most yoruba-centric female (some of whom came to several of the shows and all others who refused to introduce themselves),and the out-of-towners- Storm, Jola, Frances, jumi, toyin tomato, noni moss, cheetarah, sherri, Idemili, omosewa, catwalq, ~mimi~, izz, phantomwriter and the many, many others who wished me well.

ps. 36" isn't just talking when she speaks of long legs. I did a quick eye-measure as we spoke as I'd told her I would ;P