FirstBank, Eko Hotels Sponsors Theatre Show
FirstBank, the premier bank in West Africa in collaboration with Eko Hotels and Suites, has sponsored the showing of a musical theatre show titled “The Jewel,” and it will take the stage from April 18th to 19th at the Eko Hotel Convention Center.
This was disclosed at a press conference on Wednesday in Eko Hotels, Lagos Nigeria. The sponsorship of the event reflected FirstBank’s commitment to the creative industry.
Providing support for the creative industry for years and in the past few months, FirstBank has also sponsored the showing of Kurunmi, a stage play, at the Lagos International Theatre Festival, and launched an entertainment channel, Bluu TV, among others.
Olayinka Ijabiyi, the Acting Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, at FirstBank, who spoke at the event, said, “From music to entertainment, theatre, stage performances, to poem performances and everything in between, FirstBank has always supported.”
Ijabiyi also added that FirstBank’s support for the creative industry ran the entire value chain beyond the visible players to the back-end production and that the bank was taking a long-term view of its partnership with Eko Hotels.
Also speaking at the event, the Head of Sponsorships, Partnerships, Events & Collaborations at First Bank, Chinwe Bode-Akinwande, explained that FirstBank was providing the needed support to the sector and meeting the banking needs of players through its sponsorship.
“We see that this is a value chain. It is bringing banking into the art space. So, people have different needs around the financial space. They could want to book a facility and learn new skills, so this is beyond them doing this performance and empowering them to put food on their table. With FirstBank supporting the initiative of art, it means a whole lot of people, even those in the backstage that you do not see, have something to do and have reasons to wake up every day to continue to pursue their passion,” Bode-Akinwande said.
Danny Kioupouroglou, the General Manager of Eko Hotels, affirmed that Eko Hotels and FirstBank have a lot in common in terms of providing first-class entertainment, “They are here to support the arts. They are not here to support the hotel as a business. They are to support the theatre performance, the musicians, and the technicians and to develop an ecosystem that becomes bigger and becomes more robust and more economically viable.”
Speaking on the musical, the Director of Sales and Marketing, Eko Hotels and Suites, Dr Iyadunni Gbadebo, said, “It is a play. It’s a theatre show. It’s a Broadway-style musical theatre show. It was inspired by two renowned playwrights and their works, ‘The Lion and the Jewel’ and ‘Our Husbands Have Gone Mad Again’ (Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi). For us in the theatre, our creative licence is beyond just developing things that exist. It’s taking things that exist and looking for new ways to interpret those things in such a way that it come as a major source of entertainment and appreciation.
“These plays have a very strong moral and social part to them, and for us, the beauty, the richness and the global appreciation of African theatre must not be completely lost. If you look around you today in schools, you find children listening, reading and learning about cultures of many other parts of the continent, but Africa, and what the essence of Africa’s literature is, is fast becoming extinct. So, it’s things like this that we’re working very hard to bring back and showcase so that our story can go out to the world in a way that makes people see us and appreciate us for the good things that we have and the good things that we are. Our literature is amazing, and we don’t want to forget that, and it’s why we have this particular play. The Jewel is inspired by both renowned playwrights. The other twist to display this Broadway musical was shown on the 18th and 19th of April, at the Convention Centre, proudly sponsored by FirstBank, and it is also set in the future.”
PUNCH
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