Ajoke Jacobs
Award winning veteran actress producer director and acting coach, Joke Silva since 1981 has worked on the platform of theatre, film, television and radio. She trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts and has a Degree in English from the University of Lagos.
In recent times Joke has enjoyed working on Hearword produced and directed by Ifeoma Fafunwa. The play has toured Harvard Dance Centre, American Repertory Theater both in Boston. Frascati Theatre Amsterdam, The Public Theater NewYork, Segerstrom Centre Califonia, Thalia theater Hamburg, Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh to name a few.
Joke Silva has featured in many award-winning films which includes: – Peter Schwabach’s THE SECRET LAUGHTER OF WOMEN; Kunle Afolayan’s PHONE SWAP, Jeta Amata and Scott Cleverdon’s THE AMAZING GRACE, Mahmood Ali Balogun’s TANGO WITH ME, Izu Ojukwu’s WHITE WATERS, POTATO POTHATO, Niyi Akinmolayan CHIEF DADDY and THE SETUP to name a few.
She has several awards including 5 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), SOLIDRA Award for Performing Art; Best of Africa Award from Alexander Forbes.
Joke co-founded Lufodo Group with her husband Olu Jacobs specializing in Productions of Drama Content and an Academy of Performing Arts. The production arm, Lufodo Productions curated Nigeria’s Artistic expression at the 2012 Olympics with three plays – The Lion and the Jewel, The Naming Ceremony and The King Must Dance Naked, a Film Festival and a Poetry Festival. They also curated the Nigerian Creative Arts Exchange in Paris 2018 with a Fashion Show, Nigerian music, Art Exhibition and the dance drama Fear Abides With Me by Abioye Ronke Taiwo. Lufodo Productions over the years has produced plays at the National Theatre, Glover Memorial Hall and Muson Centre. To their credit are groundbreaking plays like THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, DIGGING FOR GOLD – an adaptation of Oscar Wild’s “An Ideal Husband”, THE KING MAKER (FILM), HOLY CHILD MUSICAL (Written by Olu Jacobs), SHYLOCK ( by Arnold Wesker) in which she played Portia, HEARTBEAT THE MUSICAL (Written by Tosin Otudeko), Ahmed Yerima’s SISTERS, LITTLE DROPS and ADA THE COUNTRY produced and directed by Kemi Lala Akindoju.
Joke is known for using all forms of creative media as a tool to support her convictions on women empowerment and human rights. She is a United Nations’ Goodwill Ambassador against Trafficking in persons (TIP); the Vice Chairman, AART of Life Foundation; Ambassador for Nigerian Women Trust Fund; Board member of Savannah Centre for Democracy, Diplomacy and Development, Board Member LIMGE.
Joke is currently the Managing Director of Malete Film Village in Kwara State, Nigeria.
Olasupo Shasore – Chairman
Senior Counsel (a member of the inner bar, appointed Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2006); often referred to as a ‘seasoned arbitrator and strategic litigator’, thirty years of experience acting for sovereign, sub-national and private international parties in international commercial & investment arbitration/ litigation and other advisory capacities; shipping & maritime law, project and risk advice in mining, natural resources, energy and infrastructure; seasoned and frequently appointed arbitrator or expert on Nigerian Law.
Shasore has significant experience in commercial arbitration; lead counsel in an on-going complex State- Investor dispute, an International Investment Arbitration before ICSID Tribunal; Represented the Sovereign States and entities in leading precedents on Sovereign Immunity in Nigeria; Frequently selected expert on Nigerian law at arbitration/foreign proceedings.
Counsel and legal adviser to the Eko Atlantic City development project, a ten million square meter city and infrastructure development project valued at $7.5 billion in Nigeria; Energy advisor to energy sector investors and transactions involving significant power company M&A transactions; significant public sector experience: Attorney-General for Lagos State Nigeria, (2007-2011);
Expertise: Commercial Law, Litigation & Arbitration/ADR, Maritime & Shipping Law, Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure, Regulatory & Compliance.
Authorships: Commercial Arbitration-Arbitration Law and International Practice in Nigeria (2011) (Johnson & Shasore);
Jurisdiction and Sovereign Immunity in Nigerian Commercial Law (NIIA 2007)
Bolanle Austen-Peters
She is the Chief Executive and Resident Director of Terra Kulture Arena and BAP Productions. She has built an enviable reputation for herself in the Nigerian theater and film circuit with such massive Box Office pieces as ‘Saro The Musical’, ‘Wakaa The Musical’, ‘Moremi The Musical’, ‘Fela And The Kalakuta Queens and most recently ‘Fela’s Republic and The Kalakuta Queens’ apart from her successful forays into film with ’93 Days’ and ‘Bling Lagosians’.
David Evans
David is a Board Member of the Lagos Theatre Festival and was part of the team that founded the Festival in 2013 when he worked as Production Manager and consultant.
David is Head of Production at National Theatre Wales, https://nationaltheatrewales.org
For whom he has production managed and overseen site- specific productions in sites as diverse as mountain sides, trains, aircraft hangers and beaches. He oversaw the “City of the Unexpected” event in Cardiff city centre that attracted 200,000 people over two days, the largest event in Cardiff since 1898.
From 2000 to 2011 David was the Production Manager for Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake”, http://swanlaketour.com/ apparently the most successful dance show in the world, he also Production Managed “The Car Man”, “Edward Scissorhands” and “Play Without Words” for Matthew. David worked on various incarnations of “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” http://www.priscillathemusical.com/ round the world and made a 9.5 tonne bus for the London production which was encased in 60,000 LEDs.
David has worked in 36 countries including Jamaica, Japan, The USA, Russia, Australia and Brazil and he has worked with many companies visiting the UK including the Romanian, Moldovian and Ukranian National Operas, the Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
David works as an educator at various institutions including The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Mountview Theatre School, Rose Bruford and at various colleges. David is also a mentor to school students and early career professionals.
David was part of the team creating the PLASA ground rigger course NELTS which is an internationally recognized training program and has spoken at conferences and seminars in Lagos, Seoul, Adjara and around the UK including at the four yearly ITEAC conference in London in 2010 and 2018. David also writes articles for various trade magazines and for the Lagos Tourist Board.
David arranged the flypast of a vintage second world war Avro Lancaster bomber over an out door in Newark and had to bought a Harrier Jump Jet for another project.
Positions:
Director/Trustee of the Association of British Theatre Technicians ABTT http://www.abtt.org.uk/ .
Honorary Fellow of Rose Bruford College https://www.bruford.ac.uk/ in recognition of his contribution to theatre.
Trustee Ken’s Network – organisation that supports mid career development of live events industry professions.
Advisor – Arts Advisory Board Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Chair – Production Managers Forum https://www.productionmanagersforum.org/
Co-Chair – Sustainability in Production Alliance http://www.sipa.org.uk/what-is-sipa.html an organisation that promotes sustainable practice across the Live Events industry.
Member of the RSA https://www.thersa.org/
Tosin Oshinowo
Tosin Oshinowo is a registered Architect in Federal Republic of Nigeria and also a member of the Royal Institute of the British Architects. She has been lead Architect at cmDesign Atelier (cmD+A) since 2012. cmD+A is an architecture design consultancy practice based in Lagos and is best known from the Maryland Mall, which opened in June 2016.
Tosin is an award-winning amateur photographer and has worked in a professional capacity on public art design installation in Lagos. Her written work includes an article on ‘the reclamation of public space in Lagos’, which was published in October 2012. She took part in the Playable Cities Lagos workshop with the Watershed Art Center, Bristol that was organized by the British Council Lagos in March 2016. She is a founding member of the ‘African Alliance for New Design’ (AAND), a think-tank that explores the value of design for the current generation of creatives on the continent.
Her interests are in architectural history and socially responsive approaches in architecture design and urbanism. Her written work includes an article on ‘the reclamation of public space in Lagos’, which was published in October 2012. She also started a column in 2017 for Omneka Online titled the Afromodernist: Identity, Architecture & Sexuality, a bimonthly article exploring cultural issues to do with African Identity in a modern context. This was a spin-off from her TEDx Portharcourt talk on ‘the the identity of an African Building’ in November 2017.
She enjoys collaboration projects with other creatives, for example, the ‘Angles and Muse’ artist foundation, done with acclaimed Nigerian artist Victor Ehikhamenor. The process was documented by Netflix’s ‘Amazing Interiors_episode 10’ and was the only African project filmed for the series, which aired in June 2018.
In 2017, she created Ilé-Ilà, which means House of Lines in her Yoruba native language. It is a Lifestyle Furniture line designed and handmade in Lagos, Nigeria. The brand focuses on period-conscious furniture in a contemporary African content. As an Architect, she has a natural affinity towards Product Design. She is particularly interested in the functionality of chairs, but also placing them in a Nigerian-African context. Unlike her minimalist approach to Architecture, which often uses a mute palette, her furniture design aesthetic is a bright explosion of colour.
In 2017, she was nominated for the EbonyLife TV Sisterhood Awards for Entrepreneur of the year and also received a recognition from leading Ladies Africa as one of 100 most inspiring women in Nigeria. She also won the 3rd City People Real Estate Awards for Architect of the Year 2017 and in January 2018 she joined the Board for The Lagos Theatre Festival with the British Council. She will also co-curator in October 2019 the Lagos Biennial, titled, how to build a Lagoon from a bottle of Wine?” and she was recently awarded the Lord’s Achievers Awards for Creativity, in celebration of World Achievers Day 2019.
