Veteran Nollywood actor, Norbert Young, who heads the 5-member jury of the 2025 TheatreMania Africa Festival (TAF) Awards, has vowed that he and his colleagues will be “unbiased, just and credible.”
This came after the virtual inauguration of the jury by the International Central Working Committee (ICWC) of TheatreMania Africa Festival (TAF) on Sunday, which had other jurors like Lydia Gifty Hagan (Ghana), Kehny Obafemi (Canada), Mamela J. Aisha J. Rafahlema (South Africa), and Jacinta MacJob (Nigeria).
TAF Legal Adviser, Otunba Olu Adenodi, administered the Oath of Commitment on jury members, including the marketing and sponsorship team, with the ceremony witnessed by TAF Board of Trustee (BOT) members, ambassadors, and media partners.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer/Co-Founder, TAF, Mr. Alayande Stephen said the festival will be a pot-pourri of activities, ranging from Thespian Nite, Street Theatre, Generation Next Theatre for Secondary Schools, Stakeholders Roundtable, Africa Rise Against Malaria (ARAM) Advocacy, Peace Walk, Theatre + Fashion (The METALIC), Command Performance, and Awards Nite.
According to him, with the theme: ‘Beyond Borders: Celebrating the Global Reach of African Theatre’, the TheatreMania Africa Festival 2025 will kick off on October 14 at Shodex Gardens, Ilupeju, Lagos, with the grand finale holding at Radisson Blu, Ikeja, Lagos on October 17.
Speaking on behalf of the jury, Norbert Young said the members are extremely grateful for the call to serve the industry, adding that they will do their best to be “unbiased, just and credible.”
With the jury inauguration, submission of entries for the awards is now open, from March 17 till August 30, 2025. Contestants can log onto: www.theatremaniaafrica.com/awards to fill the form and submit a link (YouTube or Google drive) of the full HD video coverage of a stage production that represents the category of their interest.