Lekan Balogun

Profile

I joined the School of Performance and Cultural Industries (PCI) in August 2023 as lecturer in New Writing and Intercultural Performance. Prior to that, I taught Performance Aesthetics, Shakespeare (film & stage adaptation/appropriation) in performance, Playwriting & Directing, Gender and Cultural Studies, African & Caribbean (Diaspora) Theatre at the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, Akoka, where I previously studied and received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts (Distinction)in Theatre/Performance.

With a full doctoral scholarship, I studied in the Theatre program of the School of English, Film, Theatre and Media Studies, University of Wellington, New Zealand, where I bagged a PhD in Global Shakespeare and Intercultural Performance.

Since completing my PhD, I have combined academic research with creative experiments, as Artistic Director, Legendaire Theatre, Lagos, and collaborated with several organizations including the Centre for Black and African Art and Civilization (CBAAC), the National Troupe of Nigeria, the Goethe Institut, Lagos, and the British Council, Nigeria. 

I was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Gorge Forster/Experienced Researcher) at the University of Cologne, Germany. Dr. Olalekan Balogun - Profile - Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation; Fellow of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany. Dr. Olalekan Balogun (uni-bayreuth.de); Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship, Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies, National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway. Visiting Researchers - Moore Institute; and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (ReTAGS), Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies, (CTDPS), University of Cape Town, South Africa. HOME | RETAGSproductions (retags100.wixsite.com)

Balogun, Lekan. 2017. “From Performing the ‘Sundiata Form’ to Staging the Òrìsà: Djanet Sears’s search for Orírun in Harlem Duet” Shakespeare en devenir/Shakespeare in Africa Project, Université de Poitiers. https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr/index.php?id=1086 

Balogun, Lekan. 2023. “Common backcloth: Fleishman’s Antigone (not quite/ quiet) and Soyinka’s ‘The fourth stage’” South African Theatre Journal, vol.35, no.3:195—211. Full article: Common backcloth: Fleishman’s Antigone (not quite/quiet) and Soyinka’s ‘The fourth stage’ (tandfonline.com)

Responsibilities

• MA Script Dev. for Film and TV - Prog. Leader
• Intercultural Shakespeare - Prog. Leader

Qualifications

• PhD, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2017
• MA (Distinction) Theatre Arts, University of Lagos, 2012
• BA (Hons) Theatre Arts, University of Lagos, 2008
• NCE (English & Social Studies),Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, 1996

Professional memberships

• Centre for African Studies (University of Leeds)
• Place as Research Group (PCI)
• Performance as Research Group (PCI)

Student education

I teach on the Intercultural Shakespeare and the Interpreting Theatre and Performance Histories undergraduate modules; the Narrative Perspectives in Practice, Script Development for Film and Television, and Writing for Contemporary Theatre and Performance master’s programme modules.