FirstBank sponsors Lagos musical theatre

First Bank has sponsored the showing of a musical theatre show put together by Eko Hotels and Suites, titled The Jewel.

At a press conference to announce the event on Wednesday at Eko Hotels, FirstBank said the sponsorship of the event reflected its commitment to the creative industry.

FirstBank has been providing support for the creative industry for years and, in the past few months, has sponsored the showing of Kurunmi, a stage play, at the Lagos International Theatre Festival, launched an entertainment channel, Bluu TV, among others.

Speaking at the event, the Acting Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Olayinka Ijabiyi, said, “From music to entertainment, theatre, stage performances, to poem performances and everything in between, FirstBank has always supported.”

Ijabiyi 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, said that the financial institution, through its sponsorship of the arts, was providing needed support to the sector and meeting the banking needs of players in the sector.

“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 enthused.

The General Manager of Eko Hotels, Danny Kioupouroglou, affirmed that Eko Hotels and FirstBank have a lot in common in terms of providing first-class entertainment.

He said, “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 comes 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 being extinct. So, it’s things like this that we’re working very hard to bring back and to 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.”