The Director’s Vision and Cultural Authenticity: Navigating Creative Authority in Nigerian Community Theatre

This study examines the tension between the director's artistic vision and the imperative of cultural authenticity in Nigerian community theatre, investigating how directors navigate creative authority within culturally specific community performance contexts. Community theatre occupies a distinctive ethical and aesthetic space in which the director serves as facilitator of community self-expression rather than sole creative authority, yet the director's artistic training and aesthetic preferences inevitably shape the production. The research examines five community theatre projects in diverse regions including Ebonyi, Ekiti, and Niger states, drawing on interviews with directors, community participants, and cultural custodians, as well as observation of rehearsal and performance processes. The study applies participatory action research ethics and theories of cultural ownership to analyse the dynamics of directorial authority in community settings. The findings reveal that the most ethically coherent community theatre projects are those in which the director explicitly negotiates the boundaries of creative authority with community participants from the outset and maintains reflexive accountability throughout the process. The research identifies cases where directorial imposition has damaged community trust and performance authenticity. The study concludes that directorial ethics in community theatre require dedicated attention in training programmes. Keywords: community theatre, directorial authority, cultural authenticity, participatory ethics, Nigerian performance.