ANALYSING THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON DIRECTING APPROACHES: A STUDY OF TWO UNIBEN STUDENT DIRECTORS

This thesis presents a critical analysis of directorial practice within the multicultural crucible of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), fundamentally challenging the academic notion of directing as a universally applied, objective craft. Instead, it asserts that directorial authority and aesthetic decision-making are not neutral but are profoundly and demonstrably conditioned by the director's inherited cultural epistemology. To interrogate this assertion, a qualitative comparative case study was employed, focusing on two student directors whose cultural backgrounds represent structurally opposed aesthetic and social systems: Julia Andrew (Edo), rooted in a hierarchical, spectacle-centric framework, and Chidumaga Kingsley Orakwelu (Igbo), informed by a democratic, dialogue-centric ethos. The data, subjected to Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA), unveiled a decisive cultural cleavage in ideological approach, which manifested across three critical polarities. The first polarity concerns the source of Aesthetic Authority (Command versus Consensus). Andrew's Edo-derived approach favoured Authoritative Aesthetic Intervention, relying on her personal cultural custodianship to unilaterally impose high-status ceremonial elements for visual spectacle, exemplified by her Monologic Command structure that prioritised efficiency and structural fidelity. Conversely, Orakwelu's Igbo method operated on a Dialogic Paradox: asserting necessary institutional control initially, but quickly releasing authority to the ensemble to achieve authenticity through communal validation. His Dialogic Negotiation prioritised legitimacy and collective ownership. The second critical cleavage lies in Cultural Function (Preservation versus Critique). Andrew's conservative approach used theatre to validate and affirm the prestige of inherited Edo social and aesthetic status. In stark contrast, Orakwelu leveraged the stage as a liminal space for Cultural Critique, actively demanding that the ensemble challenge and revise "what we deem fit to call culture." The study concludes that the contemporary Nigerian student director is caught in a state of ideological conflict, struggling to reconcile Western academic structures with powerful, inherited cultural models. To address this, the thesis strongly recommends that theatre pedagogy in Nigeria must be decolonised through the implementation of structured cross-cultural rehearsal protocols and a critical re-evaluation of assessment metrics to prioritise the Dialogic Value of the artistic process over conservative aesthetic outcomes.