Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka
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February 9, 2012 "This is not your grandfather's Greek tragedy," Professor Kevin Wetmore said of the theatre arts program's production of "The Bacchae of Euripides." The version used for this stage adaptation was written for a London version in 1973, by none other than LMU's President's Marymount Institute Professor in Residence Wole Soyinka. Wetmore, who is directing this run, said, "It only makes sense to perform one of his plays here."
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LMU welcomes Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka to Loyola Marymount University as
the President’s Marymount Institute Professor in Residence.
The Nigerian-born playwright is a distinguished writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He is the first African to receive this honor.
Theresia de Vroom, professor of English and director of The Marymount Institute for Faith, Culture and the Arts, eloquently described Mr. Soyinka as “…a poet and playwright, a myth-maker, a translator, an essayist and a memoirist whose scope chronicles the lives of ordinary human beings caught between the opposing forces of creation and destruction.”
Mr. Soyinka has published more than 20 literary works, including plays, essays, novels, poems, memoirs, academic and historical books. He has taught at universities in Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, including the University of Ibadan, Harvard, Emory, Cambridge and Cornell.
An activist in Nigeria’s fight for independence, Mr. Soyinka was imprisoned in solitary confinement from 1967 to 1969 for writing an article that called for a cease-fire. To this day he is very involved in Nigerian politics and the shaping of that African country as an independent nation.
Mr. Soyinka's professorship at Loyola Marymount University includes interacting with students, faculty, staff and community through a variety of events, ranging from small-group classroom visits to campus-wide discussions.
Through his words and actions, Mr. Soyinka has transformed the world and embodies our university’s mission. It is an honor to have Mr. Soyinka at LMU.