<P> "Total theatre" also developed in Nigeria in the 1950s . It utilised non-Naturalistic techniques, surrealistic physical imagery, and exercised a flexibile use of language . Playwrights writing in the mid-1970s made use of some of these techniques, but articulated them with "a radical appreciation of the problems of society ." </P> <P> Traditional performance modes have strongly influenced the major figures in contemporary Nigerian theatre . The work of Hubert Ogunde (sometimes referred to as the "father of contemporary Yoruban theatre") was informed by the Aláàrìnjó tradition and Egungun masquerades . Wole Soyinka, who is "generally recognized as Africa's greatest living playwright", gives the divinity Ogun a complex metaphysical significance in his work . In his essay "The Fourth Stage" (1973), Soyinka contrasts Yoruba drama with classical Athenian drama, relating both to the 19th - century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of the latter in The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Ogun, he argues, is "a totality of the Dionysian, Apollonian and Promethean virtues ." Hubert Ogunde must also be commended for his true passion for the kind of African theatre that maintains accurate traditional African forms of the belief system, common values, folklore of the people . </P> <P> The few proponents of popular travelling theatre in Nigeria include Duro Ladipo and Moses Olaiya (a popular comic act). These practitioners contributed much to launch of African theatre during the period of mixture and experimentation of the indigenous with the Western theatre . </P> <P> The history of African - American theatre has a dual origin . The first is rooted in local theatre where African Americans performed in cabins and parks . Their performances (folk tales, songs, music, and dance) were rooted in the African culture before being influenced by the American environment . African Grove Theatre was the first African - American theatre established in 1821 by William Henry Brown ISBN 0521465850 </P>

Who were the major players in the development of the early church and how did they contribute