The Imperatives of Physical Education in the Training of Artists in Nigeria

Despite the fact that physical education plays an important role in general education, it has not been given adequate consideration in the training of actors in Nigeria. Consequently, most actors lack the physical fitness required to accomplish acting roles on stage and screen in Nigeria. In this regards, the study identifies and presents physical education as an indispensable academic disciplines from which acting instructors, actors trainees, and theatre practitioners can adapt, modify, and apply physical education instructions and programmes to the training of performing artists in Nigeria. In the process, the study applied the experimental and control group research methods to monitor and record the effect of the exercise regimes on actorsʹ trainees over the study period. The result obtained show that the application of physical education programmes, instructions and activities to the training artists would guaranteed actorʹs physique and physical fitness to withstand the physical demands of acting today, so as to improved their performances on stage and screen. The paper, therefore calls on the performing artists in the academics, the management of public and private theatres in Nigeria to articulate of policies that will enable them confidently apply physical education requirements in the development of actors over a stretch of time.