Extreme Make-Up and Costume Designs on the Nigerian Stage: The Techniques of Oye Ogungbe

Extreme designing is a specialist field within the larger theatre design workspace where hundreds of talented experts give life to the thoughts of the scriptwriter.  One of the few extreme designers in Nigeria today is Oye Ogungbe(aka Akobi) whose focus area is costume and make up. This study is a pioneering effort at documenting the styles and creative devices of this prodigious self-taught extreme designer. The paper traces the historical development of Oye  Ogungbe, catalogues his works and analyses his techniques, styles and materials. The study concludes that while exploration of techniques, theories and formal academic training are good for the development of the designer,the lack of these may not obstruct on-the-job effectiveness as Oye Ogungbe, in spite of his lack of formal academic training and  exploration of techniques has succeeded immensely by relying on his inner gift of intuition.