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Theatre Arts for Advanced Secondary Schools

writing scripts to guide productions of plays emerged in Europe. The fact that
Africa did not have written scripts known to the West led to the obviously claim
that there was no theatre in Africa before its interaction with Europe. This claim
has been disproved by many scholars from Africa such as Amandina Lihamba,
Penina Mlama, Ruth Finegan, Ngugi wa Thiog’o and other Africanists who argue
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that African performances had scripts even though they were not written. They
were kept and transmitted orally from one generation to another.

Invention of writing transformed the African scripts from oral to written as it
was in other parts of the world. The 20 century that witnessed the innovation
th
of computers and internet has made the scriptwriting even much easier. It has
transformed writing from pen and paper to writing with different electronic
devices and software. Today, scripts are written using mobile phones, tablets,
computers both desktop and laptops through software such as Microsoft word
processors, Adobe story, Celtx, Final draft, Fade In and Page to Stage. Some of
this software are free and available online. Figure 2.1 shows some logos of the
different scriptwriting software.

Final draft Adobe story

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