FROM STAGE TO STREET: A SEMIOTIC-DIRECTORIAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTING AND CARNIVAL PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This article develops a semiotic-directorial framework that brings theatre directing, actor training and carnival performance into one coherent field of practice. It responds to a persistent divide in Nigerian performance scholarship: stage directing is often discussed as textual interpretation, acting as an independent technique and carnival as tourism or spectacle. An integrative critical review was undertaken across recent studies supported by selected foundational works in theatre semiotics, actor training, carnivalesque theory and African performance. The analysis was organised around dramaturgy, embodiment, sign systems, processional space, spectatorship and cultural accountability. The study proposes the Carnival-Semiotic Directing Framework, which positions the director as an orchestrator of embodied signs across stage and street. Its six domains are thematic encoding, actor-score construction, kinesemiotic movement, multisensory sign orchestration, processional audience relations and reflective cultural accountability. This study provides an important foundation for the model. The framework is further tested through the aesthetic logic of Carnival Calabar, where costume, colour, choreography, music, floats, routes and spectators jointly produce meaning. The article concludes that acting and carnival performance should not be treated as decorative additions to directorial interpretation. They are central dramaturgical systems through which Nigerian performance communicates identity, memory, conflict and collective aspiration. Practical implications are offered for rehearsal, actor training, carnival band management, theatre criticism and performance documentation.