Nkyin-Kyin

Essays on the Ghanaian Theatre
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-90-420-2517-2
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 98, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 562 g

Reihe: Cross/Cultures

This collection brings together essays written over a thirty-five year period. They reflect James Gibbs’s position vis-à-vis the Ghanaian theatre as sometimes a remote onlooker, sometimes an enthusiastic participant observer, deeply involved in issues of perception and influence in a society moving through colonialism to nationalism, independence and beyond. The main body of the book is divided into four sections. The first, “Outsiders and Activists,” looks at theatre for community development during the late 1940s, some connections between drama and film, and the astonishing involvement in Ghanaian performance culture of the Haitian poet and playwright Felix Morisseau–Leroy. The second section, “Intercultural Encounters,” examines ways in which classic Greek drama has been used by producers and writers in West Africa, with special reference to Victor Yankah, Kobina Sekyi (Ghana’s first published playwright), and the Nigerian Femi Osofisan. Section Three, “Plays and Playwrights,” concentrates on Efua Sutherland, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Joe de Graft. This section uncovers issues of documentation and achievement that draw attention to the need for investment in organising resources for writing Ghana’s theatre history. The volume draws to a close with personal accounts of touring student productions in the 1960s (with due attention to the influence of Bertolt Brecht) and of involvement in a British film production on location. The book closes with an updated complete bibliography of Ghana’s chief dramatist, Efua Sutherland.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Afrikanische Literaturen
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatersoziologie, Theaterpsychologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Theatre in Ghana
Outsiders and Activists
1. Alec Dickson: Propaganda and Mass Communication
2. Ken Pickering: Who Is Kofe Basake? ‘Village Drama’ in Ghana
3. Félix Morisseau–Leroy: “Where people are free they will remember me”
Intercultural Encounters
4. Antigone and Her African Sisters: West African Versions of a Greek Original
5. The Fifth Landing-Stage: Reading and Re-Reading Across Cultures
Plays and Playwrights
6. Efua Sutherland: The ‘Mother’ of the National Theatre Movement
7. What is Married in The Marriage of Anansewa and Who Performed the Wedding Ceremony?
8. The Call to the Priesthood and Other Stories in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa
9. Joe de Graft: A Theatrical Prophet with Strange Honours
Players and Playmaking
10. The Legon 7: The Story of a Campus Drama Group (October 1968–June 1970)
11. Victim of the Third World War: Filmmaking in Ghana: The Dying of the Light (1994)
General Bibliography
Efua Theodora Sutherland: A Bibliography of Primary Materials, with a Checklist of Secondary Sources