In the wake of the recent renaissance of theatre in Ghana, Dr. Ekua Ekumah, a senior lecturer at the School of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana, Legon, has suggested some ways of making the sector more functional.

Contributing a discussion on Joy FM's entertainment analysis programme Showbiz A-Z, she told the host Kwame Dadzie that growing the industry in Ghana will not be successful without starting from the base.

“I think us coming together and working together makes so much sense. I also would want to add that how we can cultivate a new theatre audience is also to start at the grassroots. Start and inculcate the value of the performing arts into to our young audiences. 

We should go into schools. These are some of the works that Abibigromma and the National Theatre players are doing," Dr. Ekumah intimated.

She said when pupils see theatre produced right in their presence they will value the art.

Shedding more light on art education and how it contributes to the industry's development she acknowledged how the introduction of courses like theatre management and project management to performing arts programmes are impacting the studies of students at the University of Ghana.

Dr. Ekua Ekumah is a theatre practitioner and scholar who is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana.

She is a trained actor, earning a BA (Hons) in Theatre Arts from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, an MFA in Theatre Arts, from the University of Ghana, Legon. She obtained her PhD at Goldsmiths College, University of London with a thesis titled ‘Theatre, Performance, Representation: African Diasporic Identity on the British Stage’. Ekua’s main area of teaching is Acting/devising and her main research interests are in African diasporic identity and performance.

She has served as the Head of Department of Theatre Arts and is currently the Artistic Director of Abibigromma, the Resident Theatre Company of the School of Performing Arts. She is currently an elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR).

One of Ekua’s most recent projects was co convening the IFTR conference, hosted at the School of Performing Arts under the theme: The Stories We Tell- Myths, Mythmaking and Performance. This marked the first time the federation had come to West Africa in its 66 years of existence.

Watch Showbiz A-Z below: