10 Schools compete at National Drama Festival
From next week Thursday, September 25, ten senior high schools representing the ten regions, will converge in Accra for the first National Drama Festival expected to run at the National Theatre for three days.
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The festival, being organised by the National Commission on Culture in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service, National Theatre and Roverman Productions, will select the best drama school which will have the privilege of performing its winning play on a bill with a Roverman play.
Nine of the 10 competing Senior High Schools comprise Wa SHS (Upper West), Ahantaman SHS (Western), Sunyani Secondary School (Brong Ahafo), Mawuko Girls’ SHS (Volta), Preset Pacesetters SHS (Greater Accra), Mfantsiman Girls’ SHS (Central), Krobo Girls’ SHS (Eastern), Ghana Secondary School (Northern), Bolgatanga Girls SHS (Upper East). At the time of going to press the name of the school representing Ashanti Region was not immediately available.
Wa SHS is presenting a play titled My Prince set in a village, Gbankor. The drama depicts the era when the locals had abandoned the use of herbal medicine. When the prince falls sick, the queen threatens to commit suicide should the prince die.
The play Ahantaman SHS is presenting is Geshe which takes a look at the pernicious effects of illegal mining activities in our communities. The play highlights the negligence of key stakeholders in combating the menace that causes miners to be buried alive in caved-in pits and other such ills.
From Sunyani Secondary School comes Sonia in which an old man tells his youthful days to his granddaughter including how he allow his stay in America affect his cultural makeup and principles. For example, how he married without the involvement of his parents or that of the girl.
Mawuko Girls SHS is presenting Borborbor, a play set in Adanukope where everybody could dance but no one thought about the economic value of dance until Mrs Mensah, an European woman married to a Ghanaian arrives in Ghana on a business trip.
The play that Preset Pacesetters SHS is presenting is titled The Writer Who Never Writes and it tells the tragedy of a 21st century taxi driver who because of hardships he faces, considers taking his own life.
From Mfantsiman Girls SHS comes Quest For Freedom which tells the story of Seyram, a teenage girl who falls victim to a tradition that obliges a child to pay for the sins of a parent. She helplessly ends up in a trokosi shrine of a traditional priest.
Krobo Girls SHS mounts the stage with Galamsey, a play set in Mpontu, a small village where concerned women fight to repatriate foreign nationals who engaged in illegal small scale mining while some natives determine to carry on with galamsey activities.
The play from Ghana Secondary School is Kpalgu. In it, 20 year-old Salamatu, born and bred in America, visits Zokuga, her home town with her mother. Soon, the research Salamatu embarks on comes up with unexpected developments.
Bolgatanga Girls’ Senior High School has Community Assets. In Yikene where the play is set, every individual considers his occupation as more important than the others. No one appreciates the work of another until a stranger, Avoka Joshua, comes to town.
The drama festival is under the theme Drama: A Growth Pole for National Development, and performances will be from 1pm to 6pm on Thursday and Friday and the grand finale on Saturday, September 27.