Mr President where are the theatres?—Clemento Suarez

Ghanaian comedian Clemento Suarez has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to fulfil the New Patriotic Party(NPP) manifesto promise to put up regional theatres in the country.

To him like many other players in the industry, the absence of theatres in the regions especially when it comes to venues to premiere movies and for stage productions is one of the problems hindering the growth of the sector.

Over the years, there have been talks of how lack of theatres in the regions is affecting the creative industry, and Clemento Suarez sounded the clarion call when he spoke with Graphic Showbiz recently.

According to him, it came as a big relief when the ruling NPP stated in their 2016 manifesto that they will build regional theatres but to date not much has been done.

“In both the 2016 and 2020 manifestos of the NPP, the President promised to put up regional theatres but to date no show, Mr President we are waiting,’’he said.

Checks by the Graphic Showbiz revealed that the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku Mantey, stated in November last year that the Eastern Regional Theatre had been completed and it was expected that the Ashanti Regional Theatre will also be completed by the end of this year.

Away from that, Clemento Suarez gave his views on how comedy was generally doing in the country, “generally, from 2019 to date, we have moved 30 per cent higher, we are still climbing and are now about 60 per cent up there.

"Support from the general public will keep us going”, he said.

Talking about work, Clemento Suarez said one of his greatest achievement was when he won Emy Awards Entertainment Man of the Year in 2020, “I was in the same category with Sarkodie and Stonebwoy so for me to come up tops, I was very happy.

‘‘Aside from awards, my biggest achievement is my ability to pave way for my juniors to make a living out of stage acting and comedy. To see people happy makes me happy, not just make them laugh but get fulfilment from it,” he said.

Touching on his philosophy towards his work as a comedian, Clemento Suarez said he considered the impact of what he did would have on people.

‘‘I ask myself what message am I putting across, the impact on the people and I also look at how realistic it can be to real life situations. Once I am convinced, I just go ahead and deliver,’’ he said.

Fortunately, for Clemento Suarez, none of his performances has been harshly criticised as has been the case with some of his colleagues.

"I only had a minor issue when I was a student at the University of Ghana, back then I used to do comedy and a lecturer wanted me to be in a play which I refused so he started a war against me but it didn’t affect me.’’

On how he would deal with heckling should it come his way, Clementos revealed he has an ideology that guides him.

"I have an idealogy that people who criticise you are industry people who are well versed with issues of the industry and are way ahead of you so I don’t have any issues should they criticise me. I take their criticisms in good faith.

"On the other hand, those other people who have no business criticising what I do, I won’t even go down to their level because they don’t matter to me,” he stated.

He concluded by calling on the youth of the country to be humble in all their dealings, if they wanted to make it in life.

“Aside from talent, your personal attributes also counts. You need to be respectful, don’t use social media to insult older people. Humility will take you to places.’’