CINDERAMA PROJECT: SEASON ONE REPORT Introduction Cinderama is the Ghanaian version of the Classical Cinderella story known the world over. The production is the first collaborative work between the National Theatre and the National Touring Company Riksteatern of Sweden. The script writer is Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, the Executive Director of the National Theatre. The Producer, Mansour Hussein, and Director, Francesca Quartey, are both from Sweden. Issues raised / Support In reworking the original story much attention has been given to the issues of empowerment of the Ghanaian child, child-right abuses, streetism, sexual abuse, parenting (too busy working parents, discrimination in the home, pampering), among others. Some of these issues are very dear to the hearts of organizations like ACTION AID and PLAN GHANA, who work in the field in the most deprived parts of the country to empower young people, especially the girl-child. They quickly came on board as Sponsors to ensure that as many Ghanaian children as possible see the play. These were the bodies that paid for the show to tour the Upper East, Upper West, and Northern Regions. Other bodies that gave the project financial support are ATLAS COPCO and BRITISH COUNCIL. The National Theatre is indeed grateful to all of them. The cast and crew In order to stretch the collaboration even further, the National Theatre opened its doors to performers outside and did not limit membership of the cast and crew to its Resident Performing Companies; the idea was to afford these outsiders the opportunity to experience professional theatre and touring. General auditions were held as a result and eight performers and one technical person were selected to add to another eight performers from the Resident Companies to make up the sixteen-man cast and four-man crew. Producer / Riksteatern Even before the production took off the Producer, Mansour Hussein had arranged for the Riksteatern to sponsor an Assistant Producer from Ghana for a 3-month internship with it for the role. Miss Daphnies Bonuedi, therefore, went to Sweden and returned to become the Assistant Producer. Again, it was the Riksteatern that paid to bring down to Ghana and sustain a Director, Francesca Quartey, from Sweden to put the show together. Besides sponsoring the Director s and Assistant Producer s trips, the Riksteatern had contributed immensely to the overall success of the project. They provided all the technical equipment for the project and brought down a Technician, Tobias Staal, to provide technical leadership and also train the National Theatre technical team on the job. Riksteatern again promoted the play in Sweden by selling as many as fifteen shows to sponsors in different towns and cities 1
all over that country. That was what made it possible for the production to tour Sweden. Even though the play was meant essentially for the children the Sweden performances were thrown in as a morale booster for the cast and crew. To say that the Swedish audiences loved the shows would be putting it mildly; the press gave the production very high scores indeed! National Theatre The National Theatre on the other hand, took up the responsibility of paying a monthly allowance to the 9 Guest performers for a period of one year as well as a performance allowance for each show. The health needs of the cast and crew also fell to the National Theatre. Furthermore, it provided all the costumes and paid the fees of the various designers costume, Graphic, etc. The National Theatre additionally provided the venues for rehearsals and performances that were done within its premises. The provision of vehicles for the tour was also the responsibility of the National Theatre. Grand opening The Director rehearsed the play with the cast and crew for a period of 8 weeks the months of January and February and then it opened officially on March 6, 2010. Several dignitaries and groups (children mostly) had been invited for trial performances before the grand opening; it was all aimed at getting a feedback and suggestions that would make the play tight before it went out for public performances. After the official opening the tour began and from the Volta Region after which it went to Sweden. Gratitude It has been an extremely rewarding experience for the performers and their audiences; we are grateful to all the partners and sponsors. One only needed to hear the contributions of these young people all over the country (during the open forum sessions after each show) to acknowledge that the project has been a very important one and very rewarding; it has opened many eyes to things society might have taken for granted. Of course, Ghanaian audiences are mostly very warm, very expressive; they had all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and spoke freely at the open forum. It is our hope that our Sponsors / Partners would come on board one more time to enable the play cover more children in the Regions and Districts that have not been visited at all during the season one tour. A table of places visited with dates and estimated audience sizes. Date March 15, 2010 Place / Venue Abor (Abor Snr. High Sch.) Estimated audience size Sponsor(s) 1,800 National Theatre Comments The 1 st show outside of the National Theatre 2
Date Place /Venue Estimated audience size Sponsors Comments March 16, 2010 Keta (Snr. High Sch football field) Over 2000 National Theatre The outdoor set was mounted and used. 17 Ho (OLA Girls/ Fore court of the Chief s Palace) 3,000 National Theatre There were 2 shows here. 1 was in the Assembly hall of OLA & the 2 nd on the outdoor stage. 18 Kadjebi (KASEC Snr High assembly hall) 1,500 National Theatre Country Director, ACTION AID, came all the way from Accra to be in the audience. Drama Club had discussion with cast after the show. DCE pledged Ghc200.00 to the cast. June 2, 2010 Hohoe 250 PLAN GHANA (Hohoe Branch) Information abt. Date/venue change wasn t well publicised; attendance was poor as a result. Queen mother & her elders were in attendance July7, 2010 Krobo Odumase (Krobo Girls) 320 National Theatre Most of the girls were unwilling to pay the Ghc1.00 entrance fee. 3
July 8, 2010 Koforidua (Centre for National Culture 255 National Theatre Poor attendance; Snr schls.were on midterm break. Rain & power cut marred the show. UPPER WEST REGIONAL TOUR - AUG. 13 29, 2010 (August 13 &14 Were travel days from Accra to Wa in the Upper West Region) Date Place /Venue Estimated Audience size Sponsors Comments Aug. 16, 2010 Wa (Jubilee Park) 200 PLAN GHANA / ACTION AID Muslim fasting made it difficult to start at 6pm; we waited till 8.30 pm, but not many ppl. came. There seemed to be poor publicity. Many we spoke to in the street said they didn t know about the programme. Aug. 17 Funsi 300 ACTION AID / PLAN GHANA No electricity @ venue, which is a bit out of town. We had to hire generators all of which had low capacity. Attendance was not too good. Aug. 18 Wechiau (Front of Chief s Palace) 500 PLAN GHANA / ACTION AID DCE, Officials PLAN GHANA, opinion leaders & almost entire village were present. Good publicity done. 4
Aug. 20 Jirapa 500 ACTION AID A most memora - ble show. Room couldn t contain the crowd that the rain couldn t keep away. We had passionate contributions frm even very young people during the open forum. Good publicity. Aug. 22 Gwollu (Open school park) 550 PLAN GHANA / ACTION AID DCE, Assembly man, school chn. opinion leaders & public all attended. Aug. 23 Tumu (Open space on market road) 200 PLAN GHANA / ACTION AID Show rained off 1/2way to the end. Officials of Plan Ghana & Action AID were present. There didn t seem to be much publicity. Aug. 25 Tamale (Centre for National Culture) Under 100 PLAN GHANA / ACTION AID There seemed to be little publicity. We only had girls who had arrived from a Summer camp in Accra & Action AID/ Plan Ghana officials. There was a break in the tour programme until ACTION AID came in again in November to send the play to tour the Upper East & Northern Regions. The period coincided with the celebration of National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) 2010 in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital. The play was therefore performed twice to the teeming crowds at the festival. On the way to the northern parts of the country the team stopped over to perform the play for the first time in the Ashanti Region to - St. Louis Girls Snr. High School. 5
Date Place /venue Estimated audience size Sponsor(s) comments Nov. 17, 2011 Kumasi (St. Louis Snr. High School) 1,800 National Theatre Ecstatic audience. Stage Manager had to interrupt the show to appeal to the girls to control their emotions and listen more so they could get the full message of the play. Nov. 19 Bolgatanga (Pelingu) 550 ACTION AID The cast has several problems with the vehicle from Kumasi to Bolgatanga. They arrived in Bolga at 7am checked into a hotel and were led to Pelingu, several kilometres away on the Bawku road. Chiefs and Elders with school children were already seated and waiting. Good publicity. Nov. 22 Yendi (Public space) 400 ACTION AID Schools arrived late; they said they got the information very late. Very good show in the end. General public stopped to watch. 6
Nov. 23 Bimbila (Open Public space) 550 ACTION AID Misunderstandingonly 2 girls were invited from 4 schools. We had to quickly go with a bus to persuade the Headmaster of the Senior High School (we saw on our way to the town), to allow his students to come and watch the show. He obliged us after a lot of persuasion. The Chiefs and elders were there waiting when we arrived. Good show in the end. Nov. 25 Tamale (Jubilee Park) Over 2, 500 National Theatre Possibly one of the highlights of NAFAC 1010 Nov. 26 Tamale (Jubilee Park) 1,500 National Theatre Programmes for the day started very late, as a result our performance was cut short towards the tail end. Season one ended in grand style at NAFAC, Ghana s biggest cultural event. Open Forum As indicated earlier each show ended with an open forum where members of the audience were encouraged to share with others things they felt strongly about in the play. Each session had been very warm and frank. In many places Wechiawu, Jirapa, Wa, and Gwollu all 7
one needed to do was raise their hands, and they were given the chance to make their contributions. In a few other places, like Pelingu, near Bolgatanga, however, men, women and children were all separated into their respective groups. What this meant was that the adults did not get to hear what the children had to say, or vice versa. In the same way the women did not hear the contributions of the men nor did the men hear the concerns of their women. My understanding later was that the segregation had to do with the culture of the place, and that the ACTION AID and PLAN GHANA staff who led the discussions would later ensure that the views of all the contributors were made known on different platforms. The question of victimization would then be eliminated. Audience Contributions Below are some of the contributions that ran through most of the places visited in season 1: 1. Children say they would insist that their parents send them to or keep them in school, now that they know that access to education is a right. 2. Many children say that they did not know that they have rights. 3. Most parents seem ignorant to the fact that children too have rights. Some parents admit that they never consult their children on issues that affect them; culturally, it would mean spoiling the children. 4. There is the need to treat all children in a home equally without discrimination. 5. Child-right abuse in the home is a contributory factor to streetism; children run away from home when they cannot take conditions at there any more. 6. Discrimination in the home against a child could breed a low self esteem, bitterness and hatred in him/her, which could be carried through to adult life. 7. Parents (fathers especially) are too busy these days to care about what happens in the home. 8. Children who never experienced love when growing up would find it difficult to give love when they grow up. Listening to people men, women, children talk back, sometimes with passion, show after show raising these concerns, always gave the performers a sense of achievement, pride, satisfaction at a job well done. These good feeling should be shared by all the stake holders Playwright, Producer, Riksteatern, Director, Sponsors, all. Challenges: The project cannot be said to be free of challenges; there had been a few. 8
1. Accommodation: It had been difficult sometimes to get a decent hotel accommodation. Our budget usually fell below the charges. We wish to single out the Management of Flosid Hotel in Kumasi and Hamdalla Hotel in Tamale who readily gave us rooms below their normal rates. 2. Transportation: The old Tata buses that the National Theatre has are not very comfortable for such long distance travels, but the cast and crew coped with the inconvenience and travelled to all the places listed above in them. (A more comfortable bus that a well-wisher loaned us for the Bolgatanga trip broke down several times on the way; we spent over 24 hours between Kumasi and Bolgatanga). However, the joy of doing something worthwhile made the discomfort bearable. Acquiring a strong and reliable tour bus should be one of the things the National Theatre should consider if it has to operate a touring Company in future. 3. Double cast: It has not been economically possible for a young touring company to travel with large numbers; there were therefore no double casts for the roles. In Tamale when the Story teller collapsed just when the play opened, we had to keep the audience waiting for over 40 minutes, until he returned from the hospital where he had received emergency treatment. Perhaps some key roles could have understudies. 4. Publicity: Where ever we got to we spoke to people to find out if they had had information about the show. The answer in most cases was no. It gave us the impression that little or no publicity had been done. In communities where publicity had been good, the Chiefs with their elders and opinion leaders had been ready and waiting before the scheduled time, or turned up in their numbers as was the case in Wechiau, Bimbila, Pelingu and Gwullu. (A public address system went round in Jirapa). In other places we had to abandon out-of-town venues to look for an open space where we could easily attract passersby; that happened at Tumu. On our first visit to Tamale we were very disappointed at the patronage. The girls who had arrived from a summer camp in Accra were the ones who made up our audience together with some staff of ACTION AID and PLAN GHANA. Unfortunately, that was the day one of the performers collapsed just when the play was about starting. Because we had to wait for the actor to return from the hospital, some of the girls had to leave before the end of the show. But for them we would have had to perform for an empty room. Had we known about the lack of publicity we would have looked for an open public space to perform in instead of the auditorium of the Centre for National Culture (CNC). 9
It takes a lot of the Sponsors money to get the production to some of these far away places; not to have people to see the show amounts to wasting the resources expended to get the performers to these places. We would appeal to officials in future beneficiary communities to do all they can to publicise the shows adequately. On behalf of those children who have had the opportunity to see the production, the Executive Director and Management of the National Theatre, I wish to say Thank You to all the Partners / Sponsors who had so willingly put out resources and joined the National Theatre to push this worthy project through to a very successful Season One. It is our hope that they will all come on board again for another year. God Bless you all!!! DZIFA GLIKPOE (AG. PRODUCER) 10