An African Walks Into A Container

A scene from one of last year's plays.

About a year ago, I fell in love with the Accra Theatre Workshop. This was after I attended their first major event; An African Visits a Psychiatrist's Office - a collection of thought provoking and funny plays acted out on the most basic of stages on a lawn of a house in Tesano. I wrote about my experience here. I missed several of their events in the past year because of other engagements but there's no way I'm missing the second season of their short play festival; An African Walks into a Container. According to ATW, this year's collection of 10 minute plays features work from 8 different playwrights, 3 emerging directors and a brilliant ensemble of talented actors.

An African Walks into a Container is scheduled for November 6, 7 & 9 at 7:30pm each night for GH¢15 only at the Nubuke Foundation in East Legon.

You can check out the event page on Facebook; http://on.fb.me/1E5TQQ1

This year's poster.

Accra Theatre Workshop Revives Indie Theatre

The Accra Theatre Workshop is the next big thing on the Ghanaian theatre scene. According to their blog, the indie theatre is a community of artists who can support each other, forming a forum where artists can receive critical and useful feedback in a supportive environment.

After spending my Saturday night in the lawn at their Tesano place, my heart was won by the brilliance exhibited on stage by the actors, the creativity of the writers/directors and the effort put in by everybody involved with the organization. This past weekend's show was supposed to be the first of many for a new season of monthly shows they've planned.

The night saw eight short plays performed back to back after a harmonious acoustic performance by Yogendra Ahimi, an unknown indie artiste himself. It is difficult to choose which play was my favorite but if I'm forced to choose, the title act(an African visits a psychiatrist's office) written by Gbontwi Anyetei did it for me. The dialogue and acting was just on point.

Another reason why I think we should all pay attention to and support the ATW is that they're a bunch of obviously hardworking young people who are not doing the usual Ghanaian thing of ''we call on government to come to our aid''. They're of the new crop of Ghanaian youth who believe the change we want to see must be caused by us. They're proper vim squad as one of my twitter pals put it in one of her blog posts.