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| Reviving Concert Party Tradition |
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| Posted on: 2007-Sep-02 Times |
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Soon after being appointed as the first Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs and Culture last year, S.K. Boafo made a public statement that one of his priorities would be to revive the concert party performance on stage which was very popular in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Since the Minister made this statement last year, observers have been in anticipation as to when this was going to take place.
And true to his promise, Mr. Boafo had a marathon meeting with all the concert party associations and representatives in the country on Monday, August 13, as the beginning of his strategic plans to meet his laudable objective of reviving concert parties in the country.
The concert parties used to play a great role on the entertainment scene in Ghana and that is why they became very popular in those good old days.
One can vividly recall the heydays of personalities and groups like Bob Cole, Kwabena Onyina, Kakaiku and the Jaguar Jokers who were great crowd-pullers whenever they performed.
The concert party constitute what is described in literary terms as "popular theatre." Their contributions and importance on the entertainment scene in Ghana is tremendous and on the same level with conventional or western theatre, if not more.
The age of the concert parties was indeed the golden age of the theatre in Ghana. It is indeed welcome news for many seasoned theatre lovers in Ghana that the Minister is leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to bring back the concert parties which have almost faded out.
I have the conviction that the revival of the concert parties in the country will act as a catalyst to revive conventional theatre practice which is also at the moment on the decline, and heading towards demise. As a result, going to the theatre these days to watch play production is a rare experience!
There is a nostalgia of revisiting the vibrant theatre practice days of the 1950s and the 1960s when prominent Ghanaian playwrights feverishly wrote plays for the stage.
One recalls great playwrights such as Efua Sutherland, Joe de Graft Asiedu Yirenkyi, Martin Owusu, Ama Ata Aidoo etc. who wrote plays for the Ghanaian stage at that time.
It is a fact that many theatre lovers in the country, especially among the older generation, do still have strong love for concert party performance, and will therefore readily provide adequate audience.
I strongly hold the view that the revival of concert parties in the country will go a long way to produce talented Ghanaian actors and other artists who can be trained for conventional or western pattern theatre practice.
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