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| The Marriage of Ananswi |
In 2005 a creative exchange of 24 young people, twelve from Plymouth and twelve from Sekondi-Takoradi, performed A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Drum Theatre. A year later, another two groups created The Marriage of Ananswi, a traditional Ghanaian play, which was again performed at the Theatre Royal's Drum Theatre to sell-out audiences.
Some young people involved in this project have now gone on to take part in a new project, again working across the two countries, to develop a TV programme for local digital TV-Chew TV.
A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Drum Theatre on August 17, 18 and 19 2005.
During their two-week stay the twelve Ghanaian young people were warmly welcomed by members of the Link who hosted their stay, including Chris and Kate Oppong who organised a finger buffet on their arrival. This was also an opportunity for them to meet the Plymouth Ghanaian community.
They were also welcomed by the Lord Mayor at a special reception, where the group had the opportunity to perform one or two of the musical items from the play and delighted everyone with a sample of some African music.
This is a short evaluation piece written by Solomon Brew who played Lysander in the play:
"I am very grateful for such a successful educational project and I hope it will go very far. It was actually the first time I traveled outside my beloved country. Just put yourself in my shoes and imagine how boring it is going to be as you are going to miss your family, friends and other loved ones. But thanks to the Goad and Barker families I stayed with. They treated me so well that I felt I was with my own family and in Ghana. The nice people as well as the interesting places I went during my visit also made me more excited. Hadn't been this fantastic project I wouldn't have believed that British are so nice and welcoming. I also like your system of education.
A lot of foreign languages are studied in your schools, more emphasize is placed on IT and I'm even looking forward to pursuing my university education in Plymouth. If I were giving a platform I would tell tourists from all over the world to visit England precisely Plymouth for they will have a lot to tell.
I've enjoyed hosting people from England in my country. Our visitors had the chance to visit a lot of interesting places and I'm happy they learnt a lot about our rich culture. This has helped to establish a very strong relationship between the determined and energetic youth of these partner cities. Our parents never got such a wonderful opportunity but thank God we have. Therefore to show our appreciation we will ginger this link for a mammoth number of people to hear, care, support, and help to uplift the link in order to survive until the end of the world. I have learnt how to live peacefully with people from different parts of the world with different cultural traits.
I never dreamt of talking or acting in front of an audience but thanks to this project I can now do what I thought I could never do. I have discovered a lot of talents I never knew I had in me. Apart from my future career, I am also training myself to be a good actor and I hope to be a star very soon.
Long live the link and long live the founding fathers."
The exchange - including the performances - was a great success and hopefully this can be repeated in the future. Kate Sparshatt from the Theatre Royal will be undertaking an evaluation of the project which was funded by Creative Partnerships and a summary of its results will be reported.
A screen showing of ‘An African Midsummer' which is a documentary film of the exchange has also been shown on Saturday, 19 November at Plymouth Arts Centre.
A big thank-you to everyone who participated and supported this successful project.