A young entrepreneur, Miss Portia Abitoma Akantae – with the stage name ‘Lady Porsh’, emerged the winner of the maiden edition of the Drama Syndrome, a beauty contest held in Tamale in portrayal of cultural heritage.
Sarah Kankwah, with stage name ‘Lady Sky’ – a staff of the Northern Regional office of the Centre for National Culture (CNC), won the second position while Deborah Abena Asare, with stage name ‘Obaapa’, came third out of 14 contestants that participated. They took home cash prizes, plaques and certificates.
Drama Syndrome is a concept aimed at providing education and entertainment to revive stage plays within the Northern Region of Ghana as well magnify the relevance of drama in day to day activities by giving actors opportunities to be showcased. It is also an initiative for passionate actors who have interest in performing on stage to contest by showcasing their skills in acting with the aid of dance, drama and music.
The Centre for National Culture (CNC) Northern Region, in collaboration with DM-SALT Drama Mansion (Drama Mansion) – a theatre arts and screen production enterprise in Tamale, organised the maiden edition of Drama Syndrome Show in the form of a contest in Tamale to showcase the potentials of the young ones.
It is said that drama exploits the politics of possibilities and that over the years, drama has been used to criticise, suggest ideas and propose solutions to problems. It uses humans to suggest how its proposal could be implemented.
According to research, playwright plays critical roles in communication situations with actors who interact to fulfil the playwright’s purpose. Implementation of suggested proposals develop society; yet through drama, nobody feels ‘exposed’ while the messages become a collective effort of the playwright, the depicted, the actors, the criticised; and in fact, the whole community not only feels part of the issues raised by the drama, but feels it owns the issues and therefore owns restitution.
Northern Regional Director of CNC, Abubakari Iddrisu Saeed, commended Drama Mansion for the numerous initiatives in using drama to promote tourism and cultural heritage of the region.
He indicated that the Drama Syndrome Show is a force to be reckoned with in the performing arts industry, and the centre was happy to collaborate with the provision of relevant information needed on the arts and culture toward promoting of culture as well helping in developing the potential of the youths in drama, fashion show and acting.
Director for Drama Mansion, Antoinette D. Letsa – known as Daavi Goodluck, said the aim of the event was to enhance theatre productions in the Northern Region for contestants to nurture acting talents by putting them in real-life situations in order to broaden their minds to fit into realities of society.
It also serves as a platform to make contestants more creative, better critical thinkers, and also upgrade their writing, reading and problem-solving skills, she said.
Besides, Drama Syndrome is also initiated to build among actors healthy competitions, inculcate in them the art of public speaking and oral communication as well as fine-tune their skills of pitching their ideas to people where needed, and create opportunities for them to be recognised nationwide, she explained.
