Monday, January 14, 2008

Dzifa's Fellowship

Dzifa Glikpoe stayed on after the end of Dilemma, with an Arts Council International Fellowship, hosted by ourselves and Africa Beyond. I've had the job of putting her in touch with people and organisations who can help her develop the skills and knowledge she needs to move the National Drama Company on when she gets back to Ghana. Nice to feel the whole thing will really leave a legacy.

So - she's been observing actor training at Rose Bruford, and giving workshops at the Royal Scottish. She's currently at the Barbican in Plymouth, seeing how a smaller theatre operates, and she's going to be watching Ramin Gray in rehearsal at the RSC. Plus, we're going together to find out about the Theatre for Development MA at Winchester, and we met with Femi and Thomas from Tiata Fahodzi last week. This is the company whose production of Joe Guy at the Soho I really enjoyed in the autumn. The remit is to work with British artists from the African diaspora, and the line-up for the 10th anniversary gala at the end of this month suggests they do very well! Dzifa turns out to know the woman who co-founded the company wth Femi. She's now back in Ghana, teaching at Legon, but before that she was acting here, and contributed half the name. "Fahodzi" is Twi for "freedom". It's part of Femi's emphasis on a West African, rather than a strictly Nigerian, identity for the work. Kwame Nkrumah would have approved!

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