Ghanas Concert Party Theatre Catherine M Cole by Catherine M. Cole 9780253214362, 9780253338457, 025321436X, 025333845X instant download after payment.

An engaging history of Ghana's enormously popular concert party theatre.
"... succeeds in conveying the exciting and fascinating character of
the concert party genre, as well as showing clearly how this material
can be used to rethink a number of contemporary theoretical themes and
issues." —Karin Barber Under colonial rule, the first concert party
practitioners brought their comic variety shows to audiences throughout
what was then the British Gold Coast colony. As social and political
circumstances shifted through the colonial period and early years of
Ghanaian independence, concert party actors demonstrated a remarkable
responsiveness to changing social roles and volatile political
situations as they continued to stage this extremely popular form of
entertainment. Drawing on her participation as an actress in concert
party performances, oral histories of performers, and archival research,
Catherine M. Cole traces the history and development of Ghana's concert
party tradition. She shows how concert parties combined an eclectic
array of cultural influences, adapting characters and songs from
American movies, popular British ballads, and local story-telling
traditions into a spirited blend of comedy and social commentary. Actors
in blackface, inspired by Al Jolson, and female impersonators
dramatized the aspirations, experiences, and frustrations of their
audiences. Cole's extensive and lively look into Ghana's concert party
provides a unique perspective on the complex experience of British
colonial domination, the postcolonial quest for national identity, and
the dynamic processes of cultural appropriation and social change. This
book will be essential reading for scholars and students of African
performance, theatre, and popular culture. Catherine M. Cole is
Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University
of California, Santa Barbara. She has published numerous articles on
African theatre and has collaborated with filmmaker Kwame Braun on
"passing girl; riverside," a video essay on the ethical dilemmas of
visual anthropology. June 2001 256 pages, 26 b&w photos, 3 maps, 6
1/8 x 9 1/4, notes, bibl., index cloth 0-253-33845-X $49.95 L / £38.00
paper 0-253-21436-X $19.95 s / £15.50