Approaches to Play Directing: Quintessence in the new creative interpretation of Mohammed Ben-Abdallah's "Step Aside"

Abstract

The art of play directing in the theatre, when examined from different stages of its development, has witnessed unprecedented metamorphosis. These transmutations are what make scholars who have been following the trend of its development to describe it in various ways. Scholars such as Wole Soyinka cited in Masa (2007, p.214) describe it as a complex business while Hodge (1971, p.1) describes it as art of leading dramatic performances. The various processes of change that the art of directing has witnessed have manifested both in the Western (the Greek, Roman, Elizabethan etc) and African theatre tradition as exemplified by the developmental processes in Nigeria, Ghana Kenya amongst other African nations. This chapter examines a Ghanaian theatre director, who ranks high amongst creative theatre inventors in Africa. His major contribution has been how he has brought creative directional invention into the art of play making in Ghana and thus provide a new direction in the art of play directing