“Squeezing money out of a rock”: diverse economies of contemporary theatre in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana has a vibrant theatre tradition, and yet making theatre in Ghana is complex and theatre artists must grapple with the challenges posed by a lack of state support, limited access to formal funding and theatre venues, and a precarious labour market. This paper employs the perspective of diverse economies to explore how theatre artists make theatre. Rather than privileging formal institutions, capitalist enterprises, and waged labour, the diverse economies perspective brings to the fore diversity in labour arrangements, transactions, funding, and livelihood activities. We explore how theatre artists in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region, and Accra, the national capital, engage in a diverse array of income generating activities, use different forms of labour, blend formal and informal finance, and engage in a multitude of transactions – that is, deploy diverse economies – to make the kinds of theatre they want and to lead the kinds of lives they find valuable.