Two of the grand movers on the Ghana theatre management scene, Professor Komla Amoako, Executive Director, and Korkor Amarteifio, the Director of Programmes, have left their positions at the National Theatre.

Prof Komla Amoako who had been the Executive Director since 1994 turned in his resignation last June.

According to the Administrative Secretary of the National Theatre, Mr Theophilus Amarh, Prof Amoako asked to be released from active public service because he had turned 64 and was finding it difficult going up and down all the time.He therefore wrote to the board who approved his request.

?In Korkor?s case, she was given a four year contract when she joined the theatre in 1994 which elapsed in 1998 and was renewed for another four years which expired in 2002. At the expiration of the contract, the existing board?s term of office was up so it could not renew it again?, continued Mr Amarh.

?As one of the top members of management, she had to assist in a re-engineering assignment by the National Institution Renewal Programme for the Theatre?, he added.

She executed her duties so well that the new board which had been impressed decided to renew her contract again but she refused this time and wrote a letter of resignation stating that she had decided to resign in order to pursue other activities. She is scheduled to hand over today.

With the absence of the Executive Director, the board has put in place a three member Interim Management Committee (IMC) to assist the board and to take care of the day to day activities of the Theatre.The Chairman is Mr Michael H. Attipoe, who is the Director of Finance and Administration of the National Commission on Culture. Other members are Mr Mike Amon Kwafo who is also a board member and Mrs Rose Fynn also a board member.

According to Mr Amarh, adverts have been prepared to advertise for the positions of Executive Director and Director of Programmes but they have to be reviewed by the Board and endorsed by the National Commission on Culture before placement in the papers and other media.

The new Board which was inaugurated in January is very much place and will serve its mandate of four years to the full. It has as its Chairperson, Miss Joyce Rosalind Aryee who is the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines.

The members are Togbui Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of Ho-Asogli Traditional Area and is a Director of the Bank of Ghana and is also the CEO of Strategic Alliance Securities (SAS), Professor Martin Owusu, the Director of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Professor Takyiwa Manu, Director of Institute of African Studies (UG).

Others are Mrs Rose Fynn, a member of the National Media Commission, Mr Vincent Gaetan Noora, Assistant Headmaster of O?Reilly Secondary School and Mr Mike Amon Kwafo, designer, producer and talkshow host.