29/12/2025
*EVANS APRAKU BOADI: THE MAN WHO TAUGHT THE STAGE TO BREATHE IN WESTERN REGION*
Before him,
the stage in Western Region region was an idea
spoken of, remembered,
but rarely inhabited.
Curtains hung like abandoned promises,
lights flickered without conviction,
and applause came only in echoes.
Then came Evans Apraku Boadi, Mr HeadyBrains
not with noise,
but with vision.
He arrived with scripts under his arm
and fire in his chest,
and seven years later
the stage no longer waits for permission.
From GNAT Hall to the Centre for National Culture,
from the quiet dignity of the Takoradi Library
to the restless pulse of Takoradi Mall,
from Restoration Church to Akroma Plaza—
he has turned ordinary spaces
into places of reckoning.
Thirteen plays and counting -
P = V
After You Say 'I Do'
The Naked Dance
Bed of Wonders
Daddy's Roommate
After You Say 'I do' - Reloaded
InterCross
Fate of the Nation Address
No Syringe Attached
A Kind of Family
Guilty of Love
When Long Goes Wrong
These were not ordinary performances
They were interrogations
They were sermons without pulpits.
They were classrooms without chalk.
As a teacher of Literature and English Language
at Ahantaman Girls’ Senior High School,
he teaches students by day and
teaches the city how to feel by night.
He won young hearts for drama with a high school tour with Ananse in the Land of Idiots and The Son of Umbele.
When Takoradi Technical University (TTU) formed its resident drama troupe, the dramatic hands of HeadyBrains directed their inaugural stage play: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again.
And UMaT called. And he delivered at their SRC Week.
On the national level, he delivered for Onua TV Concert Train at Atlantic Hotel.
He has diligent hands to turn raw talents into stars who dare to take the stage.
As an Elder of the Church of Pentecost,
he understands that drama, like faith,
requires discipline, sacrifice, and belief.
He is a lovely husband to the beautiful Keziah and
father to a lovely daughter who will one day learn
that her father did not speak of dreams,
he built them.
Trained at the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,
inspired by Tyler Perry,
yet unmistakably Ghanaian,
unmistakably Takoradi,
unmistakably his own.
Mr HeadyBrains
did not wait for an industry
He created one.
He did not complain that theatre was dying.
He resurrected it
script by script,
rehearsal by rehearsal,
night after uncompromising night,
Barely securing sponsorship.
Today, when the lights rise in the Western Region,
they rise because someone first believed
that the stage deserved to live.
This is not praise.
It is record.
It is testimony.
It is a fact.
Some men find the stage
Others stand upon it
But a few legends
bring it to life.
Evans Apraku Boadi
Built and owned the stage like a sage!
*JM MOULD*
*Takoradi*
*27th December, 2025*
