International Multidisciplinary Research Journal 2022, 12: 25-33 doi: 10.25081/imrj.2022.v12.7398 https://updatepublishing.com/journal/index.php/imrj Int Multidiscip Res J • 2022 • Vol 12 25 INTRODUCTION Institutions in Ghana, at the level of tertiary education, and other pseudo-tertiary institutions train prospective theatre practitioners, so much so that theatre productions in Senior High Schools and tertiary schools are rampantly common in contemporary Ghanaian times. These theatre productions are to show students the ropes of play productions and efficiently prepare them as professional theatre practitioners. In tertiary institutions, these student productions are per the students’ academic requirements and for their assessments and in that occupation, of theatre production, the director is the master technician who sets the production on sail towards its final destination (Ogbonna, 2015). The burden to ensure success in any given theatre production then befalls the tender shoulders of the budding director: if the production fails to satisfy audiences, the director is mentioned and fretted in the halls of failure and disgraced (Adeoye, 2015). It is the researchers’ observation that, perhaps, the idea of having one’s name accredited to the direction of a play at a young age or early stage in one’s training/career can indeed be an ego booster – a testament or reminder of one’s talent, ingenuity, and hard work. As a result, student directors may be courting this destructive ego and rushing to beat a deadline and attain self or critical acclaim at the end of a production process. They do this, however, at the peril of their precious creative production work. Student directors who find themselves in the position of a theatre director have not immediately been inducted into the Theatre Directors Hall of Fame and therefore should bask in the glory of being a member of the upper echelon class of theatre practitioners; rather, this is the time to eschew pride and show humility as well as prepare by asking questions, consulting colleagues and leaving room for improvement every step of the way (Adeoye, 2015). Where many budding theatre directors, especially the ones classified as ‘Student directors’ have failed, success could have been attained. Adeoye (2015) asserts that the success or failure of the production is tantamount to the activation or deactivation of the budding director’s vision informed by the ‘production concept’. In other words, a well-formulated ‘production concept’ is the key to a production’s success. A production concept is simply what the director wants to do – in transforming the play from a cold script to actuality on stage (McAffery, 1988; Wilson & Goldfarb, 1991). Emphasizing play production concept(s): Relevance and application for student directors in the University of Cape Coast Sika Koomson 1 *, Solomon Boateng 2 1 Department of Theatre Arts, School of Creative Arts, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, 2 Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana ABSTRACT The relevance of production concept(s) in play production(s) cannot be overemphasized as it forms the theoretical spine for any play production and it informs all the aspects of theatre production. Therefore, the apparent absence of a production concept in any production is problematic; this warrants critical examination. There is a great need to bring the issue of a production concept to student directors if they are to eventually end up as front-runners in theatre practice. Student directors and other budding directors ought to see what lies as the merits and demerits of having a production concept injected into the body of their creative work or not; they also ought to be shown the way in formulating one in the first place as well as how to apply it in their production for the best of results. This paper seeks to examine student directors’ appreciation and application of production concepts for their practical projects at the University of Cape Coast. The aim is to spark a discourse with this subject matter at its core, bridging the gap between it and budding directors for their comprehension, appreciation and application of production concept(s). KEYWORDS: Production Concept, Play Directing, Theatre Director Copyright: © The authors. This article is open access and licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, or format for any purpose, even commercially provided the work is properly cited. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. Research Article ISSN: 2231-6302 Received: November 16, 2021 Revised: August 02, 2022 Accepted: August 04, 2022 Published: August 23, 2022 *Corresponding Author: Sika Koomson skoomson@uew.edu.gh