The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin has lauded actor Clemento Suarez for his sparkling performance in the recently staged play ‘Prison Graduates.’
In his reply to Naa Ashorkor, the producer of the play’s tweet on twitter, he wrote: “Yes! The play #PrisonGraduates was just fantastic. And our very own Clement Ashietey (aka Clemento Suarez) is one of GH’s top comic actors,” he retweeted.
Speaking to Suarez on what the diplomat’s statement meant to him, he told Citi Showbiz that Jon Benjamin’s tweet has taught him to put in his best in whatever he does because he never knows who will be watching.
“It has also taught me to put in a lot of effort and hard work to live the hype. One thing it also tells us as Ghanaians is to promote our own. We wait for a foreigner to hype our own and when we tend to love foreign things, we complain,” he remonstrated.
Clemento Suarez who played Gomido aka Dumelo in the play which was staged on Saturday, 29th April, 2017, was at his best when he set the whole audience into uncontrollable laughter.
‘Prison Graduates’ is a play written by the late playwright Efo Kodzo Mawugbe, directed by Fiifi Coleman and produced by Naa Ashorkor’s April Communications.
The play which also featured celebrated Ghanaian actor Adjetey Anang aka Pusher, talks about the life of people who have been released from prison. The story has intense and very exciting yet critical plot.
When asked how difficult or otherwise playing a role in ‘Prison Graduates’ was, Clemento answered that it was very challenging and that his audience are the right people to assess his performance.
Born Clement Ashietey, Clemento Suarez started acting in 2003 while at Tema Secondary School and has staged a couple of other plays including ‘Blue Black.’ He has also starred in television series ‘Master and 3 Maids.’
The comic actor who is also a musician, has released a couple of comic songs and videos like ‘Oluu’ ft. 2Kz, ‘L. A. Primary,’ and ‘DABB’.
Clemento aspires to groom great talents for the nation so that the creative arts get the real people for the job.
“I want to help unearth more talents so that the lazy but famous ones who are taking Ghana for granted will be wiped out of the system,” he told citifmonline.com.
He also added that one of the biggest challenges of the creative arts is the fear to tell the truth. According to him, monopoly of some artistes has also been a big problem; one the media accepts certain few people, they do not give others the platform and attention.
Mr. Ashietey pleaded on government and corporate bodies to invest in the arts so activities of the creative artistes will go on well.
The Theatre Arts & Music graduate of the University of Ghana started his early childhood education at Church of Christ School at Bantama in Kumasi. He later had his basic education at Bethel Presby JSS in 2000. After that, he went to Tema Secondary School.
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