Money not enough to kill my passion—Andrew Tandoh
If you are an ardent follower of Uncle Ebo Whyte’s plays, then you would have noticed the tall, dark and masculine actor who often plays the male lead in many of the productions.
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His name is Andrew Tandoh-Adote and in the nine years that he has been with Uncle Ebo Whyte’s Roverman Productions, he has featured in 33 out of the 35 plays the renowned playwright has put up.
He is the lead for the new play, Nicholas, based on the life of the Founder of the Action Chapel International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams.
Avid watchers would know that Roverman Productions likes to cast new faces for its plays so for Andrew to have been in so many of them is testament to how good he is. But he has attributed his high work rate to passion which always overrides the pursuit of money.
“I love what I do and if I was offered a million dollars in exchange for never performing, I would reject it. I have been trained never to allow money be my primary interest. I have a great passion for what I do and so I am always ready to take up challenges,” he said.
So passionate is he that he sometimes works through the pain. “My passion supersedes my strength so even when I am tired, I still want to do it and give it my best, there are times I get to rehearsals and I am tired but something within me keeps me going so I do not feel my tiredness,” he said.
Out of the 33 plays he has featured in like Unhappy Wives, Confused Husbands, Dear God Comma, Men Run Women Cry, What’s My Name, The Comeback, Rejected, Forbidden, Puppeteers, Games Men Play, Apartment N, The Last Flight among others, Andrew mentions Nicholas as his most challenging role ever.
“I would say playing Nicholas has been my most challenging and it is because of the personality involved that is Archbishop Duncan Williams. You know he is someone you can say a joke or two about and laugh but having to play him for two hours was tough. However, as Uncle Ebo will say, your best is as good as your last production so I gave my all,” he noted.
Apart from his demanding stage acting career, Andrew has also starred in a number of movies and television series including Beasts of No Nation, Freetown, An Africa City Season 2 and Poison Bait. He is also a voice-over artiste and an illustrator.
As if his schedule isn’t busy enough, he recently took on the hosting duties for the Tonight Show which airs on Joy Prime on Multi TV. Andrew said it was tough from the beginning but he now has a grasp of it now.
He said, “I was approached about a year ago but I refused because I was not ready at that time so when it came up again this year, I took it. The beginning was not too smooth as it was a new thing for me but now I am better.”
After completing his tertiary education, Andrew worked as a clerk for several companies until he attended a six month exchange programme in Malaysia to learn more about his initial talent, drawing and painting.
Upon his return to Ghana, he realised he had the urge to bring to life the characters he drew so he joined a drama group called Fihankra Playhouse to explore that.
While with the group, he landed a job as an illustrator with Roverman Productions where his acting talent were discovered by Uncle Ebo Whyte.
He told Showbiz that he has plans of going into fashion as well as giving new talents the platform to show what they’ve got.