TWO WELL known Jamaican theatre figures were in Mexico recently for a regional conference of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Centres of the Americas and the Caribbean.
On World Theatre Day, March 27, actress Leonie Forbes was honoured by ITI/UNESCO Mexico for her long and distinguished work in theatre. Playwright and ITI (Jamaica Centre) vice-president Michael Reckord was invited to give talks on the ITI in Jamaica and the Jamaican theatre, generally. Also invited were some 10 other delegates from various ITI centres in Mexico, Canada, the USA and Latin America.
At a number of sessions, problems the ITI and theatre face in Jamaica and problems encountered in the other regions were shared. Even in the United States the ITI "nearly died," said US delegate Michael Fields. It was only saved, he said, by a link with the powerful Theatre Communications Group (TCG), a not-for-profit umbrella organisation for 250 American theatre groups.
The ITI (Jamaica Centre) was formed in 1964 by Noel Vaz, Drama Tutor at the University of the West Indies, and a small Steering Committee. For many years the group received support from the Jamaica office of UNESCO, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the University.
Assistance
stopped
In recent years, however, the assistance stopped and ITI activities in the island were scaled down. The annual Actor Boy Awards for Excellence in Theatre has for years been the only event the ITI Jamaica stages, though up to about four years ago, it also organised training sessions in theatre, lectures in schools and published a newsletter.
Mr. Reckord told the delegates of the concentration of commercial theatre in Kingston, where about 30 plays are staged in seven theatres annually. Additionally, about three productions are staged in Montego Bay and one or two, usually children's shows, in Mandeville each year.
Mr. Reckord also said theatre is alive and well in Jamaican schools, which participate in the annual Schools Drama Festival, 50 years old this year. He spoke, too, of the annual Drama Competition organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission.
He mentioned the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts as a Caribbean cultural educational institution where Caribbean students work toward certificate and diplomas or, through the UWI, degrees in the Performing Arts.
ITI International President Jeong OK Kim of Korea and ITI Secretary General, Andre-Louis Perenetti, of France were among the specially invited guests to the conference.
