Michael Reckord, Contributor
THE ACTOR Boy Awards for the 'best' from last year's theatrical productions will not be handed out until March 25 but the suspense has already being building up for most of the nominees.
However, there are three producers who are quite calm, they already know their shows are winners. Doug Bennett, producer of the Jamaica Junior Theatre's Deliver Us, will get the Best Children's Theatre statuette. That production was the only one nominated in its category.
Lloyd Reckord, producer/ director of the National Theatre Trust's The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae, knows that one of his actresses will be getting a "Best Supporting Actress" statuette. The only question that he and the nominated actresses, Amina Blackwood-Meeks, Rishille Bellamy and Kathy Owen, have is 'Which one?'
Ginger Knight, playwright/producer of Higglers and Part Time Lover, will pick up an Actor Boy award for 'Best Roots Play'. Again, the only question is, which of the two nominated plays will win?
The three producers were asked to comment on their nominations and certain wins.
Mr Bennett was 'really delighted' with the award for a special reason. "This is the first time the Jamaica Junior Theatre (JJT) has received an award for a locally written script," he said.
The JJT has received some 16 or so Actor Boy awards to date, but up to now all were for London West End or Broadway musicals. However, in recent years, Mr Bennett explained, the JJT has had difficulty getting permission to stage the big name musicals it specialised in (musicals like The Lion King). So the group has turned to local scripts.
Deliver Us, written by Sonia Gordon-Scott, with Mr Bennett, the musical director working with a mix of songs from Verdi, a musical, ballads and popular songs, has earned an award which will encourage the local writers working with the JJT.
Mr Bennett also saw the award as an indication that the Actor Boy judges see the JJT as having regained its former standard.
Lloyd Reckord was 'enormously impressed' by The Trial when he saw it some years ago at a Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina. "I thought all Jamaican young people should see it," he said.
Consequently, he was surprised and disappointed that more young people were not in the audiences for the play, an examination of racism in America. On the other hand it was 'refreshing' to see the 'genuine enjoyment' of older people, not regular theatre-goers, who attended - mainly for the benefit performances.
Ginger Knight had a question about the nominations his plays received. "Why were they nominated as Roots plays?" he asked. "I write comedies." Laughing, he added, "But I'll take the Actor Boy."
He continued: "I'm a writer who sees comedy in any situation," an important ability in these stressful times, he said. "Many people have to laugh to keep sane."
Knight had some news for his fans. He is currently having meetings with the manager of a television station about writing a sitcom and is being encouraged by a Tourism VIP, who has promised financial backing, to write a series of musicals based on Jamaica's National Heroes.
"I'm back in theatre full-time," Knight declared. "Over the next 12 months, I will produce three to four plays." The first of that set is scheduled for July.
The 2002 Actor Boy awards winners will be announced at the International Theatre Institute (Jamaica Centre) ceremony set for the Little Theatre.
