By Michael Reckord, ContributorTHEATRE DIRECTOR Norman Rae admits to breaking his policy of avoiding plays which do not interest him only once. The fact that he has been directing almost steadily since 1953 (from his Oxford University days) says a lot about his integrity. Integrity is a word which springs naturally to the mind of one hearing Rae talk about Jamaican theatre. Because of the decline in the contribution libraries are making to the enrichment of their lives and because so much on television is not worth watching, he says, "our youngsters are severely limited" culturally. They face, he says, "a deadening, monotonous, grey" cultural scene, unless they are rescued by theatre. Rae finds it "a little sad" that after the "high hopes" generally felt for post-Independence theatre, we are now "back in days which could be considered primitive." It is imperative, he says, that audiences come to expect more from theatre than mere entertainment; otherwise, "theatre will die."
Rae says he is not against the current crop of comedies. Rather, he is advocating for choice. Over the years, Rae has given his audiences lots of choice in his theatrical as well as radio and television productions. (He produced Gloria Lannaman's A Time To Remember on RJR for five years and 13 episodes of Very Special People for JBC television.)
He started directing while studying English at The Queen's College, Oxford University. Collaboration '53, a revue for the College drama group, The Eglesfield Players (named after the College's founder), was followed by Jean Giradoux' Intermezzo (The Enchanted), which got glowing reviews.
(Chuckling, Rae mentions that Maggie Smith (now famed British actress Dame Maggie Smith) was to have played the lead in Intermezzo but got involved in another production.)
While at Oxford, Rae did the choreography for a BBC television programme on undergraduate life at the university and did more choreography (in a revue) when he left Oxford for London University, where he read for his Master's degree in English. Explaining his skill in choreography, Rae mentions that he was a member of the original Ivy Baxter dance troupe until he left Jamaica for studies in England.
ARTISTIC FUNCTIONS
Returning to Jamaica in 1956, he started working as a reporter for The Gleaner. There he started covering artistic functions and continued after he left for the Banana Board, of which he eventually become general manager. From 1957 until he again left Jamaica in 1979 to become Trade Commissioner in London, Rae reviewed the fine arts, dance, drama and film for The Gleaner. Meanwhile, he continued to direct. His directorial debut in Jamaica was of The Fantasticks, which he co-directed with Bourke at the then New Arts Lecture Theatre on the UWI's Mona campus. The musical starred Beth Hyde and Derek Manderson and also included Willie Foster-Davis, Easton Soutar and Tommy Pinnock.
In 1965, Rae directed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a musical starring 'Sagwa' Bennett, Lois Kelly-Barrow, Linda Desnoes and Dennis Scott, at Ward Theatre. Later that year, he directed the first 8 O'clock Jamaica Time revue, which he created with Tony Gambrill and Jimmy Barton.
He directed another in the series in the following year, when he also directed Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Dorothy Blondell-Francis, Beth Hyde, Bill Carr and Cecil Gray. Also to Rae's credit are four Little Theatre Movement (LTM) Pantomimes, Peter Shaffer's The Royal Hunt of the Sun, with Ancile Gloudon and Jimmy Barton, and Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, which won the top awards that year for the University Dramatic Arts Society.
CONCERTS
During his 13 years as Trade Commissioner in London, Rae did no directing. However, he did organise concerts and an art exhibition in honour of Jamaica's 21st and 25th Independence anniversary celebrations.
On returning to Jamaica in 1992, Rae again donned the director's mantle. While chairman of the Ward Theatre Foundation's Executive Committee, he directed Hamlet. Before and after holding the post, he also directed for the theatre Sweeny Todd and A Little Night Music.
Currently Rae is director and co-producer of Steve Carte's Caribbean classic Pecong. The play is set in the Eastern Caribbean "in an island of the mind", states the playwright, in the early days of Carnival. It is about a woman scorned and her terrible revenge after her two sons' father takes on another, younger woman.
Bertina Maccaulay plays the lead, Mediyah, Quinton Yearde plays the lover, Jason, and Carol Lawes plays Granny Root, Mediyah's grandmother. Grace McGhie and Joan Belfon play town gossips.
Rae says the play is one of "epic proportions" which resonates outside the narrow confines of the usual fare offered to the public.
