By Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Student actors from various local high schools will represent Jamaica in the upcoming Caribbean Schools' Drama Festival, scheduled for November 22-28 in San Fernando, Trinidad. Participants will present a production of Easton Lee's hilarious Jamaican play 'Tarshan Lace and Velvet', directed by Aston Cooke. This photo shows a scene from the play. Seated (from left) are: Janique Myers and Lisa Dunkley. Standing (from left) are: Joseph Collington, Dane Campbell, Sheree Ann Bartley, Gregory Green and Christopher Gordon.
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THE LITTLE Little Theatre was bursting at the seams with young talent on Saturday night with the launch of Jamaica Youth Theatre and the Caribbean Schools' Drama Festival 2004. The Jamaica Youth Theatre was formed January of this year as the performing arm of the festival.
The launch featured the gala performance of Easton Lee's Tarshan Lace and Velvet and a 'Poetry Extravaganza'. Tarshan Lace and Velvet, directed by Aston Cooke, will be Jamaica's entry in the Caribbean Schools' Drama Festival in Trinidad and Tobago, November 20-28.
The evening began with the charming and funny Tarshan Lace and Velvet. The costuming for Tarshan Lace and Velvet, created by Quindell Ferguson, was exquisitely done and proved to be more than half of the characterisation. From hair to jewellery, every piece was accurate to the time period. The other half of the characterisation, the performances, were also well done. Generally, the young actors were not at the stage where their performances are effortless and unaffected, especially with the characters that would be furthest from their experiences. Nonetheless, they brimmed with such talent that their performances were very enjoyable.
TALENTED GROUP
However, though the group is generally talented, Janique Myers (Annie), Lisa Dunkley (Euphemia) and Christopher Gordon (Josiah) all stood out in the quality of their performances. Myers exhibited stately grace and seemed in-tune with her character. She carried this unaffected performance over to her delivery of Joan Andrea Hutchinson's Hog Name Crowd. Myers avoided the trap that so many young performers fall into of mimicking Hutchinson rather than putting their own stamp on the piece. The result was rather entertaining.
Gordon also displayed admirable range with first, his role as Josiah, the cantankerous grandfather and then the tortured young man as he performed the poem Silent Tears. Gordon and Dunkley provided most of the laughter in Tarshan Lace and Velvet.
The 'Poetry Extravaganza' was staged by Sheldon Shepherd. The first few poems in the second segment of the night created either a motif of rebellion or a More importantly, it mixed the words of the young performers and some of Jamaica's most respected poets. As such, Joseph Collington (Battle For Freedom) and Gordon (Silent Tears) each performed his own work. In the same segment Allan Spencer performed Claude McKay's If We Must Die, while Dane Campbell performed Oku Onura's Echo. Tashney Francis' A Country's Agony, performed by Gregory Green, was the final poem of this type.
The second set of poems all appealed to the funny bone, though most of them also included much social commentary between the lines. It was in this group of poems, however, that the group's professionalism shone forth in a scene ripped from an actor's nightmare.
While performing Hutchinson's Workaholic, SaShawn Johnson found herself bereft of the lines. For a moment, she froze and
fortunately the audience was a gentle one and encouraged her. She would finally be rescued by Oneil Peart, one of the accompanying musicians. Seemingly
walking around with a bushel of Hutchinson poems in his head from his years of performance in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's Speech Festival, Peart provided Johnson with the much-needed lines. More importantly, he did so as though it were a part of the performance.
Though by that time it was too late for a flawless cover, it was a very admirable attempt and the players breezed past it. Johnson went on to an admirable finish.
At the end of the night, the Jamaica Youth Theatre had
presented an entertaining evening, which promised an impressive future for Jamaica's theatre landscape.
