Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Willaims (left) in his role as host of the Actor Boy Awards in 2004 with Michael Reckord.- RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
LAST YEAR appeared to be a good year for Karl Williams. And this year, is shaping up quite well. Williams is one of a cadre of young actors who are busily painting on their stripes on local stages. Currently, he is a part of David Heron's ensemble production 4Play, in which he plays the reticent Charles Johnson. He is also the first person to host the Actor Boy Awards two consecutive years.
The 30-year-old first strode on the stage with Earl Lovelace's adaptation of his novel The Dragon Can't Dance during his final year at the university pursuing a Literatures in English bachelors. With the fangs of the acting bug then firmly imbedded in his skin he took the advice of Brian Heap and tried out for, and earned a place in the national pantomime, Janga Rock.
Williams explained that The Dragon Can't Dance, in which he played the calypsonian Philo, helped him to get over stage fright. His real introduction to theatre, however, came through the final year course, 20th Century Theatre, put on by the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts. "I was looking for a course that just did not involve exams," he says but as the course taught him about all aspects of theatre including acting techniques and directing, he fell in love with it. At the time, theatre did not feel like work.
'Work' came with Janga Rock, which Williams says introduced him to the professional side of theatre and the discipline it took. "Now acting feels like work," he says. "It's still fun but I can appreciate the amount of work that actors have to go through."
FOR THE LOVE OF SHAKESPEARE
Williams abandoned the nine to five rat race in 2002 after attending a summer course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
While there, he performed in Shakespeare's As You Like It and says that exposure to the British's irreverent treatment of the bard allowed him to fall in love with Shakespeare. "Before I saw Shakespeare as something very hard to pass in school," he says.
With an impressive list of plays in his repertoire, Williams seems ready to burst into the hallowed list of household names. Since Janga Rock, he has performed on the local stage in Rhythm of Life 2, Dis Ting, Noel Coward's Private Lives, and Cindy-Relisha and the DJ Prince. He has also performed in the Jamaica Musical Theatre's Bubbling Brown Sugar and Mama I Want to Sing, Father Ho Lung's Amazing Grace and Moses and Louis Marriott's Bedward.
As a result he has copped four actor boy nominations, including one in the upcoming ceremony, for his role as Rameses in Moses. He says however, that he is careful not to make it go to his head. "Sometimes I say to myself, 'yeah, okay, somebody on the street know me.' I used to feel if my name was on the playbill somebody would say 'who?'," he laughingly admits. Yet he dismisses the notion that he has arrived with an emphatic "please!".
Williams admits that the Rameses role was a "dream role". However, after watching Ten Commandments every year since childhood, he had to distance himself last year, and instead focused on the bitterness that must have consumed Rameses.
Williams' career has been filled with musicals and he admits to liking them. Yet he finds playing in 4Play, his first intimate production, a welcome change. He admits to it still being a work in progress as he tries to take the character places. "For Rameses the challenge was physical but on this stage you can't be too big and so you need to tap in to the truth found in subtleties," he says.
