Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
A scene from this year's Pantomime, 'Iffa Nuh So'. The scripts for the National Pantomime came in for some criticism in the third of four Calabash Publishing Seminars at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona, last Saturday afternoon - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WESTERN BUREAU:
BRIAN HEAP was instructive, Tanya Batson-Savage passionate and Trevor Rhone went mostly retro, though not quite irrelevant, on the third of four Calabash International Literary Festival Publishing seminars on Saturday.
The three, staff tutor at Philip Sherlock, freelance writer and playwright respectively, were guests on the Kwame Dawes-hosted afternoon session which addressed the state of Jamaican theatre.
The session veered into topics as varied as 'roots' plays and 'highbrow' theatre, theatre spaces and equipment (or the lack thereof) and the dismissal of Yvonne Brewster from a theatre-building project in Falmouth.
Along the way St. Jago's drama teacher and the drama students at the Excelsior Community College got kudos, their Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts counterparts 'wrang bangs', while the National Pantomime's scripts came in for criticism.
Legs artfully crossed, Rhone stated his passion for the theatre when Dawes asked if we care if theatre in Jamaica is alive, dead or vibrant. He made the first of many dives into the past, a dangled foot twitching, as he recalled the reaction of a man to a play he staged in 1968. After the show the man hugged Rhone, cried and said "thank you for sharing my burden."
"It became pretty much the mission for my life," Rhone said.
"Theatre does what all art does. It is part of validating your humanity," Batson-Savage, who had been accompanied to the stage by a lone catcall of 'my hero!', said. Heap said that theatre was "undoubtedly" important, noting that the immediacy of theatre is tremendous.
LACK OF DRAMA
The obvious nailed firmly above the mantelpiece, Dawes went past the reef when he asked "how do you assess it now?", that question going to the Batson-Savage. She said that it has not been at the best place it has been in the last five years, in terms of variety. "After much talk and lamentation about the lack of drama, some bold writers decided 'let us put some drama in it'," she said, referring to some Basil Dawkins comedies. "Theatre is going through a good phase, but there is still a lot wrong with it. A lot of it has to do with money," she said.
There is another 'hamper' to Jamaica's version of Shakespeare's Bottom's donkey, though, as Batson-Savage emphasised the lack of theatre space. "You are physically restricted in what you can create," she said.
Heap picked up on the theatre space dilemma, noting that when the Regal in Cross Roads and Palladium in Montego Bay were being sold "somebody with a bit of vision could have bought them. I think both of them sold for less than $12 million."
There was talk of the 'tyranny of laughter', Rhone saying that he does not go to theatre in Jamaica now as "a producer in Jamaica has no funding. He lives or dies by the box office. He sits and evaluates what the audience will laugh at ..."
Heap also acknowledged the iron hand of the giggles, saying "basically we are storytellers. My concern is with the stories we are telling. We are playing it safe."
FUNDING BODY
On the question of funding, Rhone went retro (as he did with the discussions on writing) to a personal experience of largesse in the 70s, but there was general consensus that a properly organised funding body to which applications can be made is needed.
Batson-Savage asked for a hand count of Edna Manley drama students present and got a meagre two. When one half of the school's student representation for the day queried the action, Batson-Savage made the comparison with the EXED students, who she says she sees in numbers at productions she attends, while the Edna Manley students are conspicuously absent. "They are interested in developing their craft," Batson-Savage said of the EXED students.
It was not a good day for Edna Manley, although their serious equipment shortage was recognised. Rhone said that an actor has two things to work with, voice and body. "At the Edna Manley School the voices are failing badly," he said. "If you are an actor and have no command of language, whatever that language may be, you are failing."
Heap pointed out that the Pantomine plays to packed houses and in doing so "pays to keep the Little Theatre open for the rest of us." Rhone noted that the Pantomime is selling out because of its history and suggested the possibility of a Pantomime writing contest, to very strong applause. .
