Denise Reid, Gleaner Writer

Makeda Solomon - File

Since stepping off the corporate ladder in June, last year, Makeda Solomon, under the Lights Movement Banner, declared her mission to "touch the lives of as many children as possible through the creative and transformational medium of drama".

Ms. Solomon began acting 24 years ago in the United Kingdom where she was born. She told The Gleaner, "Growing up as part of a minority group, being involved in theatre provided me with a means of self-expression and boosted my sense of identity."

The Actor Boy Award-winner believes that children are receptive to positivity and will ride the waves of their imagination more readily than adults; thus the vision of a positive future is easier for children.

As a result, Ms. Solomon is set on using drama to transform the lives of children and by extension transform their communities and the country.

In 1999, Ms. Solomon hosted a workshop in Montego Bay that got great results. Last year, she hosted a successful summer arts camp, which coupled drama with the arts, at the Fairfield Theatre.

She told The Star, "We got a great response; the children enjoyed themselves and parents were pleased." She explained that the camp ended in a small theatre production and art exhibition.

The January school term will see a new beginning to the Kids Drama Club, the name given to the theatre classes Makeda will host for children. The highlight of this year's activities though is the Prince and Princess programme, which will feature an additional class for a select group of children from financially challenged backgrounds.

Makeda asserts that being part of this group will help to build self-confidence and will help children to foster a positive mindset, seeing themselves as the royalty they really are.

Solomon told The Gleaner, "Being involved in drama allows students to operate from a different dimension, causing them to have to work in a team synergy from a creative standpoint."

Solomon also spoke of a healing element in movement which is offered by drama not experienced in class. She posits, "drama taps into the right side of the brain, and balances children (as they mostly utilise the left side of the brain in school), making them more fully equipped to deal with situations as they grow up."

She also praised drama as a vehicle that "expands children's ability to interact with people of different backgrounds, as they have to work in synergy to create pieces together".

Little Julain Dawkins, of Ascot Basic School, is in her element as she recites a poem entitled, 'Mi Granny', during Ascot Primary School's 10th anniversary celebrations on the school's ground, in Greater Portmore, St. Catherine, on Sunday, October 22, 2006. Makeda Solomon believes that drama is a transformational medium that awakens creativity in children. - photo by Anthony Minott