Tennesia Malcolm, Gleaner Writer

'Janice' (Deon Silvera, left) and 'Paul' (Orville Hall) get close in 'Below the Waist'. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Dance Expressionz founding member. Dancin' Dynamites judge. Dance tutor at Excelsior Community College. Think Orville Hall and dance immediately comes to mind.

But Hall is more than light on his feet and lithe in the hips. With the help of Stages Productions, he has become one of the latest playwrights to hit the local theatre scene.

Favourable response

The curtains went up on Below the Waist at Green Gables Theatre just about one month ago to favourable response. The play presents true-life scenarios, featuring a motley crew: a Rastafarian man, his girlfriend, her father the cop and the fire-spitting, no-holds-barred tenant who places conscience on the back burner in order to get ahead. Characters that seem well developed and credible. Little wonder, as Hall says, the play has been years in the making.

"The play was written years ago. It entered festival and got about six or seven national trophies," he said. "It was a half-an-hour-long piece."

Hall next approached Stages Productions, a company on a mission to clean up its image and shake the reputation of being producers of bawdy roots plays.

Full-length play

"I spoke to the producer, Mr Bunny Allen, in the presence of the director, Mr Paul O'Beale, and they liked the concept and asked me to do it as a full-length play," Hall explained.

Two rewrites later, Below the Waist has audiences coming back and has placed the name Orville Hall on the psyche of theatre-goers.

Hall thinks audiences love his play because "it has a very strong and positive storyline and some of the top-of-the-line names in the theatre fraternity".

One such name is Volier Johnson, a theatre heavyweight who plays the custom-built role of the gun-toting cop, hell-bent on destroying his daughter's love affair with the 'Rasta bwoy'. Long-time favourite Deon Silvera and roots play darling Abigail Grant give convincing performances; and, not to be left out, Everardo Creary is hilarious as the accountant.

Strong background

Hall has a strong background in theatre. Not only did he graduate from EXED as a dance and drama major, he has appeared in about 17 stage plays and a movie, Klash. He has also dabbled in poetry, as well as directing school productions, with his first major play being Sugar Daddy, co-written with Garfield 'Bad Boy Trevor' Reid.

"I want to explore writing and directing more now because dancing comes so naturally to me, I'll never lose the ability to dance. But you have to keep practising to write a proper story, one that is commercially viable," he said.

And for Hall, Below the Waist is "the proper jumpstart for me" to become established as a credible playwright and director.