A year of bounty for drama
Our review of the year 2023, started in these pages last week, found it to have been the best year for the arts in Guyana since COVID and going back for many years. There was quite an upsurge in 2016, including some important and some new events, when Guyana celebrated its Golden Jubilee after 50 years of Independence, but that was concentrated around a few months. 2023 did not mark any particular historical significance, and certainly surpassed the Jubilee year in almost all respects, including the number, impact, importance and innovativeness of events and developments which stretched over the period of the whole year.
Last week’s assessment analysed the way this played out in a range of artistic disciplines. This week will focus on the fine arts and the performing arts. And surely, it can be said that drama excelled significantly.
In art, there were no major national exhibitions, but the national gallery at Castellani House was not entirely idle. The exhibition halls of that institution hosted a few shows on a smaller scale, most of them private. Of particular note was an exhibition of photography, noteworthy because photography has not, traditionally, been so prominent, and because it was enabled by a government grant. Photography exhibitions are rare, and this one was a result of the million dollar grants awarded to individuals by the Ministry of Culture during the year for projects in the cultural industries. The grants were introduced by Minister Ramson, and restored, in part, the endowment of $100 million dollars for the arts established by Minister Frank Anthony after Carifesta 2008 and discontinued between 2015 and 2020.
Trevon Barker accessed one of those grants for his exhibition “Butterfly Effects”. Among the more important art shows for the year was the one to mark Amerindian Heritage Month 2023 titled “Cultural Identity and Representation”.
The “Exhibition of the Year” was the Musings, Guyanese Folktales, & Figures of the Ramlila, an exhibition in honour of the 60th Anniversary of the University of Guyana presented by the Department of Language and Cultural Studies. It was spectacular, deep and distinguished, and did credit to the degree programme in the fine arts at the university. Further, it showed important new work by two national artists who are lecturers there – Philbert Gajadhar, who is among the nation’s leading painters, and Elodie Cage-Smith, a recent alumna who is fast rising on a path to join those painters. It was the only opportunity afforded the public to see the new and current national art for the year. Ohene Koama, also a recent alumnus, seized the opportunity to show his most recent development in drawing, showing off his pursuit of current techniques developing in the country.
Also involved in this exhibition, were Akima McPherson, Alim Hosein and Sade Barrow Brown. As it happened, McPherson, an art historian, academic and critic, rose to further prominence in 2023. She was the focus of attention years before when she twice won a prize in the Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition as a post-modernist and feminist artist, and advanced further in national attention when she started writing a weekly column on art – Eye On Art, in the Sunday Stabroek. This sharpened academic focus on art during the year, as did other action taken by the university itself. Foremost national painter Bernadette Persaud was conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree by the University of Guyana in December 2023, making her the first visual artist to be so honoured by the institution, and in the nation. That kind of recognition further enhanced other critical attention also given to art in the year. Stanley Greaves, no stranger to the university or to the Sunday Stabroek, had several appearances in the ongoing series of discussions at Moray House. This series, coordinated by Isabelle de Caires, highlighted many areas of the arts, as well as the work of Greaves in 2023.
As a performing art, the dance found itself in the spotlight on a few occasions. This was dominated by the National Dance Company performing the choreographies of director Vivienne Daniel. This company made several appearances throughout the year at mainly government functions where they performed with never less than distinction. It was a year marked by a distinct increase in performance opportunities created by the government. Dance was a feature in Emancipation performance programmes, commemoration of the August 1823 Slave Rebellion, street theatre in August and various international conferences. What emerged as the “Full Dance Show of the Year” was the 2023 edition of the annual “Greens and Golds” production entitled “World Dance Tour” directed by Esther and Jonathan Hamer of Kreative Arts.
The high frequency of events promoted by the Ministry of Culture was partly responsible for the fact that in contrast to the previous seven years, theatre flourished. It was a year of bounty. First came the performance of plays that had won the Guyana Prize, a Charles Ramson initiative. For the first time, the government put money specifically to produce Guyana Prize Winning plays on stage. Groups and individuals in the local theatre community were invited to bid for the opportunity to stage selections of these plays totally funded by the Ministry, but with all the proceeds from ticket sales going to the producers and performers with all rental fees and taxes waived at the National Cultural Centre.
The National Drama Company (NDC) took advantage of this to stage Sauda by Mosa Telford (2014) in February. This was directed by Ayanna Waddell with the lead played by Tashandra Inniss supported by Sonia Yarde. This was a part of the Guyana Prize Literary Festival. The second production was by an amalgamation of practitioners who performed Makantali by Harold Bascom (1996) directed by Godfrey Naughton with Sean Thompson and Nathaya Whaul playing the leads. Then, there was a third in this series, which was The Last of the Redmen by Michael Gilkes (2006) produced by Gems Theatre Productions and Prime Time Productions and directed by Henry Muttoo and Gem Madhoo, with Ron Robinson as the lead supported by Mark Luke-Edwards.
The year was remarkable for some of its riches. What was unprecedented was the sequence of not three, but four Guyana Prize Winning plays being performed within a few months of each other after so many years when these plays languished on the bookshelf. Under an entirely different dispensation, the play Douenne by Paloma Mohamed (2000) was also performed during the year. This was another event in honour of the UG 60th Anniversary, directed by the then Artist in Residence Muttoo, with Frederick Minty and Sonia Yarde in the lead roles.
Under that same umbrella, another major Guyanese
play, The Tramping Man by Ian McDonald (1969), also directed by Muttoo with Keon Heywood in the title role. What was also significant were the private productions mounted, not selling tickets and open to the public, but with attendance by invitation. These included two by Madhoo-Nascimento – an evening of readings and recitals at the Nascimento residence and a variety concert to celebrate the birthday of chartered accountant and attorney-at-law Christopher Ram. These recall a time in Guyana when such events were a part of the social culture in Georgetown, such as events held in the Ballet Room at Taitt House (Woodbine House) and a very long series of poetry readings and discussions which involved artists from Edgar Mittelholzer in the 1930s to Martin Carter in the 1960s.
Also invitation only, but of an entirely different ilk, was the launching of a new App by EdYou FM, the Guyana Learning Channel radio station. This was by the Ministry of Education and featured the performance of a musical dramatisation called “Discoverie of El Dorado” by the National Drama Company with musical score by Kimberly Samuels. Worthy of mention, too, was the performance at the end of the annual summer workshop of the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama which saw the performance of short plays based on traditional cultural forms. Added to those was the “command performance” by Guyanese flautist Keith Waithe under the auspices of the University of Guyana.
This was further extension of the UG’s recognition of leading artists, because Waithe was also honoured with the conferral of the Degree Doctor of Letters by the university in December 2023. These are worth highlighting as significant proceedings in 2023 because of the enhancement afforded the performing arts in the university recognition of Waithe.
Yet other productions were being done off the stage. EdYou FM produced and began to broadcast a recording of the play Anansi by Allistaire Campbell (1992) for radio by the National Drama Company. This was done with students studying the play for CXC in mind. As an alternative to a stage production, a radio version was seen to be a bit more moveable, and could reach many more on the air.
And still, these did not exhaust the long list of productions and performances in 2023. We might end for this week by listing the rest. The Mic James Group at Linden returned to the stage with the comedy For Better or Curse by James (2023) performed at Lichas Hall in Linden. Receiving rare private sponsorship was the play Shadows of Tomorrow by Randolph Critchlow (2023) supported by Massy for Mental Health Week, and performed specifically for schools.
Private sector sponsorship is not rare at all for Maria Benschop and Lyndon Jones who once again staged Nothing to Laugh About to their usual large and vociferous audience in 2023.
Then, what was quite different was the staging of a play on the streetside. The National Drama Company performed one of their plays, Queh Queh by Subraj Singh (2015) directed by Al Creighton and Tashandra Inniss with Latoya Da Silva and Mark Luke-Edwards in the lead roles within the mini-festival produced by the Department of Culture. This was part of the celebrations of Emancipation and the 200th Anniversary of the 1823 Rebellion which was held on the side of a Georgetown street.
The year was also marked for the return of the Theatre Guild Festival of One-Act Plays, which found itself back on stage after an absence of several years; perhaps a decade. However, there were only three plays coming forward for that competition.
All told, the Department of Culture spent in excess of $16 million on dramatic plays in 2023, in addition to those that still made in under private support. It was a bounty year for income earned by playwrights, production personnel, directors, actors and actresses, stage designers, stage managers and crew. These practitioners earned higher performance fees than they had ever had before in the high rate of performances and the high rate of wages paid by the Ministry in the publicly sponsored plays and performances.
One can never put a ceiling on the wages that theatre personnel should earn, and it is a fact that in all the years of commercial and professional theatre in Guyana, they have never really properly been paid what they ought to be. (One may argue that in the early years – the 1980s, when they were being paid for the first time, there were satisfactory rates, but that is highly debatable). These people have long been underpaid and 2023 brought some relief.
However, the comparatively attractive rates paid by the Ministry in 2023 have raised the bar. The problem is that it might now be a bit too high for private producers to match. They will find it hard to pay the same rates when they have to pay their staff out of ticket sales. This problem will only be addressed if performers are understanding and will accept lower wages, but more so when the Ministry removes the prohibitive fees and taxes imposed at the National Cultural Centre.
To properly end a review of 2023, there needs to be recommendations of what were the best productions and performances in the theatre for the year.
ANANSI FOR RADIO
MIC JAMES
SHADOWS OF TOMORROW SPONSORSHIP
MERUNDOI YOUTH SLAM
NOTHING TO LAUGH ABOUT
QUEH QUEH
THEATRE GUILD FESTIVAL
BEFORE HER PARTING / FASHION CUTS /
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
BEST YEAR FOR INCOME FOR PERFORMERS 15 MILLION IN PLAYS
TAX WAIVERS FOR GUY PRIZE
ACTORS’ INDIVIDUAL INCOME
DILEMMA FOR PRIVATE PRODUCERS
ART
NO MAJOR EXHIB
THE UG EXHIB
NEW WORK : GAJADHAR / CAGE SMITH KOAMA
UG ART PROGRAM
AKIMA MCPHERSON
UG DOCTORATE
BERNADETTE PERSAUD
STANLEY GREAVES
MORAY HOUSE
DANCE
SEVERAL APPEARANCES NDC EMANCIPATION 1823