Guyanese cultural icon Clairmonte Taitt passes away
Award winning Guyanese-born Caribbean cultural practitioner, Clairmonte Taitt has passed away in Barbados at the age of 88, and according to his friend and colleague, Vic Insanally, he will be celebrated as a tremendous actor
Taitt, who was the father of five: Marina, Donna, Debra, Michael and Cheddi, will be remembered for his decades of service as a Caribbean cultural icon. Insanally of the GuyEnterprise advertising agency, who worked alongside Taitt as broadcasters at the Guyana Broadcasting Service (GBS), told this newspaper that Taitt was a very gifted person who will be celebrated as a magnificent actor.
Insanally said that he met Taitt during the earlier days when Taitt worked at GBS, and after leaving the broadcasting agency the two joined Hawley Harris to work at GuyEnterprise with Harris being their graphic designer. According to the Directing Manager of the agency, Taitt had come up with the name GuyEnterprise as he wanted the advertising agency to be the first bearing the word ‘Guy’ in the independent Guyana.
He recalled that Taitt was raised by his parents, Dorothy and Dr Jabez Taitt, a Barbadian physician, in what is referred to as the Taitt House (formerly known as the Woodbine house) and later transformed into Cara Lodge. Insanally said that Taitt and his siblings were raised in a home that was most vibrant and forward thinking as it relates to the development of Guyana during the 1960’s. He said that the family aided with the cultural development in Guyana. The family was made up of internationally acclaimed and accomplished ballet dancers, a theatre producer, art collector, actor, singer and broadcaster, as well as two doctors.
Insanally told this newspaper that his former colleague and friend, was best known for his acting ability, as he was a dominant member of the Theatre Guild of Guyana. Taitt played the part of the lead in many plays and he was a tremendous actor who was always drawn to the stage, Insanally said. He noted that when the two branched off to manage GuyEnterprise, they faced many challenges because it was the first advertising agency that was owned by Guyanese. He said that their competitors were mostly from overseas and that Taitt’s wife had joined them and worked as their secretary, receptionist and typist.
Eventually Taitt migrated to Barbados with his family but he said that they tried to keep in touch. While in Barbados Taitt did radio and continued acting. “He was in every play. He was always drawn to the stage,” Insanally said. “He acted in Barbados and represented dramatic themes. A lot of young men at that time drew their inspiration from Clairmonte,” Insanally told this newspaper.
Taitt worked with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Guyana as a prize-winning tenor and choirmaster, as a BBC-trained
broadcaster with Radio Demerara and Radio St Lucia as programme director, as well as the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation as an announcer/producer.
In 1997, in Barbados he was one of the first recipients of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts’ (NIFCA) highest and most coveted award, the Governor General Award of Excellence in Drama and Speech for his performance of Flambeau, an excerpt from the Earl Earner pl
lay ManTalk.
He went on to train teachers and students through the National Cultural Foundation’s (NCF) theatre arts programmes, facilitated from 1998 to 2013. He coordinated and was the lead instructor in the TAPPWORK proramme - the NCF’s Theatre Arts Play Prouction Workshop. He was also a NIFCA Drama and Speech judge and chief judge for several years.
He is also remembered for his “stellar” performance in Timothy Callender’s, How Music Came to the Aichan People, which the NCF produced as its theatre production for CARIFESTA 2000 in St Kitts. Notably, Taitt’s career in drama spanned 60 years. In Barbados, Taitt worked extensively with Earl Warner for three decades, acting in sevral outstanding plays. In 2014, he received the Earl Warner Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award.