THE FOUNDER OF JAMROCK PRODUCTIONS TELLS HER OWN STORY IN A LIVE SHOW AT THE LAWRENCE BATLEY THEATRE, WRITES HILARIE STELFOX

set in Huddersfield.” Life has not been particularly easy for Angie, who gave up the chance to study at drama school in Jamaica to help her mother nurse her dying father. She has a son, who was raised by his father back in Jamaica and then by Angie in Huddersfield. “When I first came here,” she says, “I got three cleaning jobs so that I could enrol for a diploma in drama at the technical college. In primary school I realised I had a natural ability to write plays. I’d been asked to write plays for the school to perform at the end of term and I was offered a scholarship to the only drama school in Jamaica. But my father took ill so I stayed at home to help my mum.” Her parents, Glennis and Enid Whiteley, were part of the wave of migrants from the Caribbean who came to Britain to work. But they missed their families – and the sunshine – and returned to their homeland when Angie was just two-years-old.

Coming from such a large family means that she has an extensive network of cousins, aunts and uncles in both Jamaica and the UK, including two grand-daughters and a brother – all of whom have provided her with material for plays.

As she says: “Every experience is useful for a writer.”

And she’s certainly had some unusual life experiences. A few years ago, for example, Angie was asked to ‘interpret’ for Jamaican immigrants, who were appearing in Leeds and Sheffield Crown Courts.

“Their Jamaican patois was so ‘bad’ that noone could understand them,” she says.

Spending time in the court environment was a real eye-opener, but she gets most of her ideas from everyday life and bustling Caribbean communities, both here and in Jamaica.

When she’s not working or writing, Angie is at the theatre. She explained: “I just live here (the LBT). I love seeing plays, musicals, standup comedians, everything. You have to have this passion for the theatre.”

In recent years Angie’s life has been blighted by a hip problem, which necessitated a replacement operation at a critical point before her last production. But, like the trooper she is, she didn’t allow major surgery to get in the way of her theatre commitments.

“I came out of hospital two weeks before the show and was on stage with two sticks,” she says.

But, with mobility still a problem, she has decided to bow out of live performance.

Her biographical show will take the form of readings, recordings from shows, live performances of song, dance and poetry, and a sketch that she wrote for a mother’s day tribute. It’s a variety evening that reflects Angie’s amazing personality.

Tickets for My Work, My Journey with Jamrock are £7 from thelbt.org.uk or 01422 430528.