Al Creighton

Christmas Bells   I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play,        And wild and sweet        The words repeat    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

The performances in the National Drama Festival (NDF) 2015 came to a rollicking, hilarious end with the performance of a comic farce – popular theatre of a type that appeals to the contemporary audience.

The Members of the Jury have completed their very intense deliberations and debates and have reached agreement on the winners of the Guyana Prize for Literature and the Guyana Prize Caribbean Awards.

The annual National Drama Festival (NDF) of Guyana is in progress at the National Cultural Centre, running every night at 7 o’clock until November 28.

The Guyana Prize for Literature reveals an interesting mix of some of the leading writers and previous winners and a wave of very new writers among the contenders, according to the shortlist recently released.

The Theatre Guild of Guyana staged a Festival of Plays at the Playhouse in Kingston last week-end in which four new plays and playwrights were presented.

Jamaica reverberated last week with birthday tributes, programmes and performances in honour of Ranny Williams called ‘Mas Ran,’ (October 26, 1912 – August 11, 1980) who was born as Randolph Samuel Williams on October 26, 2012 in Colon, Panama.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is now inviting entries for its 2016 competition.

The National Dance Company of Guyana, in the performance of ‘E-Majin,’ for Dance Season 36, directed and choreographed by Vivienne Daniel, celebrated not only a product of 36 years of dance in Guyana, but demonstrated dance as a work of the imagination.

We have already commented that the ‘summer’ of 2015 was like a field lying fallow in the production of theatre in Guyana.

While the theatre agenda in Guyana is currently quite busy, the production of plays on the public stage is at a low ebb – a condition that is expected to be only temporary and is not unrelated to the business of the agenda.

Sonnets from China XVI (sometimes titled The Embassy) As evening fell the day’s oppression lifted; Far peaks came into focus; it had rained; Across wide lawns and cultured flowers drifted The conversation of the highly trained Two gardeners watched them pass and priced their shoes; A chauffer waited, reading in the drive, For them to finish their exchange of views; It seemed a picture of the private life.

      Kanaima / Tiger (for Richard and David)   In the darkest middle of the rubber walk where the interweave of overhanging branches was thick above the road, the four schoolboys walking home (loitering in the roadside bush, collecting shiny rubber seeds in their wooden pods) suddenly stopped – movement, talk, breath, all stopped: for there in the road, yards ahead, stood a black tiger.

Pocomania Long Mountain, rise, Lift you’ shoulder, blot the moon, Black the stars, hide the skies, Long Mountain, rise, lift you shoulder high.

(Continued from last week) As we continue to focus on Carifesta XII which was held in Port au Prince, Haiti, from August 21-30 and closed its curtains exactly one week ago, we find ourselves still confronting the persistent and overriding significance of Haiti as a venue for this Caribbean festival.

President Martelly of Haiti speaking at the Grand Opening of Carifesta XII in Port Au Prince declared that there are two Haitis: “the Haiti that CNN talks about and the Haiti that we know.” 

A production titled Performance 4: The Resurrection was presented by the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama at the Cultural Centre the week before last.

The Republic of Haiti holds an exceedingly significant place in the Caribbean.

1st of August, 1838 ‘O ye first of August freed men who now liberty enjoy Salute the day and shout hurrah to Queen Victoria; On this glad day the galling chains of slavery were broke From off the necks of Afric’s sons who bled beneath its yoke.

Critics of the popular play in contemporary drama, and very specifically those in the Caribbean and Guyana, often hold it up against what is called ‘serious’ theatre.