– Guyana plays catch up with Caricom neighbours
Formal training in the performing arts is developing in Guyana, and indeed around the Caribbean. In fact it is now quite advanced in other parts of the region – Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago especially, as well as Barbados. In Guyana this new level of formal training is attempting to influence what happens on stage, which is one of its ambitions. This was in evidence in the recent presentation of ‘The Performance’ at the National Cultural Centre by the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD) on April 27.
Around the Caribbean, increasing emphasis is placed on the performing arts and the industries arising from them. Guyana has been at the helm in this although the country itself is only now trying to catch up with some of its Caricom partners. Activities at an official level have gone well beyond the ring of truth in Derek Walcott’s Naipaulian statement that Carifesta is a waste of time and money – it is a grand fete; after each Carifesta the artists return home to poverty and the Caribbean governments put no money into their real development (see Interview with Walcott, Arts on Sunday in the Sunday Stabroek 1989).
At Carifesta 2003 in Suriname, an attempt was made at deep analysis, change and development when the symposia turned attention to restructuring the festival to address its faults, make it more effective and improve its economic viability. Close attention was paid to the cultural industries in the region. This was the initiative of Guyana’s Dr Carole Bishop then a Caricom officer who led the process of reformation that followed with increased attention being paid by several meetings of the Regional Directors of Culture
