Caribbean theatre began to experience very fundamental changes, formal developments, diversification, and other advancements from the end of the 1960s and through the 1970s. It is in that context that we are able to gauge the significant role of Guyanese theatre director, actor, writer, and administrator Ken Corsbie. He has made a mark on Caribbean drama as a performer extraordinaire, and we take time to pay him tribute.
Corsbie is among those whose work helped to advance Caribbean performances, which properly took off on the formal mainstream stage in the 1970s. It is in this area that his most enduring interventions during his long and varied career on stage exist. It is here that his work most meaningfully altered the form and trends of stage performance out of all the roles he has been playing.
The 70s was a very busy decade in Caribbean drama, and in the middle of several critical activities, one of the most outstanding and impactful advancements was the appearance of an act known as “Dem Two”. Corsbie and Marc Matthews, also a Guyanese actor, performance/spoken word practitioner and Guyana Prize-Winning poet had a repertoire that drove the explosion of Caribbean performance on the mainstream stage and helped to diversify modern theatre and proclaim the rise of a new form. It was ground-breaking and extended the frontiers of the Caribbean stage.
