By Al creighton
Guyana’s Carifesta Secretariat is about to conduct the largest training programme in technical theatre carried out in this country in recent history. The series of workshops held by GEMS Theatre Company in 2007 and 2008 was smaller and restricted to juniors. In the 1980s and ’90s the fairly strong Drama programme at the University of Guyana was of an entirely different reach and focus, offering training at a much higher academic level and only accommodating a small number of university students. The only programme of greater magnitude was that carried on by the Theatre Guild, sustained formally and informally, for over 30 years.
The Carifesta plan is a one-off programme but with a very wide range of lasting benefits. It started out with a single purpose: to provide a team of personnel to man the various performance venues that will be brought into service during the festival. Several theatres, halls, community centres, convention centres and other buildings of different types have been selected as performance space, but none of them has a staff of production personnel to support these events. The plan then, was to martial a team of volunteers who would fan out to serve the many venues. Since the vast majority of these volunteers would be untrained, unskilled and inexperienced, the plan was to teach them the necessary technical skills.
However, the aims began to multiply and the plan to assume many additional and complementary dimensions. Carifesta has been accused of having no developmental value. The criticism has been that it is simply a grand, expensive, one-off fête held every so often with nothing to show for it in between. This view places it in the category of the magical theatre created by Shakespeare’s Prospero. At the close of each Carifesta, it is argued, when
Our revels now are ended, these our actors . . .
Are melted into air, into thin air,
And like the baseless fabric of this vision
. . . shall dissolve.
They are an “insubstantial pageant faded” and “leave not a rack behind.”
To belie this charge, the Carifesta X plan then decided that it should provide something more sustaining. The necessary training grew in scope and purpose and is designed to build a more lasting corps of technical theatre personnel to serve theatre and the performing arts in Guyana well beyond Carifesta. The irony is that the training programme started out as a part of Guyana’s preparation for Carifesta, all that they do would be providing them with practice for the grand event. But now Carifesta is merely the final exam; the last stage in the training. It is the festival that is being used to provide them with first-hand experience so that they will be better equipped to serve Guyana’s performing arts and venues for long after “the revels are ended” and the “pageant faded.”
Neither does it end there. The policy of sustainability was earlier articulated by the Minister in charge, Dr Frank Anthony. But this training scheme is now conceived as a service to the Guyanese community with sociological dimensions well beyond art for art’s sake. When the advertisements went out for volunteers to come forward to receive training, the response was overwhelming with nearly 1,500 applicants. What was originally meant to take in 170 apprentices is now expanded to accommodate 500.
What is driving this programme is further articulated by Dr Paloma Mohamed, Carifesta X’s Artistic Director, who designed it. She is a poet, playwright and theatre director with the capacity for seeing the creative possibilities. She is the Coordinator of the Centre for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana and her training in Sociology and Psychology might be responsible for the way the concept behind this large training programme developed. This is how Dr Mohamed explains it:
“Carifesta ten (CX) is programmed to take place in Guyana from Aug 21-31 2008, less than 4 months away. The government of Guyana which is hosting the festival has through its executing organ The Ministry of Culture identified a number of needs-opportunities nexuses.
The idea is that the weak areas of competence needed to support incoming national contingents have been identified and are currently being boosted through training. This will leave thereafter strong cultural capacities in Guyana. In some areas this capacity will extend beyond culture into vocations and small business enterprises.
“One such area is theatre and performance.
“Informal but competently informed appraisal of the existing state of affairs has indicated a lack of trained personnel in almost every area of theatre arts. A training programme was designed to train 171 young persons in 14 technical areas related to the arts. Advertisements were placed for 30 days. The number of applicants received was close to 1500.
“Upon analysis of the applicants it was found that overwhelmingly they came from groups which are problematised in some way. These range from very young single parent women who are currently unemployed, to young people from far flung parts of the country and areas which have been described as depressed.”
“The dilemma facing the executing agency of the course is how to reject over 1000 persons who have in many cases very good qualifications, experience or inclinations for acceptance into the programme.”
Training is to be provided in set design, lighting, sound, property management, costume, make-up, hair, front-of-house management, production management, directing, acting and stage management. There will be about 30 hours of instruction in these specialist areas which is sufficient for the award of a Certificate in Technical Theatre.
According to Mohamed, “Instruc-tion is expected to be undertaken by a mix of local personnel and overseas persons skilled in specialist and cutting edge techniques. Since many of the trainers may be busy and since the trainee pool is not yet specific based on discussions with several potential trainers listed below there will be need for a flexible schedule over a period of 6-8 weeks for the completion of the course; this period will necessarily include evenings and weekends”.
Although the instruction will include the production of plays it will prepare the participants for work in a range of activities since performance at the various venues will also include dance, music, readings of poetry and prose as well as variety concerts. It is of interest that large numbers of the applicants are from several areas regarded as depressed or ‘ghetto’communities, while others are established professionals and well known personalities.
It is also of relevance that many are from far flung areas. It should therefore be possible to be able to send persons back to their own communities in Essequibo and Berbice, or near to home since many Carifesta events will be located there.
Expectations of a thorough grounding in the needs of Carifesta as well as those of communities in social and vocational contexts are not unrealistic.
