Last week’s signing of 2010 Junior Calypso Monarch Tennicia De Freitas to perform at this February 19th encore performance of Mori J’Von Comedy Jam 11 marks what Producer/Director Ron Morrison says is a bold attempt to build stronger bridges between business and the performing arts

Although he accepts that the local business community is far too fragile to fully support the growth and development of the creative  arts, Ron Morrison believes that neither business nor the arts have sought sufficiently diligently to explore such opportunities as exist for a mutually beneficial relationship between the two.  He concedes that while, over the years, a few business enterprises have stood out as ‘patrons’ of the performing arts the Guyanese corporate community, as a whole, has been “mostly indifferent” to theatre. “I believe that in Guyana, as much as anywhere else in the world the private sector is the best patron of the creative arts. Apart from the financial support that the corporate community can give to the creative arts, conventional wisdom holds that private patronage offers greater assurances of freedom from official controls and the possibility of censorship,” Morrison says.

If the Producer/Director of the latest addition to local stage comedy has his way Mori J’Von Comedy Jam will pioneer a decisive change from what he says is the “condition of poverty” that has been the lot of local theatre.  Last year, he threw his own small company that holds the local and regional franchise for the internationally renowned Hanes brand of apparel headlong into theatre. His aim is to create a national theatre season, a comedy season that alters the relationship between the creative arts and the corporate community.

Last week Morrison used the occasion of the signing of Guyana’s 2010 Junior Calypso Monarch Tennicia De Freitas as the latest member of the Comedy Jam cast to talk about what he describes as “an open invitation” to the rest of the business community to join him in a mission to keep theatre alive. His message to his business colleagues is embodied in an attractive color brochure titled “The Power To Laugh” *-in which he outlines a range of corporate sponsorship packages that offers branding and promotional opportunities for their various goods and services.

“Part of what Comedy JAM seeks to do is to encourage the business community as a whole to recognize that by investing in local theatre they are in fact investing in both the promotion  local creative talent as well as in the viability of their own businesses,” Morrison says.

His approach, he says departs deliberately from what he says is the “cap in hand” approach that has informed the relationship between business and the theatre. “We believe that COMEDY JAM is an advertising medium in its own right and essentially what we are seeking to do is to talk a deal with our partners in the corporate community.”

Morrison is not oblivious to investment of both time and financial resources that he has undertaken in his quest to change the local theatre culture. “Its costly and its time-consuming but I have made it a mission. By producing new material every month we are seeking to do several things. First, COMEDY JAM seeks to broaden theatre’s audience base. We want to build more passion for theatre and we have chosen comedy as the vehicle through which to do so. If we can build a stronger audience base we believe that we can approach the corporate with serious business proposals that have to do with the marketing of their goods and services. The creative arts have no such leverage with the corporate community at this time.”

In pursuit of this goal COMEDY JAM has embraced what Morrison says is “a different approach” to theatre. “Comedy has always been the most attractive genre of theatre to Guyanese. We are not, inherently, a Shakespearian audience; more than that we love to laugh at ourselves, our imperfections and our public figures including our politicians. Every day, in our workplaces, in media cartoons, in bars and on street corners we satirize our public figures. It has become one of our most popular past times. COMEDY JAM is seeking to package that social commentary, that appetite for satire into a marketing tool.”

A trained Fashion Designer and a one-time journalist Morrison oversees the production of each COMEDY JAM script. He favors a conceptual approach that embraces thoughtful witticisms on issues of public interest and the lampoons public figures. Over time, he says, COMEDY JAM will focus on the creation of stage characters that have their parallels in real people, mostly prominent people. “We hope to create cartoon characters out of these stage characters. That way we will provide popular visual images to which people can relate and which, hopefully, will help sell products and services.We believe that if the characters in Comedy Jam can become popular figures with the majority of ordinary consumers then the production can make a powerful case for the use of those characters as marketing tools.”  It’s a kind of JUSTIN CONCERN magnified.

Last week’s signing of reigning Junior Calypso Monarch for a ‘one-off’ performance at the February 19th encore performance of Comedy Jam 11 is an example of Morrison’s experimental approach to creating a new theatre movement. “Recruiting Tennecia is part of the focus of MORI J’VON COMEDY JAM on infusing the theatre with fresh talent. Too much talent simply blooms fleetingly then withers and dies. By creating a talent stream we are helping to keep theatre alive while bringing the best, the most promising talent to public attention.”

And while he declines to disclose the size of Tennicia’s appearance fee he says that the contract represents “a modest start with which both herself and her management are happy”  and if it works we may be prepared to talk a longer-term deal.”

Tennicia’s particular talent for Kaiso is the second reason for the singing. Since 2006 she has been winning junior regional and national Kaiso championships and Morrison says that her 2010 winning tune I Don’t’ Want To Be Born has sparked a creative idea in his own mind which he hopes to present at COMEDY JAM encore. “There are range of creative ways in which calypso can be used as part of what we do.  Calypso is a pliable, flexible art form that is ideally suited for comedy. It can bring a range of highly marketable social commentary to the stage. If can lampoon prominent personalities, it can make witty comments and it can go to all sorts of satirical extremes. If the use of Kaiso on the stage as part of our comedy package can strike a resonant chord with our audiences then we are in with a big chance of creating an interest among the business community. I like the idea of signing Tennicia and if it works for our encore show then we may want to talk a longer term deal with her people.”