By Sara Bharrat
At 18, Darren Anthony Mc Almont isn’t just dreaming of what he wants to be tomorrow. He’s working towards his dream one step at a time every day.
Darren is one of the fresh faces in the local theatre fraternity. It was during Carifesta X in 2008 that Darren really decided to take acting seriously. He signed up for the Carifesta X Theatrical Training Pro-gramme.
It has been almost two years and Darren is currently an active member of the Theatre Guild family and has performed in a number of plays including: Hassa Curry, Shoes Blues, Massacuraman and Ev’ry Time I feel the Spirit.
While growing up Darren was always thrown in front of church audiences to sing or act and it is this which eventually gave him the boldness he believes was needed to sign up for the Carifesta X drama training.
“During my childhood,” Darren recently wrote to The Scene, “I was known in my neighbourhood as the ‘Dictionary’…I was a very outspoken person who only spoke perfect English and associated myself with persons who did the same and always thought I would….”
Today, Darren appreciates language more and has learnt that how a person speaks had nothing to do with their level of intelligence. Creolese (local broken English) gives Guyanese drama its spice, Darren said.
Being in the local theatre fraternity teaches you that if you want to excel then you definitely have to learn Creolese and appreciate it. While Darren still does not speak Creolese he is becoming fairly more familiar with it for the sake of work.
Last November, his part in Shoes Blues involved a lot of Creolese dialect. This, he recalled, turned out to be hard work and he has developed a definite appreciation for Creolese. It also gave him an opportunity to play a different role. Usually, Darren said, he is given the “English man” sort of role.
“Even when I hear people speaking Creolese it translates into my mind as Standard English and I find myself constantly correcting people’s pronunciation,” Darren said with a slight abashed smile. “I don’t intend to insult anyone… correcting language just comes naturally to me.”
Getting accustomed to Creolese has not been the only challenge in his acting career. Working with the company at Theatre Guild, he said, has been a very enlightening experience. The company consists of persons from all sorts of backgrounds which sometimes results in schedules clashing.
This is one area which sometimes makes rehearsals very challenging. Then there are times, Darren continued, when you have a script in your hand but you just can’t seem to capture what the director wants. Despite the inconvenience they cause difficulties are always welcome, he stated, because they’ve made him a better person; a better actor.
There are also some scenes on stage which can really present a sticky spot for some actors. His first on stage kiss, Darren recalled, went smoothly but that was only because he was working with his trainer Jennifer Thomas. It was this trainer, he said, who taught him that the trick is always to remember that “it’s just acting” and to treat it professionally.
“I don’t know if Jennifer knows this but she has had a very big, a very good impact on me professionally,” Darren said.
He is also a man with his eyes on the fashion realm. This year, in a second attempt to audition for Guyana Model Search, Darren was successful.
“Last year I wasn’t confident enough so I didn’t get through the auditions but this year I am back. I’ve learnt how to be more confident,” Darren said.
Modelling and acting both have high demands on physical appearance. Despite this, Darren agrees that many actors, especially the younger ones, become too absorbed in what they look like and forget to nurture their skills.
“Even I was once there,” he recalled. “When I first started acting I spent so much time on my appearance but I quickly realized that it was my skill in the art itself which should be given the most time.”
Preparing for Guyana Model Search 2010, he said, is another demanding task. He has been hitting the gym five days a week to keep in shape. “I know I have the height and the looks,” the confident Darren stated, “and modelling is also an art which I will be shining in soon.” (srh.midnight@gmail.com)
