If the name Collette Jones sounds unfamiliar to you, the popular ‘Tessa real girl’ stage persona from the early 90s might trigger a few memories; either way the reputation precedes the woman.
Guyanese actress Collette Jones is the kind of straight-talking, no-nonsense woman with a fiery passion for the arts, which probably explains why she ended up acting. She has been in a league of her own for years, but modestly discusses past projects which include a modelling contract with Burlington Coat Factory in the United States.
Collette has worked in this country, a string of Caribbean nations, Canada and the United States in a career that spans over two decades. She famously portrayed many unforgettable characters in Harold Bascom plays including bringing to life, ‘Tessa real girl’ and has collaborated with the Guyanese playwright beyond these shores.
Collette strongly identifies with Guyanese theatre but when she sat down for an interview with The Scene recently, her assessment of where it is today painted a painful truth, which is that serious theatre has been struggling to find an audience here for some time now.
Since the restoration of the Theatre Guild serious drama appeared to have found a home, but Collette observed that the larger stage at the National Cultural Centre is still dominated by slapstick and ‘crotch theatre’, the latter referring to slack humour. Collette has no problem saying she was there performing the roles when ‘crotch theatre’ started in the country, but she is of the opinion that things got out of hand over the years.
“People took it out of context and blew it out of proportion and now it’s what it is…,” Collette said. She said theatre was more serious in her time despite the fact that ‘crotch theatre’ was popularized back then. She bluntly describes some of what is being fed to the public as “trash” saying that the country needs more serious stuff, but “entertaining, respectful and clean”.
She recalled taking her nine-year-old daughter to a dance show a short while ago and being shocked at the level of strong sexual content and routines which bordered on vulgarity. Collette also has an issue with the NCC allowing people inside after the show starts. “They can come in at a scheduled break in the show not when people are trying to enjoy what is happening on stage,” she said.
Collette is back home to live and work after working to build the arts in the region, particularly in St Vincent and the Grenadines. She is currently working on a production called, Dead Win which she described as a dinner theatre production that involves the audience.
Collette said she came back home to settle in and start a business, but her focus is on developing the arts here.
Collette said she left Guyana in 1997 because of the “political climate”. Things were going well for her and her husband at the time, but she felt a bit uneasy and decided to move to the Caribbean. Initially, she got work but nothing big and after working for a few years she grew into an institution.
Collette worked on the revision and creation of the school curriculum for the Visual Arts and Drama in St Vincent & the Grenadines, and she was the first lecturer in the field of the arts at the teacher’s college on the island. She has been involved in countless visual arts workshops from 2000, collaborating with UNESCO, OAS and the OECS.
She said that the workshops focused mainly on “the transformational power of creativity in Caribbean society, empowering artists and artisans with entrepreneurial tools/skills”. She has a goal to work with young talent and to nurture it. “I want them to understand that they can become entrepreneurs in the arts and that it is not a career choice where you have to suffer,” she added.
Her career in the arts started at age 20 and she identifies herself as, “someone who does everything in the arts”. She tried a few jobs before deciding to train at the Burrowes School of Arts and then the University of Guyana. She is an actress, an artist, a poet, a teacher and an interior designer.
Her story is fascinating as she speaks of growing up with a father who initially rejected her plans to pursue a career in the arts. “He said no art!” and she recalled needing some money to complete a work-related project, which her well off father loaned her on the condition that she repay him with interest; she forced to repay the loan and interest.
She said that a lot of people supported her in those earlier years and she found a second mother in Professor Doris Rogers. “She was my anchor,” Collette said of Rogers, disclosing that she lost her own mother to a car accident when she was just a year old. During her years in Canada, she found a close friend in PPP/C MP Philomena Sahoye-Shury. According to her, Sahoye-Shury helped her a lot while she was working in Canada.
Collette has performed extensively in over 250 plays, television and radio sitcoms in the Caribbean, South America, USA and Canada. In Guyana, Collette was awarded Best Actress for five consecutive years at the Theatre Guild and at the TAA Awards.
Collette has also designed and won several awards for her unique and creative costumes and is the 2011 winner of the small band costume and float for Guyana – she designed the costume for the Ministry of Education. Currently, she is working as Artistic Director at School of the Nations.
“I’m back home to make a difference and see what I can do,” Collette said. She has afternoon lessons during the week with students who are interested in the arts and is working on other plans.
Collette spent her early years in Mahaica and though she has been away from the country for years, she said that, “Guyana is home”. She is married and has one child; her daughter, Charisma. Collette’s Dead Wind production will be held at the Impeccable Banquet Hall on April 17 and tickets can be had at Shantal’s Exotic Creation in Albertown (ianaseales@yahoo.com)
