“Theatre is a discipline, it’s a life discipline. It’s pretty easy to be distracted by the light and glamour that it attracts.It should be a source of inspiration to others in achieving positivity and finding a source of expression of themselves as it may”
By Jairo Rodrigues
From thirteen years of playing the ‘Courts’ Guy, his presence on the Link Shows and his most recent act as the competitive $1 persona for Digicel ads, Howard Lorimer is a prominent name in the Guyana drama industry and to many he serves as the sole inspiration on stage.
For him drama is not just presenting an image of a character, but living the image of the character. Howard revealed that drama is a lesson of life. “It is an essence of life itself and even portraying the characters, I as an individual have been able to draw from those characters I’ve played,” he said.
He said he would consider his drama career to be will lived and that theatre has shaped his presence and has been quite a positive experience.
“It has given me a tremendous boost in terms of self-esteem, a better understanding of life itself and I am using the knowledge that I have to share with others as it relates to positive and upward mobility.”
He grew up in Beterverwagting before moving to the West Bank Demerara village of La Retraite.
“It was a true village…. Everybody was seen as family, elders took care of other people’s children as their own,” he said, noting that the village has a high set of morals and values passed down through generations, “Older folks implemented their value system, they shared their knowledge and would ‘teach’ us lessons based on stories and parables – They were always conscious and aware of everything going on around the community.”
His mother, Enid Lorimer was a secretary at the LBI Sugar estate; his father Joseph Lorimer was post master in the same West Bank District. He is the eldest of three siblings, one brother and two sisters. “Boy, did we fight! …Growing up in that environment where everyone was trying to find themselves… there was a lot of clashes,” he said.
His parents, on the other hand, were very family oriented. “My mother… She was always fair with us, always there for us too – as a family unit. My talent would have originated with her after our many family unions where we would all sit and perform little dramatizations.”
He said they were always happy. “We were brought up in such a simple and comfortable way, we did not look at other people and desire too much.”
Around the age of ten, Howard started petit drama and poetry in the Moravian Church on the West Coast; the more he attended church camps and cultural presentations, the more his love for the dramatic arts grew.
As he aimed on developing himself and his love, he looked up to the great artistes of his day – Ronald Robinson, Margaret Lawrence, Kwesi Odinga, Gordon Marshall and many others. “My desire to succeed is my biggest motivator; I have a strong passion to be the best that I can be. Basically in everything that you do it is always self-positive, you have to believe in the light.”
He did note that he has a lot of stumbling blocks, lots of challenges that he faced that put pressure on family life but he always had that aspiration to overcome his struggles. “I can’t even say that I have a most accomplished piece in any play, every piece has its own uniqueness that I admired. To speak specifically would be unfair because it challenges everything about you,” Howard said.
For receiving countless Theatre Guild Awards in his professional career: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and once Best New Comer, Howard noted his great gratification and pride in the acknowledgments. “My gratification and fulfilment of what I have done is not materialistic, it’s the evidence seeing and felt by all who have witnessed and experienced my energy,” he added.
Now three years retired, he has migrated to New York and is focused on the new phase of his life. He is steady on the words: Accept that the only constant is change. His new life phase centres on reaching out to people, to children, to senior citizens to anyone who have self-doubt and low self-esteem. “I see myself reaching out and touching the lives of people who have lost hope. I see myself shining that light so that all can gather and become contented; that good has given all a purpose in life and whether or not we have fulfilled it.”
Reflecting, he said that once we as a people have acknowledged and attempted to do the best we can for mankind, then that’s where he wants to be. He wants to be an ambassador for positive living because he believes in the value of self-worth.
Howard is a drama icon in Guyana and from his years of experience in the industry, The Scene wanted his opinion on how the dramatic stage can be improved. He said: “Government needs to recognise the power of drama, theatre, the art form and its expressions. Theatre has brought down governments. Through history you have seen theatre start wars… It’s a gift that … can truly represent us as a people. Theatre is the voice of the people.”
The context of the comments above had to do with the lack of Copyright laws and the fact that the government has not paid the performers of the Theatre Guild for their contributions to Carifesta X in 2008.
A word of advice to the upcoming dramatists: “You never get a second chance to give a first impression. Respect is not gotten, it’s earned – the theatre has to earn the respect, it lives with you on and off stage. Do not see anything as below you because everything is like a staircase. There are no small parts, just small actors.”
Now he just enjoys family time with his wife and four daughters. He recently concluded his vacation in Guyana, where he said, “I have seen massive growth in infrastructure; a lot more business and financial activities.”
Socially he loves to be in the company of good people and he loves to do projects in his spare time such as building and landscaping.
