The Theatre Guild of Guyana received $500,000 in sponsorship last Tuesday, from independent publisher Ameena Gafoor at a corporate sponsors’ appreciation event held at the Theatre Guild Playhouse.
The cheque was presented to Guyanese playwright Dr Paloma Mohamed, who was almost brought to tears by Gafoor’s generous donation. She said the money will come in handy for a number of reasons.
Gafoor, who is also the editor of the Arts Journal and the Arts Forum, said theatre is an important outlet for children and she hopes it stays alive because artistic expression is very important.
Mohamed said small significant changes can be made to the theatre like paying off its $8,000,000 debt owed to the Guyana Power and Light. Other things she listed were the purchase of a generator that should at least be able to supply enough power to the lights and sound in the theatre.
Mohamed said funds provided by sponsors are used to help with administrative and marketing systems as well as refurbishing the theatre. The Theatre Guild also intends to produce three major theatrical productions: Hamlet, the popular musical Cats, based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T S Eliot, and produced originally by Cameron Mackintosh and a children’s production.
Free workshops are conducted at the Theatre Guild every Wednesday. There’s also a ‘Healing Arts Writing Workshop,’ for children which will be conducted by Mohamed and members of the Guild one Saturday per month for children between the ages of 8 – 10 and 11 – 14. Interested parents are asked to enroll their children before December 20 because the workshop will commence again on January 15, 2015.
