If you’ve ever had a job interview you would know that it can be nerve-wracking. Either you’re nervous from the get go, or you turn up full of confidence and then realise there are 20 other people vying for the same post and they all look like they have tons of confidence; it’s bound to shift yours a bit. Actors go through this often – whenever they are required to audition for roles. Yet they keep doing it. Why? Ask award-winning, veteran actor and director Derek Gomes.
In 1984, Derek had auditioned for a stage performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. The well-known musical was going to be done in a classic rock style, directed by Ron Robinson. It was huge. Derek wanted the part of Pilate, but had failed the audition. However, he still got in as a cast member, since most of the cast was made up of singers and dancers and the director wanted actors in there as well.
He recalls, “On our way home from rehearsals at St Rose’s [Secondary School at Camp and Church streets], we would sing our favourite parts, ably assisted by fellow conspirators, foremost amongst whom was [the then] 16-year-old Paloma Mohamed. As we passed Ron’s residence at the corner of Church and Irving streets, I would sing the part of Pilate which I wanted most of all.
“The part [had been] given to Earl Richards of the Police Male Choir; a formidable obstacle to overcome. But as it transpired he had a problem with the higher tones required for the climax of the play. He was a bass-baritone and I’m a tenor-baritone. I was asked to try out for the part of Pilate, three days before we opened. The director was impressed and I got the part.
“Of the 115-odd plays I have performed in, the part of Pilate was my favourite and most professionally satisfying.”
He continues, “There is an epilogue to this moment. After I got the part, I went outside and sat under one of the palms at the front of the Cultural Centre to contemplate this notable change of fortune and what it augured for my career as an actor. I momentarily forgot that palm trees and ants’ nests go together. The ants didn’t start biting until they had covered most of me and I was too distracted by my good fortune to notice. Then they all bit at once, which resulted in me running around the Cultural Centre in a very undignified manner, screaming and frantically trying to take off my clothes. Luckily most of the cast were still in the building and did not witness this spectacle.”
Derek’s first play was Terminus (1983), written and directed by Dennis Scott and Malcolm DeFreitas. He played the role of Jack. Also in 1983, he did Julius Caesar and won Best Actor for his performance. Then there was Rebellion, which he considers the most gruelling. The actors rehearsed every day from 9 to 5. But since Derek had a lead role, he returned at 8 pm and went until 11 pm every night for two months. After Jesus Christ Superstar in 1984, he was back on stage in Animal Farm (1986) and then there was Not in the Book for which he was again awarded Best Actor. In 1997 and again in 2011, he was in Ronald Hollingsworth’s 83 Million Gees. He has also acted in Trevor Rhone’s Old Story Time and this year when GEMS Theatre Productions put on Julius Caesar for students writing the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations, he acted in it as well as directed it. Derek has also been among the cast of several Link Shows.
Growing up, Derek may not have known he was destined for the stage, but acting up (mischief) was something that came naturally. Born on February 1, 1962 at the Davis Memorial Hospital to Gerald and Myrna Gomes, Derek was the third of seven children and grew up on the Versailles Sugar Estate Compound.
His father was one of the senior staff at the estate; he worked as an overseer, then as a superintendent and eventually, assistant senior manager. In those days children of the senior staff socializing with the children of the junior staff or villagers was frowned upon. Children leaving the compound were only allowed to do so by providing the security guard with permission slips from their parents. Derek circumvented this by climbing over the fence to meet friends not only from the junior staff and that village but from other villages as well, especially Pouderoyen. They would raid the cane fields, take a cool dip in the backdam and all the other things little boys love doing. Of course he knew his disobedience would cost him and he expected a beating when he got home. When it wasn’t at the hands of his father, an older brother shared the lashes while father counted. Derek said he was never psychologically affected by the beatings, but neither did they rid him of his stubbornness.
Derek attended the Malgre Tout Primary and was an ‘A’ student throughout. He went on to Shamrock High, today known as the West Demerara Secondary School. He said he never liked high school and would skip classes, but could often be found in the school library. According to him, he read everything he could lay his hands on from toilet paper to the encyclopedias. There was a perception among his peers that his family owned the estate and he was disliked by many of them as a result. But that was secondary once he sat down in the library. Some days, he would read as many as five books!
Derek had a good friend who lived at Pouderoyen, Richard Narine, who also grew up and became a renowned actor. They attended the same high school as well as the Malgre Tout Catholic Church. They visited the cinema whenever they could to watch movies but on Phagwah holidays they preferred to stay outside. Once everyone was settled in the cinema, they would wait at the gate with a barrel of water. There was just the one exit and so everyone leaving the cinema got soaked, compliments of Derek and Richard.
It was through Richard that Derek later took up acting. For the once shy Derek, acting opened a whole new world for him, allowing him to do, “What had seemed impossible before, like being someone other than yourself. To be an actor you have to have an open mind. An open mind fosters creativity. Because theatre is team work, you learn the necessity of practise and self-discipline,” he said.
Derek believes that actors get the attention they need. “What [they] need more than attention is to get paid a living wage so actors could concentrate on their careers and not have a second or third job. I’d like to see the removal of VAT, ticket surcharges and unrealistic rentals for the Cultural Centre. A raise in income of the ordinary man would also help, if the government ever gets around to paying a living wage,” he said.
Derek’s second job is as a caterer for small events. He also enjoys surfing the net to learn new things and to find out what is happening around the world. He wishes to go on a world cruise someday.
When asked which famous person he’d like to meet someday, living or dead, he replies, “God. There are a few questions I’d like to ask him about famine, hunger, rape, slavery, earthquakes and a few other things he’s never got around to fixing.”
His advice to aspiring actors is from Cassius in Julius Caesar, “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
He exhorts young people to, “Read everything, question everything and work at being yourself.”
