Since its return in 2011 the National Drama Festival has helped to develop and expose the talent of many young people. With support from the then Ministry of Culture and Digicel Guyana the festival grew each year with a number of budding writers, directors and actors. They coupled with the theatre veterans have done remarkable work to showcase some of the best of Guyanese theatre.
This year, there were a number of excellent productions. While there were new plays that proved once again that there is no shortage of writing talent in Guyana some of the old favourites such as Miriamy, Legend of the Silk Cotton Tree and Till Ah Find a Place were also featured in the festival.
While there were new plays that touched on themes such as folklore there were complaints that many of the new plays had too many dark concepts springing out of social issues like domestic violence and suicide. An overload of tragedy can leave the audience feeling exhausted and uneasy, but it cannot be ignored that many of the younger people are writing about what they have witnessed in the society and within some of their families.
We have had dreadful times in Guyana within the last twenty years where we have seen many killings, police brutality, many deaths from domestic violence, suicide and many of the young people not only grew up seeing these occurrences but many of them have also experienced various forms of abuse. In some cases they have not received any help to cope with the trauma. Writing is a way for them to highlight these issues while releasing the anger and pain they may be carrying. But writing can also be used to emphasize coping mechanisms – leaving a bit of hope for those who might be feeling that there is no way out of dismal situations. Theatre functions as a platform not only to entertain and highlight issues, but its purpose is to also inspire behaviour change, question societal norms as well as reinforce values.
Now that the festival is over and the winners have been announced once again the theatre community is engaged in disputes. Every year since the return of the National Drama Festival this has been the case. Many would quietly question some of the decisions made.
While in past years most of these discussions were not for the general public this year many took to social media to voice their grievances.
Some have complained about the time given to prepare for the performances. Actors have read scripts on stage during preliminaries causing some plays to look like rehearsals rather than performances. Many also complain that the time given for all the plays to be staged in the finals is too short. During the last festival there were four plays on one night and it finished until past midnight and of course by that time actors, the audience and the judges would have been exhausted.
A lot of the controversy also revolves around the Critique Judge of the festival Mr Al Creighton. Many have complained that the critiques offered are not always impartial – allegations of personal biases rather than constructive criticism leaving some feeling that that they are at a disadvantage. While as mentioned before it has been an ongoing discourse within the theatre fraternity, members of the audience who were observing and listening to the critiques every night also expressed some of these thoughts this year.
There is no question that Mr Creighton has the experience and knowledge to perform the duty he does. However the anger and frustration of those who have entered the festival year after year cannot be ignored. There has to be some move to investigate why people are feeling the way they are and there is need for an amicable resolution. This should be done for the actors and actresses who feel they were unfairly critiqued and not given the recognition they deserved as well as for the directors who feel disappointed that their hard work did not pay off.
While some may conclude that the only people expressing these feelings are those who did not secure a place in the finals or those who did not place in the finals some of the folks expressing these feelings had winning and runner up productions. Yet many have vowed to never participate in the festival again. These include very young people who have only participated in one or two festivals.
Are we to conclude that these are only artistes overreacting?
While theatre is a place where the drama not only happens onstage but offstage as well it is alarming the barrage of criticism the festival is receiving this year. Maybe the time has come for a review of the festival. I believe that it is now a critical time for the theatre community to come together with the administrators of the festival to voice all that many were afraid to publicly admit before.
The judging panel has competent people and it is no easy task to judge all the plays and in the short time given. It has been suggested that the role of the Critique Judge does not have to be solely one individual year after year as there are other competent theatre professionals who have the knowledge and experience to do the job.
The festival has caused rifts within the theatre community. To have it continue in like manner in years to come (providing there are future festivals) would do more harm than good and force many talented young people to stay away from the festival. My own experience dates back to 2013 when the then Ministry of Culture disrespected participants in that year’s festival by delaying their payments. It was not until participants threatened to protest that action was taken. Since then I have not been encouraged to enter plays in the festival.
The concerns aforementioned should be addressed and should no longer be viewed as simply annoyance by dissatisfied participants. There are calls to boycott the festival next year as there was in 2014 after the issue with the Ministry of Culture, but there will always be folks who participate as long as there is a festival. While no festival involving theatre people will ever be without controversy at least additional measures can be taken to give the theatre fraternity the assurance that the festival is without bias or corruption.
The theatre community has an opportunity to start a movement to encourage social change in Guyana. It is unfortunate that many feel undervalued which can get in the way of them fully expressing themselves as artistes.
