The Theatre Guild Play House will come alive next Saturday, September 1, when participants of the Children’s Drama Workshop through Purple Arts Production Company present to the public a packed show of short plays, poetry and dance.
The workshop, directed by Simone Dowding, founding director of Purple Arts Production, is the seventh of its kind; the first was in 2011. Simone, who has acted in a number of plays, holds the award for Best Actress (National Drama Festival 2017); this is the second time she has been awarded the title.
She currently plays the character of ‘Aunty Myrtle’ in the radio serial drama “Merundoi” and acts as ‘Miss Mabel’ in “Days Like Dese”. Simone who has been an actress for 30 years, has seen how little persons really know when it comes to drama and often when they audition for various roles in plays although they may have a knack for the art, they still have much to learn. Drama is not featured much in the education curriculum and often when children are doing pieces for Mashramani or a school show, it is a play or recital produced through a rehearsal whilst preparing for a show. “Because I never had the opportunity, or the opportunity never presented itself… I thought I’d do something for the children,” Simone said.