“Musings of A Poet” is a theatrical performance to be staged at the National Cultural Centre on Saturday, February 2 at 8 pm. It is a dramatic performance of a very special nature, exhibiting modernistic theatre and reflecting a range of themes, enriched by dance, movement and music, with poetry at the centre of it. It contains humour, a bit of comedy, but explores a number of human issues and subjects in deep, serious expression.
“Musings of A Poet” is the first production of the National Drama Company (NDC) for 2019. It is a unique production because it is actually the performance of poems written by members of the NDC. It is presented by the company in association with the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD) and the Guyana Prize for Literature.
The NDC is known for drama, but many of its members are quite accomplished poets whose works are proven but are also the output of developing writers on the national landscape. They are extremely promising, some of them prize-winning short story writers and playwrights. The NDC is a company of significant talent. It includes actors/actresses, poets, playwrights, fiction writers, dancers, singers, musicians, stage managers, as well as practitioners of make-up, costuming and theatre design.
They are graduates of the NSTAD where they would have studied most of these skills and the production is a collaboration with NSTAD and the Guyana Prize for specific reasons. It is unique. Some of the writers and performers in “Musings” are graduates of the Institute of Creative Arts Diploma in Creative Writing run by NSTAD. This Diploma and Certificate programme was created by the Department of Culture in association with the Guyana Prize to have more long-term, full programmes in creative writing, rather than the short workshops attempted previously. Since there is no School of Creative Writing, NSTAD took up the programme.
Those graduating from the Diploma class have to produce a public reading of their work. Incorporated in this performance, therefore, is that public reading of selections from the poems written by the NSTAD Creative Writing 2018 graduating class. Interestingly, these graduates are all members of the NDC. What is more, other members of the NDC are also alumni of NSTAD Creative Writing 2017, the inaugural class. So, much of the dramatisation will be a public reading of the work of the two classes.
It is thus a happy coincidence, because “Musings” was designed to showcase the poetic works of the NDC. Since company members are writers among other things, a selection of their poems was made, and they are being committed to performance. So, it is a reading with a difference and a dramatic performance with a difference.
The title “Musings of a Poet” is meaningful. It calls upon the mythical Muse who inspires poetry and who is invoked by the poet to assist him/her in the composition and recital of his/her work. The forces of other Muses are also entreated – those of dance and music, since these forms will in addition, drive the performance. Writers and performers depend upon the inspiration of their Muses.
But it is also “musings” because it communicates thoughts. It brings out the ideas and the imagination of the poets. More than that it presents statements on a number of issues. This performance will reflect a number of important themes relevant to contemporary society and particularly to some prevalent issues affecting and/or plaguing the present Guyanese society. These involve domestic violence, abuse, including violence against women, suicide, issues involving prostitution, recent cases of cross-dressing, personal crises, drug trafficking, as well as topics of love, mental states, art itself and being. Some of the poems revolve around these while others are universal and yet others are articulations of the imagination.
The works being presented are of different types. These represent different forms of poetry and performance, but also the various different talents and achievements of the NDC. While this is a company of developing writers, developing artists, some of them are quite accomplished and some have already been decorated, winning prizes at the national and even international level.
Subraj Singh is a Guyana Prize Winner – Best First Book of Fiction 2014, and a winner of many other prizes. These include first prizes in the National Creative Writing Competitions in both Short Story and in Drama in 2016, as well as the Walter Rodney Prize at the University of Guyana. He will be one of the featured writers with selections from his poems produced in the 2018 NSTAD Creative Writing classes.
Singh was also the Valedictorian – the Best Graduating Student – for NSTAD in 2018 when he completed the ICA Creative Writing Diploma as the best in the class. Samples of those poems will be dramatised.
Another member of the ICA – NSTAD 2018 class whose work will be featured is Akbar Singh. Among his selections is one of the classics – a poem dramatising the underworld of the male prostitute and cross-dresser, a topical subject in contemporary Georgetown, whose legal challenge concerning rights and discrimination was recently decided by the Caribbean Court of Justice. The dramatic role of the persona in this poem is outstandingly created by NDF Best Actor prize winner Akeem Joseph.
One of the different types of the genres in “Musings” to be represented is the Spoken Word. Two of the composers/performers in this popular form are Mark Luke-Edwards and LeTisha Da Silva. Luke-Edwards is a prize winner, having earned second place in the 2018 National Poetry Slam. He will perform his acclaimed piece in this production, which is a dramatised declaration against domestic violence and violence against women titled “Useless Hands”. Luke-Edwards is also the 2018 Stand-Up Comedy Champion, having won the title in the Uncensored show last December.
Spoken Word written by other NDC writers will also be presented by Da Silva and Onix Duncan. Duncan will deliver a dramatic narrative designed to entertain. It contains the popular elements of comedy and eroticism.
Other featured writers were among the 2017 ICA NSTAD Creative Writing Diploma alumni. Leading actress Nirmala Narine is one of them. Some of her pieces are to be performed. Narine achieved second place in the 2016 National Creative Writing in the Short Story Category.
From the 2017 class Ayanna Waddell will also be featured. She is a tutor at the NSTAD in Stage Management and also an NDF prize winner. Among her selections is an extremely expressive piece in colourful language titled “WTF” with a persona offering quite an interesting cynical but very interrogating response to suicide – to life and existence, and, in its rather blunt fashion – to death.
The 2017 ICA Valedictorian will also have selections of her work performed. Esther Hamer was Best Graduating Student at NSTAD in the 2017 Diploma in Creative Writing. She also won the prize for the Best Student in Poetry and selections from that body of work will be featured in “Musings”. Among these is a fairly deceptive dramatic monologue asking questions of art itself – of consciousness, self-discovery and identity. Hamer, a dancer and NDF prize-winning actress, is the main choreographer for the production.
The work of Tashandra Inniss will add to the varied selections. Inniss might be new to poetry, but not to writing. She is already known as a playwright to add to NDF triumphs as Best Actress.
Among the newest to both writing and the NDC is O’Neilka Bacchus, one of whose poems is going to be included.
The most decorated NDF singer and musician, Kimberly Samuels, is quite new to writing poetry. Her accomplishments in classical singing and music have been amplified by her NDF Best Actress award; she has dramatic poetry to be performed.
Various existentialist themes will be explored, as well as themes of love. Well known for the former is NDF winner as actor and playwright Nicholas Singh. He is a post-modernist and has turned that persuasion to the writing of poetry which is part of the production.
“Musings of A Poet” will therefore have a wealth of variety in terms of form, imagery and themes. The voices are many and very articulate on several social, existential and human issues. The performers include most of the poets themselves, as well as a cast that includes Lisa Adams, who is one of the musicians, Sonia Yarde, Deandra Daniels, Jamal Omawale, and Taneka Caldeira.
