The audience at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) was entertained and enlightened by a fairly unique theatrical experience on Saturday, February 2, with “Musings of A Poet” produced and performed by the National Drama Company (NDC) of Guyana.
It was a sharp, fluent, intense programme staged in an intimate setting on a space constructed in the upper foyer of the NCC. The environment was brilliantly suited to drama with lighting and décor as colourful as the language in some of the dramatic pieces performed.
The blend of colours was quite spectacular in the small setting elaborately enhanced by professional lighting and expressive costuming. These gave support to the programme, which was a selection of poems written by members of the National Drama Company and recited by its members and associates. They were dramatised, accompanied by dance and movement, music and singing in some instances.
There were different genres of poetry represented, according to the orientation of the different writers, and a variety of subjects and types presented according to their different preoccupations. The style of the show was very much in keeping with the work of the NDC, dominated by a modernistic, post-modern, and occasionally ritualistic theatre. It was avant-garde theatre at the cutting edge of the Guyanese stage. The audience therefore had an education about theatre itself, as well as about styles and issues, since the poems spoke on many subjects including comedy, outrageous commentary, raciness and eroticism, and serious lessons about the society and its human experiences.
While I cannot review it, I need to document it for history and put it in its context within the state and the trends of theatre in Guyana.
The performance was meant to do a number of things. First, to exhibit the work of the NDC, its members, and on this occasion, poetry – a selection of poems that they wrote. Second, to join with the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD) and the Guyana Prize for Literature to present the work of the writers who graduated with the ICA Diploma in Creative Writing. Third, it was decided to dramatise the poems, which would then demonstrate a sample of the forms of drama and theatre in which they are interested and for which the talent resides in the company. That is why recitation, acting, dance, music, the use of voices, the use of the guitar, the recorder and movement were drawn upon.
But who or what is the NDC? It is a very new group, officially launched on January 15, 2015, that has already made an impact on the stage. This is how it describes itself:
“The National Drama Company of Guyana is a group of individuals who have graduated from the Guyana National School of Theatre Arts and Drama. We are actors, singers, stage managers, directors, producers and writers with a diverse and eclectic mix of artistic backgrounds. We are also entrepreneurs, volunteers, corporate professionals, academics and business owners, all united by an undying passion for theatre and a desire to promote an art form that we believe makes life worthwhile, beautiful and fun.
“NDC aspires to present unique and inspired theatrical productions, some intimate, others larger than life, yet others fantastical. We are not merely looking to promote theatre as a medium of art and culture. We hope to spark new thought, foster a better understanding of our relationship with the world around us and light up our collective imaginations to boundless possibilities.”
The NDC achieved many of these things in “Musings of A Poet”. The programme was done in collaboration with NSTAD and with the Guyana Prize in the following way. The Guyana Prize considered that the occasional short workshops in creative writing that it offered were not enough. The Department of Culture had in mind to set up a School of Creative Writing as part of the Institute of Creative Arts (ICA), but that has not happened. The Director of Culture at the time, Dr James G Rose, consulted the Director of NSTAD and the Guyana Prize Secretary and decided to launch the Diploma in Creative Writing at NSTAD.
Since then, two batches of graduates have successfully completed the programme – 2017 and 2018. As it happened, all except one of these Creative Writing graduates are members of the NDC and Alumni of NSTAD. In order to complete the Diploma in Drama, NSTAD students have to stage a public dramatic production. In similar fashion, the Creative Writing Diploma graduates have to give a public recital of selections of their work. So, it was easy for those graduates to join with the NDC in this recital of poetry.
Several of the pieces performed in “Musings” were written during Creative Writing classes at NSTAD. There were many different types presented. Some were of the popular Spoken Word variety, which are, by virtue of the genre, performance poetry types meant to be spoken to an audience. But the NDC went further, adding drama, dance, voice echoes and music.
The first president of the NDC, Mark Luke Edwards, was the runner-up in the 2018 National Poetry Slam, with a Spoken Word piece called “Useless Hands”, which he repeated as a part of “Musings”. The NDC fortified this with acting by Nicholas Singh and Tashandra Inniss; they dramatised a very compelling and moving statement against a very prevalent offence in Guyanese society – domestic violence and violence against women. Luke Edwards also presented the very patriotic praise song of the nation of Guyana “Motherland”, embellished by Lisa Adams on the recorder.
Representing that same genre, LeTisha Da Silva performed “My Silence”, a commanding denunciation of personal and social slander, of various atrocities perpetrated by members of society that are divisive, destructive and create social disunity. The piece also dramatised how silence against the negative agencies is equally offensive. Her second Spoken Word contribution was the very ironic “Vote of Thanks” against body shaming and negativism.
Another of the Spoken Word pieces also belonged to the categories of both comedy and the erotic. “She Was Probably Me” was performed by Onix Duncan with dramatic voices by Kimberly Samuels and Ayanna Waddell in a very racy and amusing dramatic presentation. Other performances on the subject of sex were “Passionate Sin”, “Punish Me” and “Confessions”, which were the works of Inniss, Nicholas Singh and O’Neilka Bacchus. Those dramatisations were by Sonia Yarde, Da Silva and Nicholas Singh.
Other poetic pieces varied and included the artistry of versification and the imagination. There was even the classical, as in the case of “Cremation” by Subraj Singh, exploring myth and cultural traditions of Hinduism. Complex dance accompanied this, including the appropriate kathak, Indian styles and modern, performed by Yarde, who also narrated, Keon Heywood and Jamal Omawale. This and other pieces were choreographed by Jonathan Hamer.
This was a good example of the modernistic and the avant-garde in NDC theatre, as was also seen in many other poems. These included “Ole Higue” also by Subraj Singh, with movement and dance performed by Bacchus, who was the narrator, Singh, Ackeem Joseph and Inniss. Music also enhanced the rhythms here, provided by the drum. This poem addressed art and its inspiration and was a tribute to the dramatic work of the NDC.
Similar types of poetry and drama were demonstrated by Singh’s “Feel Good”, one of the poems about art and writing, which had supporting performance of the entire company. Of particular note in this kind of style as well was Ayanna Waddell’s “Paradise Ends”, another piece with voice, dance and music, recited by Esther Hamer, but was, more accurately, danced by Esther and Jonathan Hamer accompanied by Adams on guitar.
Additionally, there were two other pieces performed by Joseph, which fully explored colourful and dramatic costuming and acting performance. One was “Prostitute’s Song” originally written as a class assignment by Akbar Singh. This one entered the nocturnal street environment of the cross-dresser – a very revealing dramatic monologue. The other was “The Creature” by Esther Hamer, which was another of the poems about art and writing, exploring the complex relations engaging the writer, the poem and the society.
There were poems on another very prevalent Guyanese social issue – suicide. These were responses to suicide written in the Creative Writing class: Waddell’s “WTF”, which expressed the persona’s cynicism in language expletively decorated, and “Stained Memory” by Nirmala Narine, who performed her own work to guitar accompaniment. These were in the segment of the production called “The Dawn of Darkness”, which also included Subraj Singh’s “Sick Sweet” about diabetes performed with movement by Yarde and Heywood with Waddell and Bacchus, as well as “Veins” by Nicholas Singh whose recital was joined by Samuels covering some of the lines in song.
There was so much to say in this programme, that it was divided up into thematic segments, one of which was “National Pride”, already mentioned, and including another Akbar Singh poem, “For the Bound” performed in fitting slave plantation costume by Deandra Daniels and Joseph. “Warmth and Affection” included the love theme in which the voice often blended with music and song, as in pieces “Spoken Images of the Soul I”, “Love”, “A Simple Note to You”, “Paradise Ends” and “Destiny”. These were written by Heywood, Waddell, Samuels, and Narine, who performed along with Deandra Daniels, and Adams. The statements on “Life’s Lessons” were rounded off by Bacchus’ presentation of her warning poem “Drug Trafficking”.
“Musings of A Poet” was produced by the NDC President Tashandra Inniss and Nirmala Narine and stage managed by Ayanna Waddell.
