After a bounty year in 2023, dramatic performances have made a fair appearance so far in 2024. The year had a relatively late opening on March 3 on the closing day of the Guyana Prize Literary Festival when the Guyana Prize Winning play of 20 years ago, Secrets (Father of the Man) by Paloma Mohamed directed by Simone Dowding was performed. At the end of February the National Drama Company performed A Rite of Passage for the Office of the First Lady as a part of the activities surrounding the Caricom Heads of Government Summit; but that was not a public performance.
The National Drama Company itself has gotten off the mark quite briskly for the year as they are also responsible for the second public theatre production. Musings of A Poet – An Evening of Wine and Reflection has its second night of performance tonight (Sunday, March 10) at the National Cultural Centre at 8.00 pm. Significantly, it is done, not on the normal conventional stage, but in a space created in the Upper Foyer of the Cultural Centre.
Musings of A Poet was first done by the NDC in 2019, and this is the second edition of the poetic dramatisations. The programme consists of selections of poetry recited and dramatised with the integration of dance, movement and music. All of these forms are employed with the intention of producing varied modernistic theatre. The wine is an added ingredient to create a sophisticated atmosphere of engagement and entertainment to enhance the environment for a different evening of drama.
The NDC is a group of actors, actresses, dancers, singers, musicians, Writers, directors, managers, and designers, brought together from among graduates of the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama. They form an elite group intended to be a model repertory company serving as the professional performing extension of the School. Its aim is to provide an extension of training in theatre techniques, to educate and entertain the public with worthy samples of performance. They form a kind of ‘arts in action’ group demonstrating the kinds of advanced theatre that they have learnt and applying it to treatment of social and other issues on stage in interesting ways.
That is why the performance is done in a different space other than the cultural centre stage. The use of the foyer is an alternative use of space for performance. This is one way in which it carries out the mandate. That is also why the poetry is presented in this fashion of an integration of the forms of drama, acting and mime with dance and music. There is quite an extensive use of these forms in the performance, which also increases the entertainment value.
The poems dramatized were written by members of the NDC, some of whom are published or practicing poets. This includes spoken word performers, some of whom have in the past won prizes in the National Poetry Slam. Many graduated from the NSTAD Creative Writing programme as well as the Drama programme.
These poetic pieces interrogate a wide range of subjects and issues and will interest a cross section of people. For example March 8 was International Women’s Day, and there is deep treatment of women’s issues and feminism among the selections. There are selections going into the realms of dance hall and reggae engaging the social environment and calling upon expression in a number of dance pieces and using the music. Statements are made on social ills and the themes of love and hate are highlighted as are the spiritual and myth. Questions are raised about faith, belief, infidelity, love and lust, loyalty and betrayal. There are topical explorations such as the situation in Gaza and gender.
The performance tries to be interesting in many other ways, including the way it approaches theatre. Tonight’s presentation begins with an “Impromptu” – a theatre game performed by companies of actors in which they improvise around a stimulus, an exercise used as a creative sharpener, and sometimes in performance. This Impromptu is symbolic, and gives the audience an indication of the various personalities and the motivations behind what is presented here in Musings of A Poet. The improvisations attract the interest of the audience.
