Ken Corsbie telling the story of ‘Monkey Liver Soup’ to a group of youngsters aspiring to work in theatre.

….crick crack, wire bend and the story end.

This was the end to Ken Corsbie’s story of ‘Monkey Liver Soup’ as he regaled a group of youngsters from GEMS Theatre Workshop, in hopes of teaching them a few tricks of the theatre.

The story’s end was every bit as exciting as the beginning, and the middle, coupled with the antics of the veteran storyteller, poetry performer, stand up comedian, theatre designer, director, writer and educator, amongst other things.

“What we are doing is simply taking a simple story and adding rhythm, sound, character and other bits to bring it to life,” Corsbie said in an invited comment.

He explained that this was the art of theatre, bringing to life what words depict on paper, in other words, giving life to literature.

Then Corsbie allowed the aspiring artistes to try their hand at telling the story.

Script in hand, in groups of three, the youths proceeded to read from the script changing the pitch of the voices to mimic the characters in the story.

Acknowledging their efforts Corsbie, added his own flair to the script as he launched into the story, ‘Monkey Liver Soup’, appending accents that drew loud guffaws from his audience.

….crick crack, wire bend and the story end.

Later, Corsbie observed that by adding a certain flare to the activity, a performer is able to create adventure for one’s listeners from one single story.

Ken Corsbie will be appearing in ‘This Mango Sweet’ tomorrow night at the Theatre Guild Playhouse, where he will be performing with others from what he calls “The good old days.”

Corsbie started as an actor in amateur theatre in Guyana in the early 1950s.

He spent three years at Drama College in England where he was exposed to the finer detail of stage, lighting design and directing.

Also he has the experience of radio announcer and liaison officer throughout the islands for the fledging Caribbean Broadcasting Union.

In Guyana, Corsbie was also a producer/ performer of a two, then, four person theatre group. The group, including Marc Matthews, Henry Muttoo and Johnny Agard, was featured in ‘Dem Two’ and ‘All ah We’ during the 1970s.

Subsequently, he emigrated to Barbados in the 1980s, and for the next 17 years worked throughout the island chain, from Guyana to Belize, choosing to go solo.

Presently the multi-talented artiste lives in the United States.

He continues to perform in the Caribbean and North America where he runs workshops, designs, directs, and tells stories at festivals, cafés, schools, universities, libraries, dinners and special events.

Corsbie received the Arrow of Achievement from the Guyana Government, the Cacique Award from the Trinidad and Tobago Drama Association, and several for stage design and directing, as well as a special award from the Long Island Traditions Organisation.