A LOVE for what she does, certainty about what she wants, combined with confidence and the determination to make the best of it are attributes that have contributed to making a young single mother of three rise above the fray to eventually become a graduate teacher, whilst playing a pioneering role in Guyana’s efforts at creating its own niche in the filmmaking industry and the performing arts.

Smolana Ureena Varswyk hails from Johanna Cecilia on the Essequibo Coast, and like so many of the folks from the Cinderella County, she has a passion for cultural activities. She literally has rhythm in her feet.
Because of her innate love for music and drama, when she was just 10, she teamed up with her scriptwriter mother to create cultural pieces. Her mother would write the poems and she would enact them in literally dramatic fashion.
As she grew, Smolana knew that her Number One priority was to become a schoolteacher, to be able to impart her knowledge unto others; to become a role model for young people; and, moreover, to be able to stand in the gap for less fortunate children who were disproportionately affected by the vagaries of life.
But this pride and passion for teaching, Smolana says, did not diminish her appreciation for becoming involved in culture and the performing arts. In fact, she insisted that life should not be a melodrama, and instead of seeing the two as rival engagements, she used the performing arts to spice up and add a little flair and variety to her world.
And so, after passing her CXC exams and graduating from secondary school, Smolana entered the teaching profession on January 31, 1995, at age 18, and has never given up teaching.  She’s taught at several schools in Georgetown: St. Andrew’s Primary; St. Sidwell’s Primary; and Ketley Primary, and even Zorg Nursery on the Essequibo Coast.
Having made a good go of it, she entered training college in 1998, and graduated from the Cyril Potter College of Education in 2000. Her next move was to the University of Guyana, where she graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in Literary Studies. She is now a Graduate Senior Mistress at the Richard Ishmael Secondary School on Woolford Avenue in Georgetown.
But having qualified herself academically, Smolana has also made her mark in the field of drama, and received accreditation at a national level, making both her family and country proud.

Film production
Topping her list of cultural credentials was her certification as a Filmmaker, coming out of a six-month period of training between the University of Guyana and the University of Ohio, in 2010.
And more recently, she completed a period of Mentorship Training offered by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS), and was certified as a Mentor, and so will be playing a lead role in honing the skills and performances of groups taking part in the 2013 round of the National Drama Festival.
The 40 talented young Guyanese were presented with certificates and introduced to the nation at the prestigious launch of the Drama Festival at the National Cultural Centre last month. For Smolana, it was a dream come true when, in 2010, she was selected under the President’s Endowment Programme to undergo training in Film Production.
That training was done through the University of Guyana, with coaching by a representative of the University of Ohio, USA, Mr. Brian Zam, who co-signed the certificates. Participants were taught all aspects of filmmaking, and Smolana produced two short films of her own, edited by the very talented Phillip Williams. There were about ten participants, and she represented Pomeroon/Supenaam, Region Two.
The films produced by the group, she proudly recalls, were highly rated, and have since been on display at international film festivals in the USA, United Kingdom, Trinidad, and other Caribbean countries. They are also to be shown next month at CARIFESTA XI, which is being hosted this year by neighbouring Suriname.
Smolana now happily reports that the training was a rare gift. It was all-encompassing, and participants emerged from the training very knowledgeable in film production, she says.  “But there was no better feeling than to hear the Instructor comment on the high quality of our work. He had kudos for us, and said that what we did in six months would probably take others years.”
The instructor was also particularly impressed with the ingenuity and resilience of the Guyana class. “And so, most of us came out of the workshop with feelings of joy, because we were able to learn a lot of things. I am very happy that I was chosen as one of the participants for that workshop, because I have the passion for the performing arts, and did not want to just stop at mediocrity.”
She has expressed profound gratitude to former President Bharrat Jagdeo, at whose initiative the training was set in motion; Dr. Paloma Mohamed of the University of Guyana, who was a great source of inspiration to the participants on the programme; and Instructor Brian Zam, among others. “Dr. Mohammed was always there for us,  every step of the way,” she gratefully recalls.

Cultural emergence
But even though she’s from the Essequibo, touted the ‘Cinderella County’, Smolana success story is certainly no ‘Cinderella’ experience, but one of hard work, endurance and selfless sacrifice in order to get what she wanted. Nevertheless, it was a labour of love.
Of her involvement in drama and dancing, she recalls her initial experience goes way back to her childhood days. “Actually, it was something I grew up into. My mother was a writer; she also taught dance and dramatic poetry. She would write, and I would dramatize and act out scripts,” Smolana recalls with pride.  And so by the time she was ready to enter the teaching profession, she was already bursting with talent culturally.
“While I was at secondary school, I would normally dramatize plays for Mashramani and win,” Smolana told the Sunday Pepperpot. She vividly recalls the first song she dramatized in dance was Bob Marley’s ‘Rub-a-Dub Style’.
She entered the teaching profession in 1995, and in 1998 did a Teachers’ Dance Course, emerging as a professional dancer. She also taught dance and dramatic poetry at the National School of Dance. That formalized and set the stage for her future robust involvement in the performing arts. Some of her activities, she now vividly recalls, include a play (The Baccoo) she directed for the National School’s Drama Festival, and thereafter was always involved in dancing activities and poetry. She was even a Masquerade Dancer, performing for Mashramani celebrations, enthralling spectators and having them calling for more.

Labour of love
But even though the brighter side of her life stands out, there were also challenges aplenty.
She tells of the sacrifices she had to make along the way, which brings to mind the song which says “As a single parent, life ain’t easy…” When Smolana  applied for and was accepted to undergo the training in Film Production, she pretty soon realized how demanding it was, on both her time and resources.
In order to be on the programme and do so successfully, she had to be in Georgetown, and so was forced to leave her first two children, now 16 and 13, with someone who could take good care of them. That meant literally having to finance two homes, as well as additional travel and other expenses, since getting to the Essequibo Coast and back to Georgetown is not a journey that could be done by road. It entailed long hours of travelling by boat, and that in itself took a toll on Smolana’s energies and ability to cope mentally.
“It was hard on me, because I had to be back and forth between Georgetown and Essequibo at weekends to be with the children, even if it meant spending just one night with them. I had to listen to my children, counsel them, and find answers to their little problems, as it’s at those tender ages that they need their parents most. Sometimes they’d call to say, ‘Mommy I have a problem…’ and so I just had to deal with that; but at the same time, I had to keep my performance at its highest during the training, and (reserve) sufficient energy and alertness to deal with the other issues.
“But, by and large, it was a labour of love, and we are now all winners,” Smolana says, with an air of satisfaction.  Her third child, now four, has probably come along at the right time; and thankfully not sooner, so she can give her all the attention she needs. The two elder ones have overcome.  They are both attending private secondary school in Georgetown and are doing their mom proud.