THE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, through the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD) launched the National Drama Festival 2014, on Thursday, at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.

On that occasion, Mrs. Collette Jones-Chin was introduced as the Festival Director and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony delivered the feature address.
The audience was also addressed by Acting Administrator of the NSTAD, Ms. Margaret Lawrence and its Director of Studies, Mr. Al Creighton.
Brief remarks were delivered, too, by Ms. Vidya Sanichara, Public Relations Officer of Digicel, the company which will be providing all 70 trophies for the upcoming Festival and contributing otherwise towards the hosting.

The Thursday programme, which started at 10:00 hrs. also offered cultural pieces by students of NSTAD.
Minister Anthony said he would like the people of Guyana to know that “the National Drama Festival 2014 is definitely dispelling any doubts having been peddled or fears harboured to the contrary.”
Good partners
He thanked the National Drama Festival for the work done so far to put systems in place for the launching and extended his gratitude to the Directors who have been with the programme from the very inception, stuck it out and remained good partners regardless.
Anthony also expressed profound gratitude to Digicel for its sponsorship of the Festival.
Noting that the Drama Festival is now into its fourth year, Anthony observed that, over the last three years, a number of significant things have been achieved that are already benefitting drama in this country.
However, the Ministry is still working to achieve more, having its eye on making the National Drama Festival qualitatively better.
To this end, he said it is his Ministry’s vision to make it the premier Theatre Arts Festival in Guyana.
“But while we might have broken new boundaries and made substantial progress, we are still not satisfied with where we are at and, therefore, we must work to ensure we are a qualitatively better festival,” Anthony urged.
Meanwhile, commenting on its mentorship programme, he alluded to the cadre of youths trained as mentors leading up to the 2013 Drama Festival, who ventured out into different communities and trained talented young people who, in turn, were able to participate in the Drama Festival. In this regard, the Minister said, the Festival has admirably fulfilled its mandate of reaching out to other people in different regions and tapping and developing their hidden potentials in the area of drama.
Measurable success
Measurable success has been met and youths from regions outside of Georgetown have since been delivering promising work, he observed, crediting the efforts of budding playwrights who have been submitting very good plays.
“They are raising the bar of competition and I am pleased they are bringing new talents,” Anthony remarked, throwing out the idea of giving incentives to persons for their work.
He said one form of incentive could be having their work put on show to be viewed by all Guyana, as well as visitors to the country.
Anthony called for more playwrights to come on board and pointed out that, with the structure now being placed under the responsibility of the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama, his Ministry has integrated the training component and is calling on the trainers to be more active.
He encouraged the Ministry of Education, as well, to put systems in place to have young people trained in theatre arts and drama as part of their curriculum, adding that too long has drama been treated as a pastime or hobby and not given the credence it deserves.
Demanding greater participation at the regional level, Anthony declared: “Sometimes I think we rob ourselves by not including some of our regional groups. We would like to see groups participate and get registered.”
It is the Minister’s vision that business workshops could be conducted, effectively moving from amateur productions to professional staging.
“We have a very clear vision of where we want to go and I think it could be developed,” he said.
According to him, his ministry would also like to see satellite festivals staged in different parts of Guyana and that would be a plus, not just for the competition, but the development of the arts.
Meanwhile, in his call for consistently high quality performances, Anthony said this should be the hallmark by which our drama groups become known, both around Guyana and in the Caribbean Region.
“We want people to recognise that we have quality and I think we have a great team of people with experience and all the ingredients expected. So, once we set these goals, we can accomplish them,” he said on a note of encouragement.
The Minister also had kudos for the Theatre School, stating that Guyana is now known as a place where films can be made.
He reminded that Guyana’s Music Festival and other festivals are scheduled for later this year.
Ultimate vision
He said, in the line of training, Guyana’s ultimate vision is to have a festival institute of creative arts. “We want to have a cross fertilisation and we want to offer courses in Guyanese culture as a recourse.”
Giving credit where it is due, Minister Anthony frontally addressed what is to be considered a misgiving, alluding to the plight of some winners of competitions at last year’s Drama Festival who were forced to wait for a considerable period before receiving their prize monies.
Seeking to set the record straight, he explained that this problem stemmed from a delay in the submission of invoices, but made it clear that the documentation must be submitted on time before payment can be effected.
Sounding a clear word of warning, Anthony, who is insisting on the highest level of efficiency in the process, stated: “So, as we plan for this year’s Festival, I want to say up front that we do not want those delays again and I would expect that prize monies be paid in a timely manner.”

(By Shirley Thomas)