THE Ministry of Education, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport, in collaboration with Digicel, on Friday evening hosted the Awards Ceremony for the National Drama Festival 2015, with the proud announcement that 50 plays were entered for the Festival, with 23 making it to the finals.Meanwhile, at the heart of the awards lending tangible and sustained support to the Ministry of Education, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport was corporate sponsor Digicel, who contributed more than $6M towards the initiative.
Held at the National Cultural Centre, the ceremony, seeping elegance, was a proud moment of celebration after ‘hard work’, according to Mr Al Creighton, Director of Studies, National School of Theatre and Dance.
Among the distinguished gathering were: Minister within the Ministry of Education, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport, Hon Nicolette Henry M.P; Ambassador to Mexico, His Excellency Iban Roberto Sierra Medel; Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam; and other senior officials of the Ministry of Education and others.
Performing the honour of distributing trophies and monetary prizes were Henry; Ambassador Iban Roberto Sierra Medel and Vincent Alexander, Advisor to the Minister of Education, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and others.
Digicel Senior Sponsorship and Events Executive, Luanna Abrams, in her message acknowledged that from the inception of the National Drama Festival in 2011, Digicel has been a title sponsor of the Festival. “This initiative complements the main objective of the company, which are youth and community development,” she said.
Abrams noted that the National Drama Festival provides an excellent opportunity for youths who have a passion for the Arts and Culture, and as part of its corporate social responsibility, Digicel is committed to providing them with every opportunity to excel.
“Our company believes that drama is a positive form of expression which can greatly influence the lives of our youths and as such, we pledge to give our continuous support to the organisers, so that together we can build better lives for our young people,” she affirmed.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Education, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport Nicolette Henry, thanked the sponsors Digicel and others who joined the ministry in this effort every year since its inception and has remained faithful to its vision. She also acknowledged other “faithful allies” as they strive to take theatre to every region of this country, those being: The Theatre Guild, Allied Arts, the University of Guyana and the Department of Youth.
The audience was treated to alluring snippets of the genius of the nominees for the awards being hosted, the highlight of which was the enthralling performance of award-winning Kimberly Samuels of the National School of Theatre and Dance 2014, with “I Dreamed a Dream.”
Congratulating the nominees and all those who performed, Minister Henry said that the Ministry of Education was very pleased to be associated with the National Drama Festival 2015 Awards Ceremony, that she was happy and proud to commend the management team; their panel of judges; the School of Theatre and all participants who, in one way or the other, contributed to the successful hosting of this Festival.”
She congratulated the nominees, and indeed all the groups that participated in the 2015 Festival.
In this year’s finals, there were 23 plays in four of the categories- Debutante and others and seven plays in the schools categories. During preparation, a series of workshops and summer courses were held at the National Cultural Centre, and for the first time they were taken out into the regions.
“We can say that looking at the Festival and the performances in the Festival, that there was great promise for all quality of the plays and performance. There was a clear elimination of unedited and incompetent scripts and plays. There was clearly a demonstration of a reduction in plays that demonstrated those kinds of characteristics. Definitely there has been no decline in standards,” Creighton assured.
On a high note, Creighton concluded: “We have seen a definite advancement in the quality of plays in the National Drama Festival. The fact is that there was really good, keen and high- spirited rivalry and a sense of competition in the National Drama Festival.”