THE National Drama Festival (NDF) has, in recent years, emerged as one of the most important theatre events in the entire Caribbean. Plays from various genres step into the spotlight for all of Guyana to see, and while there are plays that do fail to make it into the finals of the Festival, those that make it frequently end up being of a staggeringly good quality, highlighting the best in local and regional theatre, while stretching and, sometimes, obfuscating the barriers that dictate how far theatre can reach in the modern world.

Plays staged at the National Drama Festival run the full gamut of theatre in all its forms: from realism and ritual to the postcolonial and postmodernist, and melodrama and musicals, among others. Furthermore, these plays often seek to address and comment on a variety of issues that haunt or continue to plague the Guyanese society. While suicide, race-relations, and domestic violence continue to be popular themes on the local stage, in recent years there has also been a rise in plays that address singular, specific, significant themes, such as depression and loneliness, the environment, sexual desire, and religion.

Despite the long history of theatre in Guyana and the importance of theatre as an art form that is necessary for the education and awakening of its audience members, there seems to be some hesitation from governmental officials when it comes to the Festival. I say this based on the fact that last year’s NDF (2017) started late, which seemed to have resulted in fewer play submissions than in previous years. More worrying is the fact that there has so far been no word regarding a Festival for this year (2018). Are we going to have a National Drama Festival this year, or are we not going to have one? The quandary that this question places actors, writers, directors and students in can only be resolved with some sort of confirmation towards the hosting of a Festival this year from the government.

Without the confirmation, many people in Guyana’s theatre sector will end up in a sad situation because of either of the following options:
i) There is a Festival this year, but because it will not be announced until it is very late, many people will not have enough time to rehearse and prepare and, therefore, they will be unable to compete, losing out on showcasing their skills and being unable to all the benefits and rewards offered by participating in the NDF.

OR
ii) There is no Festival this year, but because this will not be communicated to the people who work in theatre until it is too late, many people will lose resources and time that they invested in rehearsals, costumes, and set-building prior to the announcement (whenever it comes from the Department of Culture) that there is no NDF happening this year.
In both of the hypothetical situations highlighted above, it is obvious that the only parties who suffer would be the artists – the people who actually contribute significantly to the shaping of what Guyanese culture actually is. Guyanese culture is not sitting in an office and signing papers. Guyanese culture is not something where someone can be plunged into artistic administration despite not knowing (or not try to know) what it is to be an artist. Guyanese culture is a not situation that allows you to be unaware of the plight of artists, that allows you to not be cognisant of their basic needs to the point where a simple announcement on whether one of the very rare artistic events in the country is actually taking place or not has not yet been decided upon.

I will tell you what Guyanese culture is.

Guyanese culture is working on that stage night after night after night, from five in the afternoon to 10 and 11 in the night, every single day, when you and 20 other young people indulge in your art, sweating it out, dancing till your feet burn, with bruises on your arms from rehearsing that fight scene too many times, with the weight of the expectations of every other person in the play crushing you down and testing the strength you didn’t know you had because you know in your heart that you cannot let anyone down, even though you have a nine to five job every day, and you have children to take care of, and a husband to love, and hundreds of Guyanese people who will come to see you perform on stage, and you know quitting is not an option, even though you know you might lose all the money you invest in the play; you know that your years of studying have prepared you, or that your years of performing hard have prepared you, and you know every line and groove in the wood on that stage, and you know exactly where that spotlight will fall before it falls, you know that when it’s done and the applause over and you go back to your home of poverty and abuse and depression and madness and nothingness that deep down you will know that you dance on that stage like you never danced before, that you toss your whole soul into that character, that literal tears went into making that script, even if no one, especially the ones who sit behind desks signing papers and making decisions that affect us all, even if they, especially, don’t recognise it. All that and more is Guyanese culture, and if you are not a part of anything like that, then you do not have the right to say you work in culture. You do not.

If the NDF is not held this year or if the decision to hold the Festival comes too late, then it would be a shame and a terrible loss for Guyanese artists (writers, directors, actors, costume designers, musicians, dancers, etc.) who rely on the Festival for both exposure and funds. There should be no dilly-dallying around the fact that the NDF is one of the ONLY ways in which money is meted out from the government directly to local artists, and to deprive us of the chance to have even that would reflect terribly, more than on anyone else, on those within the government who like to say that they work in “culture.”

I have heard it put forward before that the National Drama Festival can become for Guyana what the Bocas Literature Festival has become for Trinidad. I seriously doubt that those within the offices, with the power to make that a reality, have the kind of good sense, imagination, and a dedication to culture to make that happen. So, for now, I will gladly and humbly settle for having them at least give us a National Drama Festival in this year, when there is so much to stage, when there is so much to laugh and cry about, when there are so many students, studying Drama at CSEC, who need to see plays, when there are so many talented, talented people around, bursting with talent – combusting because not enough outlets are being provided for them. No scholarships. No publication opportunities. And now, no Drama Festival!

I hope they give us a decision soon.