– Asserts itself as a regional giant in threatre production at 10-day festival

The National Drama Company (NDC) of Guyana recently sent a contingent to the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) XIV from where the company hopes to use the garnered experiences to refine its talent.

If you know anything about Guyanese when they go abroad to represent, it’s that they “rep hard” and love to be in the “thick of things”. You don’t have to think too deeply about what it would be like with a group of people well in touch with their creative side like the NDC.

According to the NDC President Tashandra Inniss, the delegates “did all things theatre at CARIFESTA XIV”. She highlighted that they put on their own performances (one was a one-act play, called ‘Laugh of the Marble Queen’, while they did folklore dramatisations); they were the main ‘crew’ in the ‘Guyana night’ performance and they participated in related workshops and symposia.

Playwright of ‘Laugh of the Marble Queen’, Subraj Singh even highlighted that some of the NDC members even stepped into the Face and Body Paint arena, when a showcase was put on by Guyana’s Bravo Arts.
And, true to their Guyanese nature, they attended many other events outside of their genre.
“We also sought out a lot of opportunities to educate ourselves,” Subraj related. He gave the example of the ‘Decades of Dance’ (the highlight Dance event at the festival) event the group attended and explained that even though it wasn’t directly related to drama, dance is an integral part of what is done at the drama company.

“We know that even though we have a lot going on as the national drama company of Guyana, there is so much the other genres can teach us,” he said.

Subraj’s experience in CARIFESTA XIV, held in Trinidad and Tobago, was actually the first time he had been at the event- though his work was there before. His presence there this year, according to him, was able to help him ‘gauge’ how well Guyana’s drama crew fares when compared with the other territories. And in his opinion, Guyana’s National Drama Company is definitely “on par” with the rest of the Caribbean in terms of raw talent, acting, directing and writing.

The only issue, however, according to the playwright, is that there are fewer resources allocated to Guyana’s creative sector when compared with the other countries. This is what sets Guyana at a disadvantage, he said.

Inniss highlighted generally that the support for drama at all CARIFESTA events was a bit lacking. She was backed by Guyana’s Artistic Director who was also integral in Guyana’s participation at CARIFESTA, Al Creighton. He contended that the interest in and support for drama has waned over the years. And so, the Drama Company had quite a few things to navigate to make their journey smoother.

But many advantages were indeed garnered from CARIFESTA, according to Creighton.
“If you can see things in CARIFESTA, it is a value, and you just being there to see CARIFESTA as an experience has a value attached to it,” he affirmed. “It is an experience that can enrich you as an artist.”

For him, learning can come from performing, from observing or from attending the few developmental sessions. And, in a space where countries brought their best creative minds, it would be remiss if Guyana did not capitalise on even initialising partnerships.
This occurred on two fronts. The first is that the company went to the festival with the intention of forging partnerships with some key groups. Though these did not materialise as planned, the process was initialised and there is now some leeway for cross-country communication. On the other hand, Subraj pointed out that the Drama Company would have been able to forge partnerships with the other sections of delegates from right in Guyana.

What the company would have gathered from Trinidad too is that trained professionals are working within the theatre. This is not necessarily the case in Guyana, where there are persons who are not “theatre people” working as technical and support personnel at the National Cultural Centre.

Even so, Creighton affirmed, “Guyana has come a far way,” and posited, “Guyana is at the top of CARIFESTA performance quality.”

Now back home, the company will be striving to continue fostering the development of its members so that the output of the company is improved overall. In so doing, those very same CARIFESTA experiences will play an integral role, particularly since it would have allowed the NDC to identify what gaps exist so that they may be able to fill those.

Reflecting on the CARIFESTA experience, Inniss said: “We will have stories to tell for years to come and whatever and wherever we can, we look forward to representing Guyana.”