Theatre personality Simone Dowding was ecstatic to have received her second international award. This time around, she is being recognised not for her on-stage talents, but for the humanitarian work that she does behind the scenes.

More particularly, Demian and Demian Entertainment Award (DDEA) has awarded her for the work she does with children through various drama workshops. “The DDEA is a relatively new initiative, now in its fifth year, that is acknowledging people’s work from different parts of the world,” Dowding, who joined the Theatre Guild some 38 years ago, told Buzz this week.

At the ceremony hosted in Maryland, United States last month, Dowding was among several awardees who hailed from different parts of the world, including India, Ghana, Angola, and Ethiopia. “I was recognized for my work with the children through ‘Purple Arts’ children drama workshop. The nomination came from my work with children,” she shared.

Dowding, who is currently working on a film documentary about the first 10 Guyanese women licensed in aviation, has been hosting drama workshops for children for several years now, particularly during July/August school vacation.

She teaches children, ages nine to 16 in six disciplines of drama – acting, directing, playwright, costume management, stage management and property management. These children are also taught the art of listening, stage breathing, and stage geography.

Since the emergence of the pandemic, however, Dowding has not been able to conduct the workshops. “When I heard the number of children infected with COVID, I cancelled the workshop for 2020 and 2021,” a disheartened Dowding informed.

The plan, she indicated, was to host the workshop in an open atmosphere, in Theatre Guild’s outside garden. And even though her sponsors came through for it, Dowding said she still decided to cancel the activity. “I didn’t want to put people’s children at risk; I didn’t want to take any chances, being that they’re children.”

Explaining how it all got started, Dowding recalled that after being in theatre for so many years, she wanted to pass on the training she received. This led to the formation of Purple Arts Productions, which began to work with the children.

The young participants of the workshop would normally pay a small tuition fee but even those who cannot afford the money are taken in by Dowding, who has often shared her fondness for children.

Having graduated from the Burrowes School of Art and other institutions, Dowding is now the holder of 13 reputable certificates and has won Theatre Guild’s Best Actress Award in 2012 for the play “Old Story Times.” In 2019, she was honoured by the Guyana Cultural Association of New York for her 36 years of contributions to performing arts in Guyana.

Through her company, she works primarily with children and seeks to provide them with the opportunities that she never enjoyed as a child. Having worked on the popular Link Show over the years, Simone has also done other shows such as “House of Pressure”, “Miriamy”, “Eleventh Finger” and “Jezebel”, just to name a few.

Last August, she said ‘Purple Arts’ collaborated with someone who prefers not to be named to donate school backpacks to the village of Lodge, a community where she spent quite a few years of her younger life. This was in keeping with her humanitarian efforts to help others.