-Renita Dindyal tells her story

By Telesha Ramnarine

RENITA Doodnauth Dindyal may have spent many of her years training as an English Language teacher, but the love rooted deep in her heart for acting ever since she was a child going to church, won out, and allowed her to step to the fore.

The 36-year-old ‘East Coast’ girl who hails from Enterprise, started drama when she attended church as a young girl, which fostered the passion and love for the craft that continues with her to this day.

“It was my go to for relaxation and entertainment,” she told Buzz this week.

Even as a trained teacher, and as a mother of three (sometimes five when she cares for her deceased sister-in-law’s children), Renita still makes the time to pursue her career in entertainment.

Having attended the University of Guyana, ‘copping’ her degree in English Language, she recalls having to work on plays, novels, and different pieces of literature. This blended in well with her background of sharing in drama at church.

After graduating and starting to teach literature, Renita was offered a place at the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama where she spent roughly six months pursuing a diploma in the arts.

“The contributions I make to acting even when I am not acting make me feel fulfilled. I walk with my head held high knowing I would have put out there the best of me…out of pure love…and it feels really good,” she expressed.

With ‘Old Toy Train’ as her first film, Renita also does radio and television productions and within the next five years or so, plans to explore more with films, rather than live stage performances.

“The pieces that I participate in, I really want them to be impactful pieces so even though I have been offered quite a number of roles, the few I have taken are pieces I find significant to what I believe in. I choose the roles I take up wisely,” she shared.

DRAMA TEACHER

After she graduated from ‘Drama School’ Renita’s headmistress saw the flair in her and encouraged her to take up teaching drama, even getting her the syllabus to do so. Since then, she was shifted from the English Language department and became the head of the Allied Arts Department at the Annandale Secondary School, simply because she pioneered that subject area there.

“When I started teaching drama at the school, it sparked the interest of children who did not like reading as much. I shifted my focus from literature which had them reading all the time and I started to engage the weaker ones who were shunning the literature class,” Renita recalled.

She enjoys seeing the impact the classes have on her students and she feels proud watching them excel in the field.

“In the inception, I did it because of my love for it. It’s still the same today. Whenever I go an extra mile, I do it because I just love it. Every now and again I come across a past student and see what they’re doing and I feel proud. It feels good.”

Meanwhile, even though she is not getting to act as much because of teaching, Renita still ends up having to write a lot of content.

“I have done one significant piece which was written for the 2016 Drama Festival. The piece won. I was encouraged to document lost tales from my village; lost stories, old stories that were told to me by my grandparents. I am working on my first collection and I already have a title for it: The world according to my nana,” she shared.