19th October 2019

C'bean Secondary Schools Drama Festival Poised For A Class Act!

By Stanislaus Bishop

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PRESS RELEASE - Nearly 100 students and teachers will either be performing in productions or conducting workshops during the 2019 Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Festival (CSSDF) to be hosted in Saint Lucia from November 3-9, 2019.

Participating countries in the week-long festival are Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Saint Lucia, with the latter hosting the festival for the second time, having first hosted it in 2007.

The biennial festival, which was held in Antigua and Barbuda in 2017, will be held under the theme “Lespwi Teyat” (or “the spirit of theatre), and will consist of workshops on Saint Lucian and other Caribbean cultural forms. Workshops on playwriting will be hosted by visiting dignitaries and in collaboration with the Edna Manley School for the Performing Arts.

Students, teachers and general practitioners of theatre will exchange skills, experiences and ideas in performance and production, allowing them to improve on their standards of production. Forums to discuss plans for arts education will also be hosted.

The drama festival will be hosted at the National Cultural Centre (NCC) where nightly performances by students from the participating countries will be adjudicated. Nightly admission is $20 for adults and $15 for children and the public is asked to support in full force.

Coordinator of the 2019 Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Festival, Kentillia Louis, believes secondary school students are prime resources for building capacity for our creative industries and ensuring that a tradition in theatre arts continues and develops.

“As a Ministry, we have seen how this festival has helped to develop our programme,” Louis said during the press launch for the festival on Monday, October 14 at GIS/NTN Studios.

Chief Education Officer, Fiona Mayer, said the upcoming festival will showcase the students’ talents, thereby “allowing them to shine and be exposed to something beautiful that they will remember for a lifetime.”

“We have so many young people coming to our shores (for this festival),” Mayer added. “Let us ensure that Caribbean integration and visitor arrivals continue through the legacy of what we give at this drama festival. What we’re going to give is the best of our culture, our hospitality, our embracing, and showing who we are as Saint Lucians.”

She noted that the creative elements should not be sidelined in favour of academic excellence, adding that they complement each other.

The festival’s national management team includes the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development; Ministry of Tourism, Information, Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries; Events Company of Saint Lucia (ECSL); Cultural Development Foundation (CDF); and the Theatre Arts Schools Association (TASA).

CDF’s Deputy Executive Director, Celeste Burton, said CDF recognizes the importance of supporting and encouraging drama in schools and theatre arts in the wider community.

“We recognize the importance of music in our culture (and) theatre, especially for the secondary school age group,” she stated.

Burton added: “The social benefits of being involved in theatre and taking part in theatrical productions is tremendous. So CDF has, in the last three years, been moving and thrusting towards an increase in the number of theatrical presentations that we make annually. We have been putting on a number of plays and supporting other groups that seek to do the same.”

Shakira Roberts-Sankar, Deputy Director of TASA, said the festival has the potential to be “the beginning of a new outlook on what theatre can do in schools and society.”

“This is a great opportunity for us all to celebrate, observe and learn not only about our cultures, but represent them in our own unique way on stage,” Roberts-Sankar said. “This opportunity allows our schools across the region to network and collaborate, which we believe will strengthen and develop theatre immensely.”

She urged everyone to come out to support the youngsters as they expose their talents and skills, both onstage and off.

“(We want you) to see that theatre is more than just actors and actresses, costumes and props, but also about skills that are transferrable in all areas of life. We are all expressive individuals born from an expressive and immersive culture. So what better way to showcase our rich identity through the start of using young, creative minds on stage?”

Meanwhile, ECSL’s Chief Executive Officer, Lorraine Sidonie, said the objectives of the drama festival dovetail with those of the ECSL: both seek to build capacity through the exchange of entertainment, production, culture and workshops.

“The drama festival in itself checks two very important boxes for us. One, it allows visitors to come to Saint Lucia, which is the type of tourism we’re looking for in all shapes and forms… Two, though it may be cliché by now, it allows for Caribbean integration, especially among the youth,” Sidonie explained.

Other partners involved in the logistics of the drama festival include Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Centre, Saint Lucia National Trust, National Youth Council, and Caribbean Youth Ambassadors. Sponsors include UNICEF, Bay Gardens Resorts, Digicel, Computer World, and YouthSPAC.

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