COVID silences theatre

All the world may be a stage but here in Jamaica, like the rest of the world, stages and theatres were quiet as the current global health crisis sent the dramatic and comedic community on intermission.

When the current pandemic was declared in March of this year, the local theatre scene was the first to be hit. There were at least five productions on the boards at Corporate Area theatres. Jambiz International was the first to take action with directors Patrick Brown and Lenford Salmon putting their production Windscream Posse on pause. They called on their fellow producers to do likewise, noting that given the small size of local theatre spaces, this would be a hotbed for spreading the virus.

Within days, local stages were dark and silent. Dahlia Harris stopped the run of her comedy Hell & Powder House; Basil Dawkins’ Once a Man Twice a Wife came to a halt; Fabian Barracks stopped his Ananda Alert;and the iconic Little Theatre Movement closed the curtains on the national pantomime Ruckshon Junction.

Despite the intermission, Jamaican theatre had been alive and well during 2019. It was therefore time for the annual Actor Boy Awards which recognises excellence in local theatre. However, the ban on large gatherings threatened the event. It was therefore back the the drawing board where a plan was hatched for a virtual event which was staged on May 9.

The musical Isaiah produced by Father Richard Ho Lung and Friends was the big winner, grabbing a total of seven awards.

The biblical drama took home the night’s big prize, Best Production, and also took the award for Best Musical, but it was in the technical categories that Isaiah showed its strength.

Isaiah’s Technical Director Robin Baston won for Best Set Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Special Effects. The production also won for Best Costume Design, as well as Best Sound Design.

Other winners were Straight Jacket which won for Best Drama; Best New Jamaican Play; Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Sakina Deer; Best Actress in a Lead Role, Dahlia Harris; and Best Director, Patrick Brown and Trevor Nairne.

Earle Brown walked away with the Best Actor in a Lead Role trophy for his work in Once a Man Twice A Wife. Philip Clarke won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Feminine Justice. Windscream Posse copped the award for Best Comedy.

The award for Best Ensemble went to A Midsummer Night’s Dream by the School of Drama at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. A Child’s Cry (Call to Rescue Our Youth), by Edith Dalton James High School, won in the category Best Children’s Theatre.

Dahlia Harris’s production Case of the Ex won Best Original Song, for Ex Man a de Best Man.

The pandemic forced the theatre community to embrace the new normal and some took their art to a virtual audience.

Actors Andrea “Delcita” Wright and Oliver Samuels as well as comedian Dufton “Duffy” Shepherd staged pay-per-view events.

Wright and Samuels partnered with Whirlwind Entertainment and its Internet portal and streaming service Jamaica Online TV, and in June took local theatre to a global audience as Wright starred in Father Says It Best.

Samuels who was conferred with the Order of Distinction in the rank of commander (CD) in October, took his show to a virtual audience in November.

Shepherd premired his stand-up comedy series Slightly Unhinged in June, and has since staged five episodes.

In July the theatre community got a temporary reprieve as the Government announced a temporary easing of restriction on public gatherings with strict conditions. All but one of the local producers was able to take up this offer to return to the stage. Most noted that the time frame was too short.

Jambiz International was able to remount its Windscream Posse at the Little Theatre, staging six performances between August 1 to 9.

However by November came the news that after a 20-year run at its Dominica Drive location, Jambiz International’s Centrestage Theatre was searching for a new home.

According to Lenford Salmon, with no productions on stage the company was no longer in a position to continue the lease obligations with the owners of the property and ended the arrangements. The property on Dominica Drive in New Kingston has now reverted to the New Kingston Drive-In cinema operated by Palace Amusement Company.

The close of the calendar year brought the news that there will be no national pantomime for the 2020-2021 season. The annual theatrical production traditionally opened on December 26 (Boxing Day) for the past 77 years.

However, Anya Gloudon-Nelson, executive of the Little Theatre Movement which produces the pantomime, said the organisation could not let the day pass without some form of activity.

“There will be no pantomime opening on Boxing Day 2020, but we decided that we have to do something on the date that we would traditionally open the ‘panto’, so what we are doing is a virtual concert. It is titled Nah Give Up. It is drawing on the songs and scenes from pantomimes past which speak to our resilience…so songs like One Hand Caan Clap, we are stringing them together to create a seamless production,” she shared.