Playwrights and Screenwriters (the Antigua-Barbuda connection)

I wanted to create a separate page for playwrights and screenwriters. You won’t find these in the main authors listing since that focusses specifically on publications. This list is a work in progress, so please inform me of any ommissions/oversights. T’anks.

PLAYWRIGHTS

 (Playwright)           – Rising from the Ashes. Performed by Popular Theatre Movement. (formed 1988)

Antigua Community Players – This group was inaugurated in 1952. Musical dramas written and performed by the players include Priscilla’s Wedding and Celebration in the Marketplace. The group eventually morphed into a choral group well known for its folk music presentations and musical productions.

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Eleston Nambalumbu Nambalala Adams - (play titles?). Performed by Rio Revealers (started 1979).

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Barbara Arrindell – Dreams…Faces…Reality. Performed by the Optimist Club of St. John’s Youth Drama Group. (2001 debut)

Barbara Arrindell speaks with the audience after a performance of the AIDS themed ‘Dreams…Faces…Reality’ performed by the Optimist Club of St. John’s Youth Drama Group

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Edson Buntin - (Play titles?). Scaramouche Theatre.

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Oliver Flax – A Better Way (1976) and The Legend of Prince Klaas (1972). Performed by Bobby Margetson’s Little Theatre.

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Owen Jackson - As writer/director with the National Youth Theatre, Jackson produced several plays including After 9/11 and My Birthright the throughout the 2000s and ongoing.

Owen Jackson taking high school students through a drama warm up exercise.

Youth drama club – tableau in downtown store window …and attracting a small crowd doing it

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George ‘Rick’ James - Various plays including the one man play Oulaudah Equiano and the all-star-cast Our Country in 2007 tracking the life of Antigua from pre-Columbian times to present.

Our Country: an arawak chief Our Country: Slave ship scene

slaves at market

Performed by Theatre Ensemble (which included many prominent persons in Antiguan and Barbudan society). Also an actor in the British theatre

James performing in Sit Quietly on the Baulk

for many years and an award winning costume designer in local mas.

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Colin Jno Finn – playwright and director with the Nazarene Drama Team – On the Block (2008) of a young man’s struggles with the church; Nine to Five (2009) about challenges in the work place; It’s Too Late (2010) of a strained relationship between a father and son; and Power Struggle (2011) of one person’s attempts to boost another from office.

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Edgar O. Lake – Some Quiet Mornin’; Matters of Antiguan Conspiracy: 1736; The Stone Circle; The Killing of Arthur Sixteen; more… (dates unknown)

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Iyaba Ibo Mandingo – ‘He is a Poet, Painter, Writer, Sculptor, Actor, Teacher, Mentor, Author and “continued work in progress”, as he puts it…His “Self-Portrait”, a one-man play performed in his studio, speaks of his life through poetry and prose, concurrent to him painting his self-portrait during the show.’ – from this interview with the artiste which also references his chap books (41 Times and Amerikkkan Exile), his company (Iyabarts), his art series (War, Spirit Drawings), in addition to his plays (Self-Portrait which has grown into unFRAMED, his first full length play), and forthcoming work (novel Sins of My Fathers, chap book 30 Days of Ink, ad the off broadway run of unFRAMED). As his biography shows, he is a native Antiguan who migrated to the U.S. as a boy.  These roots as well as his experiences in America infuse unFRAMED as seen in this excerpt.

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Dorbrene O’Marde –  - synonymous with quality theatre in Antigua and Barbuda in theatre’s heyday (i.e. the 1970s to early 1980s), his Harambee Open Air Theatre is “considered the most important group of recent times” (from The Cambridge Guide to Theatre by Martin Banham). On stage, O’Marde – also a calypso writer, publisher of Calypso Talk magazine, social and political commentarian and activist, and more - wrote and directed Badplay, Homecoming, For Real: A Caribbean Play in Three Acts (1976), Fly on the Wall (1977), The Minister’s Daughter, We Nativity, Tangled Web, and The World Spin One Way; and directed several others (in addition to his other cultural and artistic work)BIOGRAPHY deo 2010 .

       

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Eustace Simon – several plays including Crossroads, The Awakening, Betty’s Hope, and Illusive Dreams. 1990s. Modern Theatre.

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Lester Simon - Obeah Slave. Performed by the Grammarians. 1969.

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Leon Chaku Symister – Voices of Protest, 1976; Tilting Scales, ?; and Time Bomb, 1977. Third World Theatre.

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Stage One – This youth drama collective led by Kanika Simpson-Davis favours adaptations (which involves some re-scripting) of popular tales like Cinderella , Snow White, and Anansi and Snake. 2004 – present.

Stage One: Anansi and Snake

Stage One: Cinderella Reloaded 2007 Stage One: scene from Cinderella

Stage One: scene from Cinderella

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Women of Antigua – playwrights/actresses/directors Linisa George and Zahra Airall shepherd this femalecentric brand of theatrical activism. The original production When A Woman Moans  (see Review here http://www.365antigua.com/cms/content/arts-live-performance-review-when-woman-moans-29-may-2010) was mostly scripted by them with inputs from Dotsie Isaac Gellizeau, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Floree Williams, Greschen Edwards (another WOA founding partner), Melissa Elliott, Marcella Andre, and Carel Hodge. It has become an annual production with new writers and new themes each time. The group debuted with Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues in 2008 and this locally conceived, similarly themed production, which debuted in 2010, is the successor to that. Airall is also founder and director of Zee’s Youth Theatre which produced, among other things, the well-received School Bag.

 

SCREENWRITERS

Zahra Airall – When No One Is Looking (2012, short film, an ABS TV Production in collaboration with the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS) – also co-director. My review/report, here.

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Howard Allen (also producer/director) - (w/Jermilla Kirwan) Diablesse (2005, HAMAfilms); and The Skin (2011, HAMAfilms) – reviewed here.

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Alexis Andrews – Vanishing Sail. Not sure if this documentary about the Carriacou sloops and the culture surrounding them is completed and released as yet but here’s the trailer.

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Oteh Thomas Anyandjuh (African born, resident in Antigua) - Love that Bites (2010,  OTA Entertainment and Third Eye Studios) – also director.

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Cinque Productions (Chris Hodge and Melissa Gomez, also producer, director) - Deaf Not Dumb (2000, short fiction film), 2 Dolla Picture

Melissa assessing a shot as her camera man looks on.

(2001, animated short), Share and Share Alike (2008, documentary - 2010 winner of Best Documentary Production at the Berlin Black International Cinema Festival), Changing Course (2009, film short), and Silent Music (forthcoming, documentary) silent-music-poster[1] co-writer/producer/editor Jay Prychidny.

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Alvin Glen Edwards – Once in an Island

on the set of ‘Once in an Island’  Jermilla Kirwan in a scene from Once in an Island

(2009, Wadadli Pictures) – also producer. The film has since been adapted into a book (released 2012).

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Noel Howell – He was the co-writer (with Courtney Boyd), director and producer of Redemption of Paradise (2009, Color Bars Production) – best actress and best Caribbean film at the 2010 Jamaica Reggae Film Festival; as well as a video producer and independent publisher on projects like Once in an Island (co-producer/co-director).

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Roland ‘Mayfield’ Hosier – He didn’t work from a written script but he’s the pioneer behind Antigua and Barbuda’s earliest forays into (largely improvised) film production producing The Fugitive, 1972, and Midtown Robbers, 1978.

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D. Gisele Isaac – The Sweetest Mango (2001, HAMAfilms); and No Seed (2002, HAMAfilms).
Isaac also writes regularly for the stage in the form of the skit included in the annual Programme put on by the Professional Organization of Women in Antigua and Barbuda; usually a political satire.

POWA’s Programme

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Tameka Jarvis - Dinner

On the set of Dinner, Tameka with her co-star and husband.

(2010, Cinque Productions w/Chris Hodge directing and Jarvis-George also acting and serving as co-executive producer) – film short versed on her poem of the same name from the collection Thoughts from the Pharcyde. UPDATE Here’s her report on the screening of the film at the Jamaica Film Festival and of her involvement (as a writing contributor) to Shabier Kirchner’s film short, Ugly.

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Jamaica Kincaid - Life and Debt (a film by Stephanie Mack; written by Jamaica Kincaid). 2001. New Yorker Films. USA.

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Jermilla Kirwan – (w/Howard Allen) Diablesse (2005, Hamafilms) – also actress in this and The Sweetest Mango.

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Nigel Trellis (born Guyana, resident in Antigua) - Hooked (2009, Tropical Films) Working Girl (2011, Tropical Films)

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, and Oh Gad!). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on Amazon, WordPress, and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Awaken to the Night by Kennella Charles

[2005 Young Explorer Wadadli Youth Pen Prize Honourable Mention]

The calypsos of the birds outside were muffled by the curtains of the Edward twins’ bedroom, as Rupert Edward pushed aside his bedcovers and ascended towards his brother’s bed mischievously. He was up to no good as usual, attempting to scare his brother out of bed, and by blurting out a single name, succeeded in his boisterous plan.

“Wha happen, Robert, wha mek you so jumpy?” he asked, snickering devilishly.

“You have plenty nerves!” Roger said out of breath, trying to conceal his tears. “You well know that me ‘fraid a de bogyman!”

“Me! Is not me mek him come here a night time,” Rupert reveled.

“Mama Estha!” Robert cried out, tears flowing. In no time their grandmother entered their bedroom door to be greeted by a tearful Robert.

“Wha eh be this time, Rupert, wha trouble-making you up to?” she said as she held Robert, trying to calm him.

Esther Edward was the only living person who could distinguish between her identical grandsons. Mama Estha, as her grandsons called her, was a round woman and a strong believer in God. She had been helping their ever-so-busy father, Ron Edward to raise them ever since their mother, Victoria, died, shortly after giving birth to her mirror twins. Mama Estha loved and treated her only grandchildren as though she had birthed them. Their father was always too busy to raise them himself and usually traveled abroad on business trips. Esther could tell them apart anywhere; back, front, even before they spoke. She truly knew her boys well, even when one had been sad or the other naughty.

“Me ain’t do the fraidy cat nothing, Mama Estha.”

“He lie!” yelled Robert.

“All right, enought a that from de two a you! Rupert, go in me room and read de whole a chapta six in Ephesians.”\

“Mama Estha.”

“Me don talk!” she ordered, still comforting Robert as the other brother stormed to his grandmother’s room.

Radiance of a few rays from the sun seeped trough the bedroom windows and danced on the walls. The abundance of sunlight had been occluded by the abundance of lofty trees, which shielded the barely seen house in the vast countryside.

“He call out de bogyman name when me still a sleep and me wake up,” Robert said, still sobbing. “Last night me hear eh by de window.”

“Hush with you nonsense now; ain’t no such thing as de bogyman. I don’t know wha mek you always mek you brother get the best of you.”

“But Mama Estha me hear eh mek noise outside by de window.”

“You listen to me, see. Maybe a de branches pan de tree by you window when de wind a blow or de fruit bats a fly a night,” she suggested and smiled at him.

“Bats!” he shivered with open eyes. “ That a wha Rupert say de bogyman tun into a night.”

“Nothing tall go so. De fruit bats harmless; de only thing them bite a fruit, not arwe,” she said, assuring him.

He agreed with a nod, but, in his mind, his brother’s exaggerated tales were still lurking.

Since school was closed for the summer, the twins spent the course of their days on their own activities. Rupert being bolder, both far more mischievous and more adventuresome, usually went about his day as a nuisance, while Robert, the more responsible one for an eight year old, helped his grandmother do most of the tasks in and around the house.

As the summer sounds droned on that day, Robert assisted his grandmother in tending to her garden along with a few other chores. Rupert’s schedule consisted of torturing a neighbor’s cat, dismembering a bird’s nest and other terrible duties.

Later in the night, when the boys finished praying and retired to bed, their grandmother slightly opened the window’s shutters to allow some of the night’s cool atmosphere into the room. The nocturnal creatures blossomed to the quartered moon that shined through the windows, investing every thing in the rooms with a calm unnatural luminosity. A pair of short, broad wings extended to take flight, as a grayish-brown figure fluttered along with squeaks of navigation towards an array of fruit trees.

Unaware of a stalking owl, the solitary bat almost became prey to the clutching claws of the night bird. Instead it got injured and found sanctuary by a nearby window ledge at the twins’ bedroom. There was a soft thud on the floor, with an alarming squeak, which startled and woke both boys. Rupert jumped out of bed, then turned on the light without hesitation, and found, to their surprise, a wounded bat, active on their bedroom floor.

Fear came after both boys like a shadow, as they bellowed for their grandmother. To her amazement, when she hastily entered their room both boys were crying and nestled on one bed, pointing to where the uproar began. She then glanced in the direction of the wide-eyed bat.

“All a this racket over a little bat?” she asked, soothingly, as she approached her grandsons with opened arms. “It ain’t no jumby or de bogyman, and it more scared a you than you is a it.”

“No, it a come from eating…somebody, that a way…de blood from!” Rupert stammered.

“No, baby, it look like it hurt.”

“Is not the bogyman?” Robert asked with some relief.

“No, is not no fable a de bogyman. Maybe a this same bat da a you window de otha night.”

Rupert reflected on how ridiculously he had reacted and apologized for teasing his brother about always being scared easily. They both learned a valuable lesson that night and shared an inseparable bond from then on.

THE END

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ABILF Youth Writing Workshop

When was this? 2008, I think. The instructor pictured is Brenda Lee Browne, former coordinator of the Independence Literary Arts competition, and facilitator of many youth writing workshops both independently and with the Culture Department making her a beloved mentor to many young writers in Antigua and Barbuda. Here she is with one young scribe at a writing workshop sponsored by the Antigua and Barbuda International Literary Festival.