Photos by Leighton Levy
Milton Foster during his gold medal performance at the World Championships for the Performing Arts.

Leighton Levy, Freelance Writer

What began as a regular school activity has evolved into a golden opportunity for eight-year-old Milton Foster and his family.

Milton, an honour-roll student who attends the Mona Preparatory School, won four gold medals at the World Championships for the Performing Arts in Hollywood, California, in the United States in July.

In doing so, he caught the eye of seven agents of Hollywood model or talent agencies - go-sees, as they are called at the championships - eager to represent him in acquiring roles in everything from commercials to movies. One agent even got him an audition for a movie to be filmed here in Jamaica.

Milton won gold medals in Acting Comical, Acting Drama and Vocal-World Music. He also won an Industry Award gold medal and three plaques as World Performing Arts, Champion Performer of the World 2008.

It was not exactly what Milton's mother, Andrea Foster, had in mind when this all began, but all the accolades and new found opportunities are something of a pleasant surprise. "To be honest, when we went to the competition, it was just for leisure, it was just a holiday," Foster confesses, adding that she did not realise the magnitude of her son's talent.

Foster, a personnel officer at APM Terminals, registered Milton for the World Championships in 2006 after he successfully auditioned at the Hilton Kingston hotel late that year.

She opted out of the 2007 competition because she did not feel Milton was ready, but he took on the challenge this year after only three weeks of coaching before the championships began on July 18.

Milton, she says, is involved in several activities at school, but most of those activities are group related. "He did not do anything by himself in speech because he was on the school choir and in the school band, so that took up a lot of his time in terms of doing his individual assignments for speech class," Foster said. "We knew we were going to do vocals because his strength is singing, but it was prudent to do other pieces."

They decided to do speech, which at the championships falls under the classification of acting. There are several categories - Acting Comical and Acting Drama among them. They chose Comical and Drama because "Milton is a fun-loving person and drama because Milton is a dramatic person".

As if to prove her point, Milton would spontaneously break into song during the interview, his melodious voice not intrusive, acting more like background music as his mother spoke proudly of his exploits.

Speech lessons

So, for three weeks, Milton took speech lessons with Mark Rhooms on a very tight schedule, two hours per day and sometimes on weekends. He also had hour-long vocal classes with Lecei Wright, who has sung backup for legendary acts, including Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman and Fleetwood Mac.

While preparing one-minute tracks for the championships, Milton recorded two songs, Bob Marley's Redemption Song and Could You Be Loved, at Almond Tree Productions.

It took several attempts to get Redemption Song just right, but only one take was needed for Could You Be Loved. The latter was chosen as the song he entered in the Vocal-World Music category at the World Championships and it paid off.

"Could You Be Loved was well received in Hollywood," Foster says, adding that Milton performed the song with a lot of energy. "Everybody was rocking and singing along."

A lot of that energy comes from the fact that Milton is very inspired by Bob Marley. "I feel free when I sing his songs," he says.

His other performances included My Dog Has No Manners, written by Bruce Lansky, in the Acting Comic category and, in Acting Drama, Playing Football, written by his speech coach Mark Rhooms.

In his short life, Milton has always been associated with excellence. Transferring from Meadowbrook to Mona in 2006, where he started at grade one, Milton immediately excelled academically. In grade two, he made the honour roll three times and was class captain.

He also plays a lead role in junior concerts. "The last time they sang La Bamba and he was the captain. He basically directed the crew," Foster says as Milton again breaks out into "I'm not the sailor, I'm not the sailor/I'm the captain/I'm the captain/yes I am. Laaa laaa Bamba."

Windows of opportunity

They were so good, they were asked to perform at the Philip Sherlock Centre and at the St Andrew High Prep.

Foster also recalls that recently Milton sang at his grand-uncle's birthday party and Frankie Campbell of Fab 5 fame, who attended, declared that Milton sounds like singers from the '70s.

Milton says that when he grows up he wants to be a musician and a singer, but it could be that dream is already being realised.

Foster is carefully deciding when to take up offers that have already been made to them, knowing full well that those windows of opportunity will not remain open forever.

Those opportunities could mean a new life of possible fame and riches which may not have been possible without Milton's glowing talents. It is something he is well aware of.

"I shine!" he declares.