MORE than 70 Caribbean Thespians are expected in Jamaica for the fourth annual Caribbean School Drama Festival, which opens at the Little Theatre today.
Two local productions will be featured during the week-long event. These are Ardenne High School's Empty Spaces, written and directed by Gracia Thompson and the Kingston College/Merl Grove High production A Ray of Light, written by Merle Grove's drama teacher Marcia Forbes and co-directed by herself and Peter Heslop. Heslop is the K.C. drama teacher who directed the 1998 Schools' Drama Festival best production, Carey Robinson's The Runaway.
According to the co-ordinator for the Caribbean Schools Drama Festival, Keith Parkin, at least seven Caribbean countries are expected to join host country, Jamaica, this year. These are Antigua, Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Surinam and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the number of visitors could be reduced as one country, whose name he didn't wish to reveal, may be affected by a lack of Government financial support.
But, the Jamaican government is solidly behind the festival via the support of the Ministry of Education and Culture. Other sponsors include UNESCO and the Bank of Nova Scotia.
The festival is the brainchild of Victor Edwards, one of this year's judges. It started in 1994 in Port-of-Spain with about four countries and, due to the lack of interest in hosting the event from other countries, the following year it was again staged in Trinidad and Tobago. However, in 1998 it moved to Guyana.
Parkin says that this year's Jamaica Schools Drama Festival had the best houses since 1975, with almost every performance being sold. He hopes that this increasing interest in schools drama productions will continue to the Caribbean level.
