HOLGATEMichael Reckord, Freelance Writer
Most of Jamaica's currently active playwrights have been writing for more than 20 years. These 'oldsters' include (in no special order) Trevor Rhone, Aston Cooke, Basil Dawkins, Ted Dwyer, Carmen Tipling, Louis Marriott, Paul Beale, Patrick Brown, Barbara Gloudon, Balfour Anderson, Ginger Knight and Hugh King.
A MERE THREE noteworthy playwrights have started producing for the commercial theatre in recent years. They are David Heron, Karl Hart and David Tulloch. (Of course there are other talented playwrights who for years have confined themselves to school or church theatre. St Jago's Pauline Matthie, the School of Drama's Cecele Dixon-Mattis and Port Antonio Theatre Group's Maureen Campbell spring to mind.)
Rhone, the dean of Jamaican playwrights, has stated he is moving away from writing for the stage to focus on screenwriting. Has the silver screen and/or television lured away the younger scriptwriters?
Certainly not entirely. The Sunday Gleaner has discovered three commercial playwrights-in-waiting, young men who have demonstrated talent in other areas of theatre but who are interested in exploring writing for the stage.
MICHAEL HOLGATE
Although only 29, Michael Holgate has been involved in theatre for more than a decade, And the areas of his involvement continue to expand.
He started off as an actor in sixth form at Wolmer's Boys' School, performing in the Schools' Drama Festival. Today, in the field of theatre, he is now an actor, singer, choreographer, dancer and teacher. He is a writer, too, having published a book Your Creative Guide to Better Living (1999).
He has also written portions of plays and most recently completed a full length play, Curfew. It was while he was a member of Cathi Levy's Little People & Teen Players Club,' from 1992 - 1994), that he started contributing to segments of theatrical productions.
One of these was Vibes in a World of Sexuality, a musical aimed at promoting thoughtful sexual conduct in young people. This work has enjoyed great popularity in Jamaica, the Caribbean region and in North America.
Holgate was a founding member of Ashe Caribbean Performing Arts Ensemble, of which he is now a director. Because of the group's policy of creating original, culturally-rich work, Holgate developed his several talents and skills.
He has contributed to Christmas Story, Lift Up Jamaica, (currently on an American tour), and Vibes 2, which is aimed specifically at parents.
As Ashe's productions multiplied, Holgate's talent as a song- writer and script-writer were utilised more and more. The practice got to be, he says, that during improvisations problem spots would be glossed over with, "Let's move on. Michael will fix it later."
In 1994, at about the time the Cathi Levy-led group was splitting up with one part becoming Ashe, Holgate enrolled as a student at the University of the West Indies, (UWI). He was to graduate with a B.A. degree in English.
At the UWI, his writing continued. There one of his favourite classes was Creative Writing, for which he wrote poems and short stories.
It might seem surprising that while at the university Holgate did not pursue his other loves, dance, drama and music. The University Creative Arts Centre, as the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts was then called, was the hub of those activities. However, Holgate, as well as studying, was touring with Ashe and getting his fill there.
For the past few years he has been spending a lot of time honing his playwriting skills. He has, for example, been studying playwriting books. In Ashe he has found a 'captive' audience and producer for his efforts, which have culminated in Curfew.
He is now seeking a commercial producer for the play. It is set in the inner city and is about how 'a community comes together to deal with the efforts of a don to control its members.'
Holgate states: "I have always thought of myself as a writer." His academic writing skills will be called on in the UWI's Cultural Studies programme into which he has been accepted as an M. Phil student.
He expects the load of Ashe performer and 'Edutainment Director,' Edna Manley College lecturer, workshop conductor and university student will be heavy, but Holgate dreams big. His philosophy is shown in this excerpt from his book:
'Our dreams need to be nurtured like seeds. If our potential greatness falls on the shallow, infertile ground of a doubtful and fear-filled existence, the result is stagnation and death. Seeds need nourishment to grow.
'When we recognise that our lives are the soil in which our dreams have been planted, we begin to understand the importance of our dreams to us and to all humanity'.
The series continues next week with Quinton Yearde.
