- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 06/Sep 09:12

Workshop showcases five plays by five women

ON the first Wednesday of every month, the Playwrights Workshop Trinbago (PWT) holds its Monthly Readers Theatre Series (MRTS). This month’s reading was unusual: five plays by five women were featured at the event. The plays were all ten minutes long. There usually isn’t a theme, but for the plays on September 3 it was the iconic Queen’s Park Savannah. Originally the Peschier family sugar estate, the land was bought by the Port of Spain town council in 1817. Governor Sir Ralph Woodford initiated the purchase to create a public park, recreational space and pasture, the Grand Savannah. By the mid-19th century, it had also evolved into a major sporting venue for horse racing, cricket and football, with the first Grand Stand erected in 1854. The area is now additionally known for its cultural significance, hosting Carnival, Panorama and other events, and its historic mansions (the Magnificent Seven) have a prominent role in the plays. The evening, at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, Newbold Street, Port of Spain, started promptly at 7 pm. Moderator Safa Niamat-Ali took the reins. Niamat-Ali said staging the plays gives writers a chance to hear their characters in different voices. The discussions after each play provide feedback and lessons for the playwrights. The Last Jog Britni Brooks, 34, is a drama teacher, playwright and performer. She recently moved to Trinidad from Tobago and teaches at Siparia West Secondary School. In Tobago she took part in Heritage Fest, and was a member of the Tobago Theatre Group. The Last Jog brings Caribbean folklore to life during an evening Savannah run. [caption id="attachment_1176394" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The Queen's Park Savannah Grand Stand. -[/caption] In her script, serial rapist John Doe stalks a female jogger whose slight limp suggests she is an easy target. However, instead he runs into a nightmare and becomes trapped in an unending loop of terror as the tables are turned. The audience felt the story would make a good short film. When WMN spoke to Brooks on September 5, she said this was her first time presenting a play at the event. “At the beginning I was nervous. I was happy with the reactions at the end.” She thought the stories from the other writers were “fresh, entertaining and captivating.” Savannah Dust Twenty-four-year-old Terah Blandin works in the theatre and is a visual artist. She describes herself as a multimedia creative. Blandin said she based her characters on real people and research into the Peschier Cemetery in the Savannah, where the original owners and their descendants are still buried. Savannah Dust is a slice-of-afterlife story that follows the events of a typical night in the cemetery for its occupants. The characters are four members of the Peschier family buried there and a young female partygoer who joins the fold due to Carnival-related circumstances. [caption id="attachment_1176393" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Queen’s Royal College in Port of Spain. -[/caption] Several audience members said it had similarities to the British and US TV show Ghosts. The lesson learned from the play, one audience member said, is that: “Second chances are possible even in the afterlife.” Blandin said her goal is to be able to experience as many things in theatre production as possible, and she would like to go on to directing. She said feedback from the audience has helped her to “figure out where to move things forward” with the Savannah Dust script. A Night Out with a Narcissist Tricia Apping, 45, is the mother of five, aged 26, 23, 21, 18 and six. This was her first time at the MRTS and the first play she has completed. She told WMN it took two months to complete A Night Out with a Narcissist, her second attempt at writing a play. The play takes place on the night of Panorama finals. Police officer Dante, 45, accompanies his wife Merille, 42, to her performance with Siparia Deltones. During their interaction with each other, her bandleader and a reporter, Dante’s true nature is revealed. The audience said A Night Out with a Narcissist was “relatable and real.” “I want to punch Dante,” said one listener. The discussion revealed that many audience members had dealt with narcissists in the past. Apping, a former geriatric nurse, said she mainly writes about trauma. Feedback on her play, she said, has been positive, and she looks forward to putting it on a stage if she gets the opportunity. All is Fair Judith Theodore, a writer and poet, has been part of the TT drama scene since 2006. A long-term member of the PWT, she has had several of her plays read at MRTS and staged in the New Play Festival. She says she never misses events. She told WMN the late Tony Hall, playwright, screenwriter, actor, director and cultural pioneer, was very inspirational in her early years in theatre. In Theodore’s latest play, All is Fair, a spurned woman, Crizzy, is trying to get revenge in an unorthodox way. The other characters are Nolene, a young woman; Fern, Nolene’s friend; a burly, tattooed police officer; an interfering stranger; and of course a coconut vendor waiting for customers. Here’s an extract from the play, which starts at Queen’s Royal College: Nolene and Fern are looking for a gold chain lost during an evening run. (They are suddenly aware of loud talking and cursing coming from the Savannah. There is a woman putting up posters on a tree.) Nolene: What going on over dey? Fern: (Looks over and immediately leaves her searching and marches up to the woman.) Do you have permission to do what you are doing, madam? Crizzy: What I doing, eh, what I doing? I have every right to do what I doing. Don’t be damn farse to put yuh blasted mouth in my business. Fern: You cannot deface the trees. These are all we have to relieve us from some of the pollution in the air. They don’t need nails to be destroying their bark. Crizzy: You know how dat man destroy me? What I care ‘bout some trees? Let everybody know the damn nasty man he is. Their runs over the following months reveal Crizzy’s fate. Fine Dining Cecile George also returned to MRTS this month. George, 57, has been a screenwriter for several years and has completed six screenplays. Her screenplay After 12 was a quarterfinalist at the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. This is her first foray into playwriting. In her Fine Dining, Colin, a sweet everyman and Rasheeda, a wannabe-upscale woman, arrive seeking dinner at the Savannah food track after their first date at Queen’s Hall. Rasheeda, unimpressed, wants to dine at a sit-down restaurant, but a ravenous Colin insists they eat here, despite the long lines. But when an emergency news broadcast that an unfed escaped lioness is roaming the Savannah interrupts their argument, Rasheeda gives an ultimatum. And since Colin’s shallow pockets can’t afford fine dining after paying for the theatre tickets, they must negotiate how to get a meal safely without becoming dinner. The play ends as the lioness closes in on the couple, who have now revealed more about themselves to each other. At the end of the play audience members called out, “Best ending!” However, there are lingering questions, such as what will happen next, and some called for a sequel. After the five readings, it was unanimously decided to do dramatic readings of All is Fair and Fine Dining on September 26. For further information or to submit a script for reading in the MRTS, e-mail playwrightsworkshoptt@gmail.com; call/text/WhatsApp (868) 351-6293; find it on Facebook and Instagram @playwrightsworkshoptt; or on NDATT’s website at https://iamndatt.org.tt /playwrightsworkshoptt/.   The post Workshop showcases five plays by five women appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.