No theatre awards this year
Stabroek News
April 12, 2003
For the second time in two years, the executive panel of the Theatre Arts Awards (TAA) has announced that there will be no awards ceremony due to the lack of dramatic productions.
In a release on Wednesday, TAA Chairman Billy Pilgrim said the two plays staged in 2002 were not enough material for competitive assessment. Those productions were `Is We Big People', written and directed by playwright Fitzroy Tyrell, and Trevor Rhone's `School's Out', produced by Andre Wiltshire.
According to Pilgrim, the panel has decided, as it did in 2001, to withhold the awards ceremony until March/April 2004, when hopefully, there would be sufficient entries to make effective decisions.
However, a number of children's presentations which were held at the National Cultural Centre last year came in for high commendation.
"The West Ruimveldt School Concert, in spite of some inadequacies, was of its usual high standard. It is good to see so many young people making their first appearance on stage and learning the techniques of presentation. Young Musicians on stage was another enjoyable presentation, sharing with Children in Concert (late in the year) the challenge of performance in a large hall, with all its complications," the release stated.
`Berbice Thunder' consisted of a number of small dramatic presentations by the teenaged students of the Sapodilla Learning Centre in Berbice, teaching them the basic techniques of drama that will be the foundation of their future performances.
"All of the children who performed, whether as dancers, actors, singers, or instrumentalists, and not only those mentioned above, are to be congratulated for sharing their experience with their audiences. We look forward to seeing them again. We hope that the difficulties of presentation currently affecting the Administration of the National Cultural Centre and the various producers/directors can be overcome in the near future, so that our audiences can enjoy the full variety of our stage productions," Pilgrim said.
