Empowerment through the Theatre

Author(s): JEAN SMALL

Source: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 1 (March 2001), pp. 30-41
Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean Quarterly
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30

Empowermentthroughthe Theatre
by
JEAN SMALL
dramatic presentation is the quickest and
surest method of appeal, because it is the only
way withwhich memory plays no tricks. Ifa thing
has appeared before us in a vital form, nothing
can really destroy it; itis because things are often
given in a blurred, faint lightthat they gradually
fade out of our memory.... The Artof The Story
Teller (Page 99), Marie L. Shedlock

Theatre in Jamaica in the year 2000 has come a long way since the
colonial regime when English companies toured the island and performed Shakespeare and other classical European works. The slaves created theirown brand of
theatre in which the style was that of mimicryand exaggeration, lampooning their
masters in song and dance. Much of the indigenous Africanuse of body language
and musical structures were maintained throughthe celebrations conducted in the
dead of nighton the plot. A syncretism of European and Africanforms,a melding
of the rhythmof Africa and the melody of Europe1 formthe basis of art-formsthat
are typicallyCaribbean. Marcus Garvey played a very importantrole in shaping a
black consciousness in creative expression. In 1913, performingin an elocution
contest, he was one of the early tenants of the Ward Theatre in Kingston which
had opened the year before. The tremendous work that he did at Eidelweiss Park
between the years 1927 and 1928 in elocution, literaryexpression, musical concerts and his monumental theatrical productions is not an insignificanttestimonyto
a very early understanding in the historyof our education of the place of the arts in
shaping a people.
Undoubtedly Garvey's work must have influenced the formationof theatre groups in the second decade of the twentiethcentury and the rise of the first
great Jamaican man of theatre E.M. Cupidon. His work was mainly in the genre of
comedy, but in the 1930s withthe growing national feeling Jamaica saw the rise of
its firstgeneration of serious writerssuch as Una Marson, Roger Mais, Frank Hill
and W.G. Ogilvie. Marson's POCOMANIA is now considered a Jamaican classic
and as the name illustrates itwas embedded in the culture of the folk. The 1940s
saw the encouragement given to promotingthe talent of the less privileged sector
of the society and now one can hardly talk about the beginnings of theatre in

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31
Jamaica without mentioning Bim and Bam and Slim and Slam. It was Orford St.
John who encouraged writers like Sam Hillaryand he directed Ranny Williams in
TWELFTH NIGHT and Louise Bennett in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. In
1955 WycliffeBennett founded the Jamaica Drama League which mounted an
Annual Drama Festival between 1955 and 1962. This was the golden age of
theatre in Jamaica when such actors as Reggie Carter, Mona Chin, Louise Bennett,Lois Kelly Miller,Charles Hyatt,Ranny Williams and Easton Lee were seen on
stage. At the Universityof the West Indies Errol Hill,Derek Walcott, Ronnie Llanos,
Slade Hopkinson, Ada Thompson, Archie Hudson-Phillips, Ancille Gloudon, Cynthia Alleyne, Noel Vaz, Louis Blazer and Derek Broughton were making their mark
on the theatrical landscape.
Up to this time all the significant theatrical works were staged in the
conventional theatre buildings until,in 1965 the opening of The Barn, marked the
entryof the small theatre building into existence. Directors such as Trevor Rhone,
;
Louis Mariott, Ed Wallace, Reggie Carter, Claude Clarke, Tony Gambrill made
intimate theatre and revues popular with actors such as Fae Ellington, Grace
McGhie, Munair Zacea, Oliver Samuels, Barbara McCalla, Christine Bell, Alwyn
Scott, Dorothy Cunningham, Leonie Forbes. In 1970s Ralph Holness introduced a
new genre in theatre which earned the title of Roots Theatre. Referred to as
grassroots theatre the content of this new genre dealt with the issues of life of
grassroots people and used the language of the people as the medium of expression. A popular money-earner for both director and grassroots actor, the genre
spread and was played in small spaces all over the island and eventually exported
to Miami, London, New York and Toronto. This was the beginning of a vigorous
export business of theatre
A Caribbean theatre has gradually taken shape and the founding of the
Jamaica School of Drama withinthe complex of the Cultural Training Centre now
renamed as The Edna Manley College forthe Visual and PerformingArts helped to
forge a Caribbean Theatre aesthetic. Hertencer Lindsay, Honor Ford Smith, Dennis Scott, Henry Muttoo, Earl Warner, Jean Small, Professor Rex Nettlefordlaid the
foundation work of creating a Caribbean theatre form.Atthe School, students were
trained in the theatre arts to become teacher/actors, teacher/directors/
teacher/technical directors. The problem was ifthere was no curriculum in theatre
in the schools what was the teacher to do with the training? They generally went
into teaching and used drama whenever or wherever they could, found parts in
plays or acted in the Jamaican Pantomime. The Jamaican Pantomime is proud to
have withstood the ravages of time and economic pressures and to have presented
its fifty-ninth
production this year.
But what of educational theatre? Theatre, unfortunately,like all of the
other creative arts has been engaged in as an extra-curricularsubject usually as an
activityof the schools Drama Club. In 1950 the Secondary Schools Drama Festival
was introduced by the Little Theatre Movement and the British Council. The

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32
opening of some of the principalSecondary Schools in Jamaica at this time WolmersBoys and GirlsSchools, MunroCollege, HamptonHighSchool, Ruseas
HighSchool, ManningsHighSchool and Jamaica College created greateropportunitiesforperformance.Drama activityremainedand has remainedlargelyat the
Festival level and because itwas not integratedintothe curriculum,
drama was
neithertaughtas a disciplinenorused as a teachingtool. The same is trueof the
Spanish Festival organised by the Spanish Teachers Associationand the French
Festival organised by the Jamaica Association of French teachers (JAFT) in
conjunctionwiththe Alliance Franaise and the French Embassy. The Science
LearningCentre is promotingthe use of theatrein teaching Science, but Science
Teachers seem to be the mostdifficult
cadre to get to thinkhow to use creativity
to
teach Science. This programmealso operates at the level of a festivalwithstrong
intentionsof influencingthe day-to-dayteaching of the subject. These Festivals
include dance, drama, poetryand song and always demonstratethe amazing
creativeskillsofour children.Atthe TertiaryLevel, the PhilipSherlock CentreFor
of the West Indies organises TALThe Creative Arts(PSCCA) at the University
LAWAH an Annual Drama Competitionamong the Halls of Residence of the
This has grown in
Universityand the Drama Societies in TertiaryInstitutions.
in
is
the development
recent
and
bounds
and
influencing
popularity
years by leaps
In the area of populareducation a fewcompanies
ofthe craftin those institutions.
are doing concentratedworkin using drama forconsciousness-raisingamongst
youth,ruraland innercitypeople. The Sistren Theatre Collective whichstartedin
1977 witha group of grassrootswomen was a feministactivisttheatrecollective
thatchampioned the cause of workingclass women. Sistrenwas a veryvibrant
group in its early days, mountinga major productioneach year and continual
workshopsforfemale workers.Sistren stillexists but presentlylacks leadership
whichhas reducedthe dynamismand effectivenessof itswork.The Ashe Ensemble and Academy was founded in 1993 with 70 talented young people. The
while at the same time entertaining
ensemble enhances learningand self-worth
and educating. The ensemble leads the way in AIDS and Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (STDs) educationforyoungpeople. The mostrecentlyformedgroupthat
uses theatreforeducatinginnercityyouthis the Area Youth Foundation which
was formedin 1997 at the time when The Company Ltd. was staging Wole
Soyinka'sTHE BEATIFICATIONOF THE AREA BOY. The Companyembarkedon
the WardTheatrewhere
a programmeto involvethe youthinthe area surrounding
to
be
of
the
were
the play was to be staged. Some
partof the production.
youth
Howevertheywere so enthusedbythe experiencethatat the end ofthe production
aspect of the workthrough
theywanted to continuewiththe work.An important
theatreis gettingrivalcommunitiesto connect across borders.The resultsof The
BORDER CONNECTIONS have been verysuccessful and the Foundationis now
embarkingon creatinga networkof Area Youthacross the island.
Generallyspeaking,the theatretoday is marketdriven.In orderto make a
or
profit even break even, companies are givingaudiences whattheywant,which

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33
is a good belly laugh withsome sex thrown in forgood measure. There is a type of
theatre which I call middle class roots theatre which is becoming more and more
popular. The most frequented theatre spaces are The Barn, Centrestage and The
Little Little Theatre Theatre companies have decided that serious plays are not
financially profitable and so they go for the money and, they have to, because
doing theatre today is expensive. In the present environment of theatre that is
rollickinggood fun, educational theatre happens behind closed doors unless it is
connected witha play that is being studied fora Caribbean-wide Examination. The
PSCCA, UWI , the Jamaica School of Drama and the Cultural Arts Studio have
successfully tied their dramatic work to the Examination Syllabus ensuring an
audience in this way. But though the wheels turnvery slowly, there is hope. The
Ministryof Education introduced the R.O.S.E Programme which includes Drama
for Grade 7 to 9 in the Secondary School since 1995 and last year the Primary
Education Improvement Programme was launched with Drama in Grades 4 to 6
and Integrated Drama in Grades 1 to 3. The Caribbean Examination Council is
presently developing a syllabus forthe Theatre Artswhich will be piloted in 2001 .
This paper is about the experience of doing theatre in a foreign language
at the Universityof the West Indies, Mona Campus, while learning the language
and the literaturein which that language is embedded. What is the value of theatre
for the learner? What can the process bring to enhance the learning of both
language and literature? This paper will refer mainly to the recent production of
DEUX CONTES
AFRICAINS , an adaptation of two of Birago Diop's folktales,
which I directed for the Modern Languages Department of the U.W.I., Mona
Campus in March 2000, and the experience derived from the exercise for both
teacher as directorand the students as cast.
A formerlecturer in French Language and Literature,I was invitedto direct
a play in French withthe students for an inter-campus French Theatre Festival at
the Cave Hill campus in Barbados. I was asked mainly because in 1983, when I
was a lecturer in the Modern Languages Department, I had actually initiated a
programme which I called, the visualisation of literatureand the objective of the
programme was to visualise on stage literaryworks that the students were engaged in studying in order for them to have a more immediate experience and
understanding of the text, and the focus was on French African or French Caribbean Literature. We must, firstof all understand the difference between the two
activities theatre and drama. Brian Way (1967) states that theatre is largely
communication between actor and audience, whereas drama is concerned with
the experience that the actors have irrespective of any communication with an
audience. He exemplifies this difference by answering the question: What is a
blind person? One can either give a straightdefinitionwhich is similar to communicating informationas in theatre or else one can be asked to close one's eyes and
walk around the room and tryto find a way out. The latter is similar to drama
because of the act of knowing through personal experience.

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34
Since at the time that the request was made to me I was not teaching the
students it was very clear in the beginning that the activitywas really going to be
theatre as we were simply going to do a play forthe purpose of the French Theatre
Festival. I was asked to direct two of Birago Diop's folktales LES MAMELLES and
LE SALAIRE. The author of the folktales believed that the oral literatureof Africa
was in danger of being lost forever in the face of modern education. He feltthat
there was an urgency to disseminate informationto the rest of the world on the
traditional philosophy of his people. This opinion was shared by many other
African writers at the time, most vocal among them was Bernard Dadi2 who
maintained that the conte must not be regarded as mere old wives' tales to be told
to put children to sleep, but rather must be considered as family jewels to be
communicated to the rest of the world. It is crucial that the directorshould embrace
the intentionof the artistic work for the sake of the passion and intensityof the
commitmentthat is needed in directinga play and as director, I was pleased with
this choice of material because I was already involved in working withthe folktale
and the art of the storyteller. Every director seeks an encounter that suits his
nature.3 The task involved scriptingthe conte forthe stage and itentailed capturing
qualities such as the tone of voice, gesture, mime etc. as well as creating the music
that would evoke a Senegalese environment.
A call was sent out for students who would like to participate in the
production. About nine students turned up. I didn't know these students. I didn't
know what the quality of their French was like. I didn't know what year they were
in. I had not seen them before. All I knew was that they were students of French
and that they were interested in acting in a French play. That is all I ask at the
beginning of doing theatre with anyone: that they want to do it. After a brief
introductionon the structure and intentionof folktales, I made them read the text
and do a littlebitof singing (as I intended to use song in the production) to help me
decide on the cast.
What did I want them to experience? I wanted them to understand the
African ontology, the African theatre aesthetic, the significance of the didactic
nature of the folk-tale in an oral culture, I wanted them to understand the eloquence of silence and the fantastic and lyricalaspects of storytelling.I believe that
our theatre mode in the Caribbean is storytellingwhich has its source in our
traditional African heritage. I wanted them to know intimatelythrough the use of
their body language and their voices the power of the role of the storyteller.This
was not very easy, at first,because the text I created seemed to be uncomplicated
- even simple. This was because I knew in
my head where the silences were, or
where symbolic forms of expression alternative to the word would be used. I
feared t firstthat they mightthinkthe play was not fortheir age group and so I
placed a lotof emphasis on perfectionof the spoken word i.e. correct pronunciation
and intonationpattern of the language. A great deal of time was spent in the first
rehearsals giving the cast an opportunityto listen to the correct rendering of the
text,to hours of repetitionand memorization before they even stood on the stage,

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35
and so as soon as they were gaining some competence in mastering the language
and control of the text, I engaged the multifaceted musician, Mbala 4, to join the
group so that they could appreciate the discourse and the text of the drum very
much in the way that Niangoran Bouah5 conceived of la drummologie6 In this case
the actors would voice the text and the drums and other musical instrumentswould
engage in a discourse with the spoken word. There were times when the drum
would have to speak in the place of the actor. They soon saw that the text created
was not so simple or uncomplicated.
The tales are set in a tropical environment remindingus that our ancestors
came fromWest Africawhich is an agricultural environment. The animal tales are
set mainly in the forest inhabited by animals which are strangely similar to human
types with which we are very familiar. Messages are communicated through a
system of symbology7 which were both verbal and non verbal. There were symbols
in the set, in the colour of the costumes, in gestures that were drawn from the
cultural genre. Central in the set was a tamarind tree. As the griotsaid, L'arbre ne
s'lve qu'en enfonant ses racines dans la terrenourricire6,and this tree symbolizes that rootedness in culture. The tamarind tree like the Cotton Tree in the
9
Caribbean is the abode of the kouss
or spirits which ifwe could see them are
reminiscent of the firstinhabitants of Africa,the Pygmies. It is therefore a sacred
10
tree. One to be respected. The presence of la brousse
on all sides indicates the
closeness of man to nature. It was unfortunate that this performance could not
have been performed in a natural environment forspatial organisation is one of the
most essential elements in the Africantheatrical aesthetic. The placement of the
audience in the round, the ability to move in and out of the performance is
impossible with the proscenium arch theatre. This aspect of African theatre the
students did not experience because the stage was at a higher level and far
removed fromthe audience. In traditionalAfricantheatre the subject of discussion
in the play is a subject that concerns the entire community and so, of necessity,
members of the audience ought to be able to get up and participate in the
performance, for the catharsis must be communal and the restoration of order
fromthe disorder must be a salutory experience of the entire community.
1
A griot1 was created to be the linkbetween the tales for it is one thingto
read a folktale, but another to act itout on stage. Though this character was not in
the original text itwas feltthat Birago Diop would not object to this insertion since
he offersextensive description of the place and functionof the griotin French West
African culture and in the telling of tales. There is a wide vocabulary that has
12
in which the griot,who in French West Africa is
developed around la griotique
the repositoryof the wisdom and historyof the clan, holds a central position. So in
this attempt at griotisation,13 I as griotiseur created a griotto be something of a
narrator/director,giving explanations where they were required and commenting
on the action of the tales. The centralityof the griotwas shown symbolically in his
central position at the opening of the play. He is dressed respendently in white
which is a colour that is symbolic of his stature, his wisdom and his successful

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36
status. He is seated, in silence, while the drums,the flutes,the shak-shaks, the
mbira,thetambourinetellthe entirestoryofthetwotales inthe formofan overture,
the entireproduction
a compositionofall theaccompanyingmusicused throughout
ofthe twotales. These wouldbe easily recognizedlaterduringthe production.The
griotcomposes what may be called grio-poems15speaking and chantingritualistically,appeasing the Gods so thatall should go well,callingforVrit, forthe truth
to be told,assuringthe Gods thatthisbeautifulrace ofblack people wouldnotbring
shame to them. La griotiqueis the epitome of Africantheatre as it presents a
dramaticexpression inwhichwordand chant,musicand dance, mimeand gesture
harmoniseto express the philosophyof Africanlifeforthe purposes of education
and guidance. Atone timethe musical rhythms
accompany the poetic lines ofthe
at
another
with
his spoken words. He dances gently.
griot,
theyare interspersed
One gets the feelingof the call and response between his voice and the music,
of
between his rhythmical
body movementsand the musicthatis so characteristic
African
theatre.The griotlumbersoffstage heavywiththe weightof his wisdom,as
the tale unfoldsin action..
The firsttale is an explanatorystoryofa physicalphenomenoninSenegal
i.e. the existence of the mountainsLES MAMELLES whichare given that name
because theylook liketwo breasts. How did theyget thatshape and whyare they
juttingso ominouslyout ofthe sea? This tale helps the actors to understandmany
aspects oftheAfricanworldview. Theylearntabout polygamy.Whatcauses a man
inthatcultureto take a second wife,what,therefore,
a man values ina wife.What
is the natureof the ensuing relationshipbetween the two wives. It is generally
believed that co-wives live happilytogethersharingthe one husband. This tale
shows thatitis notalways so and thatenvyand jealousy mayarise and these traits
are notpleasing to the Gods. The co-incidencein thisstoryis thatbothwives are
hunchbacked,the second one's humpbeing even biggerthanthatofthe firstwife,
but the firstwife is very unhappyabout her physicalconditionunlikethe second
who sees itas a giftfromGod. The presence and the influenceofthe supernatural
fortheyare ever-presentand omniscient.Man, Gods, spiritsand nature
is powerful
are closely bound and one has to heed the voice of all that is present in the
universe.There is an explanationon anotherlevelthatphysicalattributesare less
and unpleasvalued thana kind,lovingand caringnature.An envious, self-critical
ant naturevexes the Gods. Good is rewardedand bad is punished. The Gods
show the second wife how to be rid of her hump, but the second wife having
attractedto her the humpof the second wife, drowns herselfin the sea, but as
the two humps remainonlyhalf-coveven the sea refusedto engulfher entirely,
ered by the waterand have become LES MAMELLES. There is a lesson thereto
be learnt.Tales are essentiallyeducational.
The second tale is an animal tale withthe animals takingon the characteristicsof types of human beings withparticularexperiences of life.The King's
daughterwas lost inthe swamp and so an orderwas givento have all the swamps
drained and all the crocodiles killed.The daughterwas foundat the bottomof the

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37
hole of the oldest crocodile, but the Crocodile, guardian of the fountains, has been
displaced. He is now wandering about in the bushes, lost. The question is, when
you do a good turnwhat do you get in return,another good turnor some misdeed?
Diassigue, the crocodile, begs the boy, Gone, to help him back to the river,and
after gettingthere he turns around to eat the boy because he is dying of hunger.
The boy begs for his lifeand tries to get support fromthe cow, the horse and the
hare. Both the cow and the horse do not have very good experiences in lifeto tell.
They have both given good service, but in their old age they are totally neglected.
The hare resolves the problem by trickingthe crocodile into being eaten by the boy
and his familyinstead of the other way around. Apart fromthis very philosophical
discussion, the student who played the role of Diassigue, the crocodile, experienced the state of displacement which is a common theme in Caribbean Literature,
because loss has been one of the traumatic experiences in the history of our
people in the diaspora. Diassigue, used to being in water now finds himself in the
bush, he cannot find his way. He is alienated. He wants to go back to where he
belongs, very much like the repatriation movement to Africa. This is such a real
way of explaining topics such as loss, displacement and repatriation.Hare, plays a
trickon the crocodile after establishing that the crocodile is not the totem of the
boys clan. The students got an opportunityhere to understand the importance of
totems in the Africanfamilystructure. Had they not understood this they could not
play out the ridiculethat the crocodile suffered. The tricksterHare makes a parallel
with our Anancy and punishment is meted out to the dishonest and ungrateful,to
the amusement of Hare. Participating in the performance of a play such as this
allows the actor to experience a situation that is similar to real life: displacement,
migration, repatriation, exploitation of the other, interdependence of man and
animal, justice and injustice. This was trulyan experience of cathartic cleansing.
It was when the actors put on their costumes that they began to really
become their characters. The costumes had the magical effect of donning the
mask in performance. The griot feltthe grandeur of his role and his gait immediately changed. The brilliance and expanse of his white boubou, the necklaces
which seemed to embody special powers gave the lines that he uttered and the
chant that he sang new significance. He became griot! Choice of colours also for
the wives, dark blue forthe unhappy, miserable firstwife who feltabandoned by the
Gods, contrasted with the sun-filled yellow of the second happy wife and so
emphasized the opposition between the two wives. Colours have a deep and
powerful effect on the psyche at a subliminal level, so the colour becomes costume, language and therapy. White is worn, in this case, by the one who establishes truth,yellow is the warm colour of the sun and a dark blue to depict the dark
mood of the firstwife. The masks forthe animals were not realistic in design, but
they had a magical effecton the body-language as well as the voice of the actors.
It became quite believable to them that man and animal can consort and communicate in this world of the fabulous.

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38
The actors learnt to work in harmony with the music and the music to
complement the performance of the actor, like at the opening performance when
an actor had a nervous trou de mmoire16 and the drums spontaneously came in,
filled the gap and helped her to regain composure. That was perhaps the best
example of co-operation between voice and musical instrument.Sound and music
was a key language in the play and they learnt to combine them for wordless
expression. The musician created sounds to accompany the moods and the body
movements of the characters: sounds that described tiredness at the end of the
day, anger, jealousy, busy activity,wading through water, the moo of a cow, the
neigh of a horse, the slow rhythmicalmovement of the female carrying a heavy
load on her head and best of all - a man attracted to a woman and deciding to take
her as his wife and the wife lovinglycaring for her husband. This was an introduction to total theatre where the elements of the spoken word, dance, music, poetry
and prose come together in harmony forcommunication.
All of the above testifyto the ability of the folk-tale to discuss literary
themes, to teach the moral code of a culture and to integrate the word, music,
dance and gesture in total theatre. There was .communication through the language of gesture in the use of the hands of the dancing second wife which meant,
I wrap him around and tie him up to indicate to the audience that she had captured
the heart of the husband. There was loud breathing, puffingand panting and
wide-staring eye to express anger, jealousy and envy and there was also the act of
touching the soil three times to display appreciation to the audience instead of
bowing.
Most of all here were personal discoveries. We found in the process, as we
got to know each other better,that there were no thirdyear students in the cast and
that three of the seven were, in fact, students who had started French at the
Universityin the Beginners French Course. Yet they were complimented for their
clear articulation and good pronunciation. Those who had some problems with
some of the words and expressions had an opportunityby force of the "rptitions"
in the text of certain lines and the rehearsals had an excellent opportunityto work
hard at the text forperfection. Once they knew that they had mastered the correct
pronunciation, this gave them a tremendous sense of confidence which carried
over into their course work. In all the theatre work that I have done with French
students, a marked improvement has always been seen in their oral proficiency
and level of self-confidence after the theatrical experience. One student said she
now feels French. This came from knowing that her French was understood by
members of the audience, by a native Frenchman and native Senegalese. Ittakes
a great deal of courage to make that leap intothe foreign language and even more
so to stand on a stage under the lightsto performin a foreign language.
Another positive effect on the lingustic side is the number of new words
they learnt such as vrit, mamelles, bosse , bossu(e), tarn tarn,mpris, canaris,
nanas, tter, fille-gnie, calebasse,
marigot, caiman, mchancet, natte,

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39
ficelle/ficeler,bont, palfrenier, barbotage, auge, bride, cordonnier, croupe, entrave, brousse, bambin, forgeron,and expressions such as , "avoir le coeur noir
comme du charbon", ttetreaigri comme du lait quun genie a enjamb1, "a la voix
aigre et acide comme du jus du tamarirV,"en plein jour, "je t'en sais digne?,"le point
"lche-mo1. As the stuculminant1, "puiser de l'eau* , "recurer les calebasse'
dents said, they will never forget these words and expressions because they
discovered the meanings withina practical context. The structure of the folktale
which is one of repetitionbased on the numbers 3 and 7 allows for pleasant and
entertainingreinforcementof language and song.
Most of all they made new friends because they didn't all know each other
that well before. They learnt to be respectful of each other's time by simply arriving
on time for rehearsals and to apologize to everyone ifthey were late because all
rehearsals had to take place in theirfree periods. As soon as the free period was
up they rushed back to class. This meant that the directoralso had to be respectful
of theirtime and to schedule the work to be covered in each rehearsal carefully so
that the play would be ready at the appointed time. They learntto work together, to
co-operate, to be tolerant of each other's weaknesses and thereforeto help each
other improve. They learntto pick up the slack when itwas necessary to do so, they
learnt to share ideas and the director learnt to respect and accept their ideas in
turn. This cast did not have a stage manager, nor a costume mistress, nor
someone in charge of props. We all had to do everythingourselves and so we cut
branches for the bush, fetched stones, ironed our costumes, fetched drums and
other musical instruments back and forth and conscientiously 'struck the set1
immediatelyaftereach performance. No-one, at any time, waited forthe other to do
the work that had to be done.
To have travelled with the play outside of Jamaica to another Caribbean
island was a major experience in the lives of some. So not only did they get
exposure to a French-Africanculture, but they had an opportunityto interact with
other Caribbean people and in the process to look objectively at themselves and be
able to better define their own culture. To have heard other Caribbean lecturers
speaking French fluentlymade a deep impression on all and to have made friends
with students fromanother island was a widening experience. This indicates that
not only should there be more events such as this among the campuses of the
Universitybut also inter-island cultural exchanges should be organised to foster
closer ties among our people in the shaping of a Caribbean identity.
Most remarkably, all the students who participated in the production had
very good results in theiroral examination and the weakest student moved dramatically fromthe lowest position to the highest.
I must returnto Brian Way's definitionsof theatre and drama and conclude
that it is possible to do theatre and drama simultaneously because these students
communicated to three differentaudiences and at the same time they themselves
had an experience individuallyand communally that has had a fundamental influ-

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40
enee on themas individuals,as studentsof Frenchand as a group.Fromthissmall
experience,this group of seven has builtup a camaraderie and a solidarityand
thereis such a feelingof success and recognitionofthe value of learningthrough
theatrethattheyhave expressed the desire to remaintogetheras a FrenchTheatre
Troupeand those who are studyingSpanish would now also liketo experiencethe
human relationshipsand language in that culture on stage.

NOTES
1.

A definition
offeredby ProfessorRex Nettleford.

2.

A writer
fromthe IvoryCoast.

3.

A conceptexpressed by Grotwosky.

4.

Jamaican poet and innovativemusician,playingseveral instruments

includMbala is a multitalented
ingtheflute,congo drums,the mbiraand several pots and pans.
The workof Professor NiangoranBouah proposed a new science in the use ofthe drumto the people ofthe IvoryCoast.

5.
6.
7.
8.

La Drammologiecomes fromthe Englishdrumand the Greek logos (discourse).

ofsymbols.
Symbologyis the studyor the interpretation
A treeonlystands tallby buryingits rootsdeeply intothe nourishing(mother)soil (author'stranslation)

gnies or spirits
10. the bush

9.

11. A griotis botha troubadourand a chronicler.Amongsome ofthemthe artis handed down fromfatherto son. Some are attached to a princeor some noble or wealthyfamily.Others belong to a
is hereditary.
The griotis a historian,storyteller,
actor,director,dancer..
griotclan, so the artform
A griotmaybe a storyteller
buta storyteller
is notnecessarilya griot.
.
12. The majorAfrican
theatreform
13. The staging ofa tale.
14. The directorofthe stagingofa tale.
15
16

A poem or a chantperformedbya griot.

Loss ofmemory.

REFERENCES
Diop, Birago, Contes Choisis, Ed. byJoyce H. Hutchinson,
Press 1967.
CambridgeUniversity
Grotowsky,
Jerzy.Towards a Poor Theatre, Methuenand Co. Ltd.1969
Marie-Jose. Du Rituel au Theatre-Rituel,EditionsL'Harmattan,1984
Hourantier,
Kelsall,Malcolm.Studying Drama. An IntroductionEdwardArnold,A divisionof Hodder
andStoughton 1989

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

41
Kestelfoot,Lilyan.Les crivains noirs de langue Franaise: naissance dune littrature,
Editionsde L'Institut
de Sociologie, UniversitLibrede Bruxelles
Plummer,Maxine. The Historyof Us, ActorBoy Awards2000, Jamaica, Wl
Shedlock, Marie L. The Artof the Story Teller, Dover PublicationsInc. 1951
Turner,Victor.From Ritual to Theatre , PAJ Publications1982
Way, Brian.Development Through Drama, Longman Group Ltd. 1967

This content downloaded from 190.108.209.7 on Wed, 28 Jan 2015 11:28:44 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions