2010 Ministry of Culture Drama Festival climaxes

The curtains came down on the 2010 Ministry of Culture Drama Festival on Wednesday, December 1, with an awards ceremony held at the Peace Memorial Hall.{{more}}

A total of 15 schools took part in this year’s festival.

Kemulus Boyea of the Petit Bordel Secondary and Shaze Yammie of the St. Joseph’s Convent Kingstown were adjudged the Best Lead Actor and Best Lead Actress of the festival, respectively. Boyea was also adjudged dramatist of the festival.

Other actors and actresses were presented with trophies.

The Campden Park Secondary had much to smile about, as they received the judges’ nod for delivering the Best Production, with their play entitled “Behind the dark cloud”.

Campden Park Secondary walked away with two other awards, including Best Set Design and Best Director. Best Costume and Best Make-up went to the St.Joseph’s Convent Kingstown.

The Girls’ High School copped two awards: Best Stage Management and Best Supporting Actress, which went to Kwhan Lewis.

Rounding off the awards, the West St. George Secondary took home the award for Best Original Play, while the St. Vincent Grammar School received the Best Supporting Actor award, which went to Adrian Constance.

Minister of Culture René Baptiste congratulated the students for staging “some wonderful” productions. She underscored the importance of dramatists taking their craft seriously. The Culture Minister said she has seen good actors and actresses in the making and the time has come for this country to have weekly drama episodes on television.

Baptiste said she is appreciative of the partnership between her ministry and the Ministry of Education towards developing a national policy in relation to the visual and creative arts in schools.

The Minister of Culture urged the students to move away from the contemporary and comedy plays and start focusing on more serious productions.

“I notice over the years we have focused on contemporary and comedy. It would be excellent to do some serious drama. We need versatility,” she mentioned.

Highlighting the need for development in the arts among young people, Baptiste disclosed that a contingent will be coming from Venezuela and Cuba to St.Vincent and the Grenadines to do an assessment of film, audio, visual arts and cinematography. “There will be opportunities for script writers, set designers and directors, but we first have to develop the young people and show our versatility,” she said.

The Ministry of Education’s representative, Marla Nanton, applauded the organizers for putting on an event of high quality. Nanton said programmes such as the festival continue to highlight the talent that exists in the schools.

“These actors demonstrated skills and dexterity deserving of merit,” Nanton said.

Adjudicator of the festival, Angus Martin, congratulated the students for demonstrating their talent, even though it was the first time on stage for most of them.

Martin commended the students for bringing several original plays to the festival and for improving the set design and make-up.

However, Martin noted that there is still room for improvement in the areas of costume and acting. He encouraged students to keep up the good work and build confidence in their craft.

The other schools that participated in the festival were: Bishop’s College Kingstown, Troumaca Secondary School, St. Martin’s Secondary, North Union Secondary, Thomas Saunders Secondary, George Stephens Secondary, Adelphi Secondary and the J.P. Eustace Memorial Secondary School.