GHS dramatists bag eight awards at regional drama festival

St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) made a strong impression at a Regional Theatre Arts Festival in Antigua and Barbuda last week, as former and current students of the Girls’ High School (GHS) theatre club snagged eight out of 11 awards.

Since their winning performance in the National secondary schools Drama Festival in 2016, the GHS decided to set their sights on the Caribbean Secondary School’s Drama Festival, which hosts the best secondary schools from different countries across the Caribbean for performances of their plays. The cast of the play ‘Cinderella Syndrome’ performed the play in Antigua, to an audience of around 300 people, twice during the course of the festival, which ran from November 25 to December 6.

They performed the play, which deals with the theme of domestic violence, wherein a woman by the name of Virginia Dubois goes crazy in the belief that she is Cinderella and that she was with her prince, who is in reality Gerard Prince, her abuser, before groups from six other countries. These countries were Trinidad and Tobago, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands and Guyana.

Despite the talent of the other countries, the group managed to stand out in the festival and also to the judges.

Director of the play Jillian Llewellyn, speaking to SEARCHLIGHT about the reaction, stated, “One of the judges said her heart hurt after she looked at our play. She said because she has such an emotional journey watching this play and she said it was nothing short of fantastic.”

Jada Ross, member of the cast who played the warden and fairy godmother and received the Best Supporting Actress award at the festival, stated, “We didn’t get any bad remarks at all. They were just telling us how they were wowed by our performance and it’s something they haven’t seen before and it was the best reenactment of the ‘Cinderella Syndrome’ that they’ve ever seen.”

Another member of the cast, Aya Kirby, also mentioned the rave response that the play got, saying, “One of the adjudicators said to us that if we would like to attend drama school, then we wouldn’t even have to audition, because of our potential and our ability that he saw.”

Zurie Adams, playing the psychiatrist, further stated that this particular judge, connoisseur of theatre arts and dean of the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts Pierre Lemaire was very positive towards their play. “He said that if he could, he would give everyone on the team an award.”

The troupe’s eight awards included Best Original Production, Best Director, Best Ensemble, Most Promising Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Acting Award and Best Overall Production, to match with the praise heard from the judges.

After over a year of preparation and some late nights, the actors were pleased at their representation of SVG. Ross stated, “Showing St Vincent, this little country. We’re showing everybody else what we’re made of.”

Their successful performance gives the girls the eligibility to perform at the Aberdeen Theatre Arts festival in Scotland next year, if they so wish, and many of them are looking forward to the opportunity to perform on a bigger, international stage.(KR)