St Vincent Grammar School back with a bang

The last time the St Vincent Grammar School performed in the NCB Schools Drama Festival was in 1992, now 14 years later the school came back with a bang and was nominated for the most awards.

With their play entitled “Ma Ma Guy” by Trinidadian playwright Freddy Kisson the students rehearsed tirelesly.{{more}}

Their hard work paid off and the young men captured the Best Set, Best Stage Management, Best Supporting Actor and the Teacher’s award for Best Actress.

President of the St Vincent Grammar schools Drama Club, Aljay Massiah said although they were having fun learning and performing the play, they approached the production scientifically where they looked at each of the four characters and tried to make their situations as real as possible.

Massiah mentioned that the club, which has been relatively active for two years with the assistance of teachers Jacqueline King and Clyde Fitz Patrick, has helped to sharpen and develop talents, which can he taken into the workforce.

The Grammar School Drama President however pointed out that some of the characters in their play were female and for this they were harshly teased and ridiculed.

Nazism Gittens was one of the performers, who received the award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for Dramatist of the Festival for his role as Rupert Stephens. He explained that his character had to dress as a woman to scheme for money and he never felt embarrassed by his performance. In fact Gittens admitted that drama has helped him to be popular with the girls.

Director and teacher at the school, Jacqueline King said that it was a pleasure working with the youngsters who confidently took on female roles. She confessed that finding clothes to fit the growing adolescent boys and finding materials to set up the stage was difficult and expressed gratitude to Monty Maule of the Container Corporation for donating cardboards to build the set, and confessed she had to raid her closet to get the costumes.

King who was an accomplished performer during her younger years at the Girls’ High School and also won the Best Actress Award at the Community Drama Festival as a member of Hairoun Theatre may have used her experience to help the youngsters.

King, who is a Modern Arts teacher at the all boys secondary school advised young people to get involved in drama, since it helps to develop well rounded individuals.

Principal Frank Jones said that he was proud of his students and grateful for the motivation and guidance given by teachers and students at the school. He noted that their participation in the NCB Schools Drama Festival has given the school a moral boost.

Jones noted that he was most proud that the drama students performed professionally despite the verbal abuse they faced when they played female roles.

Principal Jones said that he was disturbed by the cruel bigotry taunts his students faced from other schools but was impressed by how they handled it with grace.

He boasted that this proved that the young men at the St Vincent Grammar School were not only the most academically intelligent boys of their age group, but were also most competent at excelling at the arts.