Theatre moves to the backyard
If you don’t have any special plans for this weekend, permit us to suggest something a little bit different on Friday night. While it may not put happy hour out of business, the Belize Arts Council in conjunction with the National Theatre Company will be putting on a production that you may want to check out.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Since the play “Run For U Wife” three years ago, the National Theatre Company has not produced a show, until today that is. Presently the company has been rehearsing for its latest performance. Although the Bliss Institute, the theatre’s headquarters, has been closed due to renovations, the company has gone ahead and built a stage at their temporary location at forty-seven Regent Street.
Curtis Gillett, Drama Coordinator, Belize Arts Council
“In terms of putting off a theatre production, it’s a lot of work that goes into it. Unfortunately, a lot of the other members of the company have regular jobs, so it’s not as though they can really take on a project as something full time. As drama coordinator, such duties fall on my desk. So for a while when I wasn’t here, the theatre company was trying very hard to put several shows on, but due to the fact that people have their jobs to do, it’s a bit difficult.”
“This is the first of many events that will happen. We want to do, at least once or twice a month, do a night of comedy and we will also be bringing in children’s shows and as you can see, we are seated under a mango tree, so we’ll also have story time under the mango tree. And it’s just little things that we want to do bring Belizeans back to live theatre to keep the theatre company from falling asleep. Three, we are just trying different things, we want to really bring back theatre, and as I said earlier, we can’t wait for the Bliss to be complete for us to start on what we want to do.”
The skit is entitled “Proxy Father” and it deals with one problem that many married couples experience.
Curtis Gillett
“It’s with a married couple that’s expecting someone to come and do some work for them and unknown to the wife, a stranger shows up at the door and she feels that this stranger is the man who is here to do the work for them, and there is this mix up with each other’s plans and what they are trying to get across. I really don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, so I’ll just leave it at that for now.”
“Proxy Father” will not be the only antic in the backyard.
Curtis Gillett
“The night will also include some rapping by Leroy “Grandmaster” Young. Bev Smith Lopez will do a short one piece by herself. Bev and I will be your emcees for the evening and our featured artist will be Dr. Alvaro Rosado and Mr. Carlos Perdomo. They have agreed to come in and do some stand-up comedy for us also.”
“This is not your fly by night show, this is a show that even though we have only been working on it for a month, a lot of work has gone into this show. Expect to see the type of professionalism that you’ve always seen from the theatre company, new, funny, smart ideas from the company. It’s a whole new idea, a whole new concept, it’s a happy hour, so what we are trying to do also, is we want to…I am begging you all, don’t go to the Radisson, come here, happy hour will be here Friday evening.”
Beverly Smith Lopez, Director of Belize Arts Council says the time for a new show is long overdue and come Friday night there will be something for everyone.
Beverly Smith Lopez
“We have been living with this for a long time that there is a need for us to bring back the theatre. Even when we have not been able to produce a show, we have been meeting, trying to read and do other little things, to keep the survival of the company going. What it going to happen here is indeed wonderful, an effort that all of us will have to make to make sure that it works. One of the messages that I want to send forth, however, is that yes, this is going to be theatre and it’s going to be a very Belizean theatre, but it’s not going to be a political bashing that a lot of people feel. They keep saying, “Oh you’re going to knock them down, you’re going to give them hell.” Yes, we are going to give everybody their fair share, but it’s not going to target one group; it’s going to target a society. And so the play that we chose and the productions that we are going to do, starting with “antics” is going to be where we invite people to come, have fun, release the stress of what is happening in this community, release the stress of what is happening in your day-to-day jobs. A Friday evening is to let it all out and come and have fun, hear “antics”, hear jokes and truthfully, we have people who are excellent comedians who we need to provide an opportunity to share all the jokes they know with other people. So we are going to have a fun. We are going to have clean family entertainment and we are going to make sure that everybody gets their fair share. We are not going to target one set of people in this community, it’s going to be a social commentary.”
Antics in the backyard get underway from 6:00 on Friday evening. There will be a cover charge of five dollars and snacks will also be on sale.
