Chair of the Planning Committee and Artistic Director of the Baobob Festival, Winston Farrell, speaking with The Barbados Advocate recently, on the sidelines of the cultural arts lecture, at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed.
Some of the theatre arts students who came out to hear Rawle Gibbons speaking on ‘The Notion of Identity in the Creation of a National Theatre’, recently at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed.
Mecca for Theatre Arts
BARBADOS has the potential to become the ‘Mecca’ for theatre arts, just as it already is for cricket, and via this, the potential to drive the growth of the tourism sector by offering a new product for visitors to enjoy in this island.
This is coming from Chair of the Planning Committee and Artistic Director of the Baobob Festival, Winston Farrell, who spoke with The Barbados Advocate recently, on the sidelines of the cultural arts lecture at the Queen’s Park Steel Shed.
“We believe that this festival has the potential to grow to a world festival. We believe that through time and hard work, that people would come to Barbados to see plays. Just as we are the ‘Mecca’ of cricket, we can become the ‘Mecca’ of theatre... It is possible for this festival to become not just a showcase for Barbados, [but] a showcase for the world, the Eastern Caribbean and beyond.”
He said that they are already on the right track, as they had visitors who came to this island last week just to see the play, ‘Death of a Barber’ ,and this is a path that they are would like to continue on.
“The festival is about using the arts as a platform to showcase a number of issues, and to celebrate and to use the festival as a vehicle of which we can see tourists coming to Barbados to see plays.
“We would have it in the off season, so that it can be one of those things that people would want to come to Barbados from other islands to see two plays in one weekend, or if they are coming from a longer distance, to spend a week in Barbados, see a couple of plays and enjoy Barbados. So it is tourism product as much as it is a product designed for the local consumption.”
The festival, which is named after the African tree which has strong roots, is one of the oldest trees in the island, and is one that is strong and beautiful, and its location in Queen’s Park, near the theatre, are the main reasons why this festival was named after this tree, said Farrell.
He said that the 10-day festival is an Afro-Caribbean Theatre Festival showcasing the work of local, regional and international artists. There are a number of components that are in the works for the future, such as a community outreach, where they would like to do some theatre and performing arts at the national level, with schools and community groups.
Other components are to have the performing arts touring company at the time give back by sharing their knowledge and skills, and networking outside of the showcase of the plays; an academic component, where they hope to get the co-operation of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, which would include round table discussions and seminars on Barbadian and Caribbean theatre, and continuing the lecture series.
This inaugural festival concludes this weekend with the showcasing of a play written by Farrell, called ‘House of Landship,’ which was produced for the folk concert in 2013, and which represented Barbados at Carifesta in Suriname. This play received the Villa De’ Paris prize for the best non-Francophone play in 2013.
Three icons in theatre arts would also be presented with lifetime achievement awards for their contributions. These three individuals are Andrea Gollop-Greenidge; Anthony Hinkson and the Barbados Landship.