Day 229 - Theatre in Barbados

When Alex arrived in Barbados, we weren't sure just what he was going to do. He had been in touch with Cable and Wireless which provided telecommunications service in many of the Caribbean countries. They couldn't offer more than the names of people at the Barbados Telephone Company, but that was a starting point.

But things don't move quickly in Barbados. Eventually the contacts developed into a short-term contract, 18 months later. In the meantime, amateur theatre groups came to Alex's rescue.

Winston Farrell

The first opportunity was Heartbeat, a play by Winston Farrell, an award-winning poet and playright from Barbados. Alex saw an ad in the newspaper announcing a call for auditions for the play, so we went to find out what the theatre scene in Barbados was like. We were the only strangers there. Everyone else knew one another, but we should have expected that. Winston was in charge. There were no auditions. Winston made the assignments. He agreed that Alex could help with the set.

The play ran for several weeks. At the end of the last performance, Winston invited Alex to come up to the the front of the stage after the standing ovation. He thanked Alex for his contributions and announced to the audience that Barbados had much to look forward to with Alex now part of the theatre community.

That felt very good. But we were disappointed that there was no gathering after the play closed, like those that followed the end of each of the Doha Players productions.

Before Heartbeat closed, Alex began working with many of the same group on another play written by Winston, Glass Heaven. The timing of this play was not the best as there were several other plays being performed at the same time. Attendance was low. But Alex's involvement in the theatre community was now firm. And Winston became one of our good friends on Barbados. I loved the fact that I could never predict how Winston would respond to events around us. He kept me on my toes, making sure I never fell into assumptions.

From that point on, Alex was involved in building sets for the Soroptomist Society, the Canadian Women's Club, and many other amateur groups. Àlong the way, he met Ricky who joined him as set builder. They built sets for comedies and dramas. They were known for building sets where nothing moved unless it was supposed to move. At one production where the banister on the stairs at the center of the stage shook when the actor held it while walking down the four steps, a whisper made its way from one end of the row to where we sat, "I asume Alex did not build this one."

Image of Miss Teen Worldwide
Caribbean, a beauty pageant,
by LuisVallecillo, via Flickr.com

One of the final sets Alex and Ricky built was for the 1990 Miss Barbados Pageant. There were multiple sets required because of the many entertainment pieces in the show. It wasn't just the contestants who performed to demonstrate their talent. A number of performers and a choreographer were hired, and there were multiple rehearsals.

The pageant was scheduled for a Saturday night at one of the nightclubs that specialized in big shows for the tourists. The Miss Barbados crew couldn't get access to the stage until 11 p.m. Friday after the final nightclub show. The vision of the three women who organized the pageant was greater than their budget which placed some serious roadblocks in pulling the show together. Ricky, Alex, Ricky's wife, and I had to transport all the props and the sets from our carport where they built them to the nightclub's stage. But the organizers hadn't provided the cash to complete the sets. In addition, the stage needed to be available in the morning and afternoon for the dress rehearsals.

In addition to the cashflow challenges, the choreographer was murdered, bludgeoned to death in the back of a taxi, a month before the show. On the day before the pageant, the dancers hadn't been paid and were threatening not to perform. Alex and Ricky had the curtain done, but there was no way to hang it on the rail. The organizers were so distracted by other issues that they never provided either funds or a solution which meant Alex and Ricky had to come up with solution that didn't cost money - just time. We ended up wrapping the curtain to the rod with wire, trying to keep it loose enough to be able to drag the curtain open and closed without resistance.

By the time the pageant began, Alex and Ricky had been up 36 hours. Ricky's wife and I had each had some rest, but we had many hours to go.

We were the backstage crew, responsible for changing the sets, getting the right props out at the right time, and the getting them put away once they were not needed. And, of course, we had to open and close the curtain. In typical backstage tradition, we wore all black to minimize the possibility of being seen while we moved around on the stage. At one point, however, I was stuck on stage, having opened one half of the curtain just before the lights came up, leaving me without enough time to get across the stage. I was stuck, wrapped up in the curtain at the corner of the stage in front of the dancers.

Once the pageant was over, we had to get everything off the stage and the premises so the stage could be turned back over to the nightclub. We finished about 4 a.m., after being up 44 straight hours. We could finally sit down, relax and have something to eat and drink. Things had gone so wrong, all we could do was sit and laugh.