Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson is pictured, centre, with stakeholders and representative members of the “TEAM BAHAMAS” artistic delegation traveling to the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival. Among those pictured with Minister Johnson are Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Sheila Carey, fifth left, and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism Harrison Thompson, fourth left. (BIS Photo/Eric Rose)

In a bid to “jump-start the Bahamian music industry in international markets,” a delegation of more than 40 Bahamian musicians and entertainers will participate in the Annual Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Exchange at the 2016 Meet In Beijing Arts Festival, a major artistic gathering.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson presented members of the “TEAM BAHAMAS” artistic delegation Tuesday at the Office of the Prime Minister; the group travels to Beijing April 27.

In her statement Director of Culture Rowena Poitier said: “The Bahamas is pleased to have been invited to take part in the 2016 Latin American and Caribbean Cultural exchange in China. I am informed that this year will be one of the biggest exchange programs in China, ever, with over 30 Latin American and Caribbean nations taking part. Special thanks to our new ambassador to China, Paul 'Andy' Gomez, and the team at the Embassy in Beijing, for all of their efforts in pushing this initiative forward.

“China is indeed one of the largest cultural and entertainment markets in the world. As we work to develop the Prime Minister's new and exciting vision to push the Bahamas' creative and cultural industry, a market like China will be key. Music is one of the most powerful and transformative mediums in cultures, universally. China has a population of more than 1.3 billion people, so we view this as an amazing opportunity to jumpstart the Bahamian music industry in international markets.

“We are proud to announce that two Bahamian bands, Visage and Ting Um Dem, along with Fred Munnings Jr., Julien Believe and the Goombay Dancers, have been identified by the Bahamas Embassy in China to represent Bahamian music and culture, to the world.”

The Bahamian group will perform at the Food Festival at the JW Marriott Hotel on April 30th, then at the "798 ART ZONE," a cultural hub that caters to thousands of people daily and features art galleries, museums, cinemas, culinary arts, theatre, open forums and exchanges – on May 1 and 2.

The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture partners with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration and the Ministry of Tourism in this major cultural drive. It also partners with FOCOL and its Chairman Sir Franklyn Wilson; Equity Bank and Trust and its Vice-Chair Mrs. Ivylyn Cassar; and The Palm Cigars and its President Mr. Robin Nichols towards its success.

The delegation is scheduled to leave Beijing on May 3rd.

Source: Bahamas Information Services

From left are Aulenna Robinson, Rossano Deal, Matthew Kelly, Sean Nottage, Julia Chatwin and Nicole Fair Bhatti performing a scene in the first act of the play "Clybourne Park", which is now on at the Dundas. (Photo: Kelsey Nottage)

Award-winning filmmaker Kareem Mortimer mixed things up this week, when he opened "Clybourne Park" at The Dundas Centre for Performing Arts. A novice to theatre directing, Mortimer is known for specializing in films that confront issues like racism, homophobia and xenophobia.

Mortimer was part of the cast of "Twelve Angry Men" when it was performed at The Dundas in 2014. Before that, his experience in theatre was limited to writing and performing in high school productions.

"Growing up in The Bahamas, there were no filmmakers I could look up to, like a mentor," recalled Mortimer. "So plays were the natural thing to gravitate toward."

Feeling that it would be well received and a good cultural fit, Mortimer developed an interest in directing "Clybourne Park" at The Dundas.

Written in 2010 by Bruce Norris, "Clybourne Park" is a spinoff of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun". The first half of the play, a drama, is set in 1959, the year "A Raisin in the Sun" was written, when a couple in a middle class Chicago neighborhood (Clybourne Park) is planning to sell the family home to a black family.

This is met with protest and attempts to prevent the imminent integration. The second half of the play, a comedy, is set 50 years later, in 2009. By that time, Clybourne Park has become an all-black neighborhood, which is moving through gentrification. The exchanges among the interracial cast are awkward and comical, revolving around race, "political correctness" and prejudice.

Mortimer approached Philip Burrows, artistic director of Ringplay Productions (the theatre company that manages The Dundas) with his proposal, feeling that directing a theatre production could challenge him professionally. With Burrows' support, he moved full steam ahead. "Clybourne Park" opened on Thursday, April 14 with a cast of seven.

"It's been a huge learning experience for me because it's so different," said Mortimer. "In a film, you control the frame. You set exactly what the audience sees. You can shift someone's performance because you can edit the scene. So, as a director, you're dictating the information that's going to be received. But, in a play, the actor is totally in control. The whole stage is a palette, so you can have all these different experiences."

Among those experiences are opportunities to think and talk about race in ways that are often avoided out of social etiquette. Understanding that it is by confronting this discomfort that meaningful progress is made, Mortimer has shown bravery and boldness with his film - and now theatre - direction.

"There are things that people think but they don't say about race or history, and they get to express that in the play. There are a lot of moments where you can't believe the character just said that," he said.

This year is a full one for the director. Having written an original play, titled "About Death", the odds of Mortimer coming back to theatre look good. He will also be returning his focus to filmmaking with hopes of premiering his latest work, a feature film called "Cargo" in late 2016 or early 2017.

Tickets for "Clybourne Park" are on sale for $30 each at The Dundas. It will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight at The Dundas and next week Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the same time. Student tickets are on sale for $15 for the Thursday evening performance. For more information, contact The Dundas at 393-3728.

India Sweeting, who plays Betty Rizzo and Dominic Rollins, who plays Kenickie during one of their final dress rehearsals prior to Queen's College's staging of "Grease" April 14-16 at the Geoffrey Brown Auditorium at Q.C. (Photos: Queen's College)

It's been a little over five months in the making, but now the students at Queen's College (QC) are prepared to bring a romantic cult hit to the Bahamian stage -- "Grease". Their performance comes coincidentally on the heels of the January Fox televised adaptation of the 1971 musical, which was also made into a movie in 1978 and starred John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing.

In "Grease" good girl Sandy Olson to be played by Asha Collie and greaser (hood) Danny Zuko to be played by Kristian Rolle meet and fall in love over the summer of 1959. They never expect to see each other again. When it comes time to return to high school in the fall, however, they find themselves both attending Rydell High where they travel in two different worlds -- Sandy is a clean cut preppie from Australia, while Danny is a black-jacket greaser and leader of the local T-Bird gang. When Danny rebuffs Sandy in front of his friends in order to maintain his "coolness," Sandy storms off in tears and chooses to hang with the Pink Ladies, a group of pink-wearing girls led by Betty Rizzo played by India Sweeting. But it soon becomes apparent that Sandy and Danny are still in love -- and love always finds a way.

"The kids have been rehearsing since October when we held our first auditions and decided that we would do 'Grease,'" said Gregory Deane, head of the modern languages department at QC who is also a school alumnus, a veteran of the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts stage, and the play's director.

"Grease which came out in the 70s still has a huge appeal to people, especially after the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John movie, and then again with the re-release of the live production back in January."

He said the family event would make for a fantastic night out, as everybody knows the music.

The students in the production have the chops. Asha was previously a national children's choir member and has a voice on her, and she is against Kristian, who is not the typical long-haired white guy you would expect to play Danny, but has a really nice voice.

India is a dancer and talented singer and it shows in her portrayal of Rizzo; while Dominic Rollins who plays Kenickie brings the energy to not only his role, but the entire cast -- so much so that any rehearsal he's missed, Deane said the rest of the cast miss him tremendously.

In the staging of "Grease" QC will have almost 75 students taking to the stage, with as many working backstage to ensure the audience receives the full 1950s immersion.

"We've gone out of our way to ensure that most of the costuming is in line with the 50s. I recently went away and purchased a number of props and costumes for the production. High production value is what I'm going for, so we want to remain as true to the original production as we possibly can," he said.

The members of the black-jacket T-Bird gang

Educational experience

At QC they believe in catering to a wide cross-section of young people. As a fully comprehensive school operating under the Bahamas Conference of the Methodist Church, their interest lies not only in academic excellence, but also in raising well-rounded, courteous, spiritually grounded global citizens. To that end, the school affords students the opportunity to participate in a number of activities and clubs, one of the most popular being the productions it stages under their Broadway Over Queen's banner.

Shawn Turnquest, QC vice principal and head of school expressed pride in her school's performing arts program.

"We have a number of teachers who love and are interested in the performing arts, and we have a number of students who thrive on the performing arts and love performing. Every two years we've done something, and 'Grease' will be the second full production we've done -- the first was 'Guys and Dolls.'"

She said their students visit Europe every two years, and every time they go through London, that Deane ensures that they go to the theater. The music department she said takes students to either Atlanta or New York annually. Last year in Atlanta the students saw Disney's "Newsies" a musical, and on another trip caught "The Lion King."

"Our desire is to expose students to theater, and because so many of them cannot travel, we want to bring the theater to them," said Turnquest.

She said the school's auditorium will be turned into a theater for the staging of "Grease" and that she hopes theater-goers get into the spirit of the event and attend decked out in their poodle skirt, tennis shoes and bobby socks, which they are encouraging.

The 50s theme will not only be on stage, but will be carried throughout the event as the ushers, refreshment servers and ticket takers will all be clad in 50s inspired clothing.

"It's going to be a great time," said Turnquest.

"Grease" will be QC's first production since it staged "Guys and Dolls" in 2014. Before that they had two Broadway revues -- "Broadway Over Queens I" in 2010 and "Broadway Over Queens II" in 2011 -- which were a mish mash of melodies and excerpts from different musicals.

Deane himself recalls that as a student at the institution he participated in productions such as "Oliver", "Guys and Dolls", "Fiddler on The Roof", and "Oklahoma" in the late 70s and early 80s before the school took a hiatus.

Having taken to the stage himself he said the value of the experience is almost immeasurable to the children, and is important in the education process.

"You can't really put a value on the worth of the experience," he said. "If nothing else the kids will remember their participation in a high school musical. We've always encouraged students to pursue performing arts, dramatic arts and visual arts."

In recent years QC students have received a number of awards in the National Arts Festival -- whether they acted, sang or engaged in choral performance.

The modern languages department head also makes it a point to expose his students to the theater as much as possible. Whenever he takes students abroad to Europe, a musical in London is always on the agenda. He said the music department also makes a point to take students to either New York where musicals on Broadway are also on the agenda. They recently went to see jazz musician Wynton Marsalis perform and took in the "Phantom of the Opera". In 2000 they took in the production of "Grease" in London's West End.

Fine tuning

With a week to the first official curtain call on "Grease," Deane said they are simply fine-tuning and dragging the children out of class, much to the reluctance of some of their teachers who are trying to get them ready for exams. With the countdown on, the children are excited about the upcoming performance.

"Once they get that audience in front of them, it's going to be a phenomenal performance -- that whole performer/audience sort of vibe is going to just make the performance that much better."

And while QC has paid out a pretty penny in staging productions of this nature, and Deane owning up to his taste tending to run over what the budget says they can afford, he sees the money spent as an investment in the children. He says it's an investment that pays back in ways that can't be measured  financially.

"We do ultimately hope to make a profit that we can reinvest into our performing arts program and into the school itself in some way, but we spend, and then realize we could have cut a corner here or there, but overall in terms of the high production value, and the want on our part to immerse the theater-goer in the experience, then we're going to spend what we need."

The Broadway Over Queen's showcase of "Grease" will take place April 14-16 at The Geoffrey Brown Auditorium at QC with 7:30 p.m. shows and a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are $15 adults, $10 students and $8 matinee for children under 12. The box office is at the school, where they can be contacted at 677-7600.

Dana Wallace will play the role of the very annoying Patti.

Shavaughn Moss

Guardian Lifestyle Editor

The Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) is looking for craft and food vendors for this year’s Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival in Nassau. Vendor applications are now available at the BNFC’s head office located on the 4th floor of the BAF Financial Centre on George Street and Navy Lion Road.

Booths are available from May 5-7 in Da Cultural Village at Western Esplanade and May 6 at Clifford Park for the Music Masters finals and mega concert. The fee for booth space for craft merchants is $300 and $450 for food vendors. The deadline to apply is April 8th.

The number of vendors in each category of craft and food vending will be limited in order to provide greater diversity and variety to the festival’s offerings. All vendors are required to provide proof of VAT registration. Food vendors must have a food handlers certificate, valid health certificate and an occasional business license.

Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival is a great opportunity for small businesses to promote themselves, their services and products. Like last year, a large turnout is anticipated. BNFC is encouraging interested and qualified vendors to apply as soon as possible.

“The vendors are important to the festival because they give our guests, local and international, a taste of our islands. Whether it a taste of Abaco or Long Island, all of our islands are represented. We get a chance to show off our arts and crafts and are able to sell these to our visitors so people from all around the world and all walks of life can carry a piece of the Bahamas with them wherever they go. It is important for our vendors to be there to help stimulate our local economy,” said Adrian Thompson, BNFC Events and Logistics Manager.

In addition to craft exhibitors and food vendors, the exciting three-day event will include live music, games and activities for all ages, cultural demonstrations, and much more.

Interested vendors can contact the main BNFC office at 356-2100 for more information.