Veteran actor: Invest more in the arts

Albert Laveau
Albert Laveau

Albert Laveau, artistic and managing director of the Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW), on Wednesday called on Community Development, Culture and the Arts Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to put more money into the arts.

The TTW was scheduled to host a conversation on 60 years of regional theatre as part of Carifesta, but it was eventually cancelled because no one showed up for the event.

In an interview with Newsday at the TTW on Newbold Street, St Clair, Laveau said the arts were needed to keep the younger generation from a life of crime.

Laveau said without the arts, citizens might as well get a green card to a different country.

“I am seeing more young people approaching the arts to express themselves. I think the arts, the theatre, all the arts and crafts, is one of the things that is going to help out Mr Gary Griffith with the crime issue in this country.

“You have to write off this generation of criminals and you have to look at the next set that are waiting to take their place.

“Those are the people who we are looking for in the theatre. I would say if the arts was not here, the country could have been worse off.”

Laveau also encouraged other producers to stop working in silos, but to work together in building the art form.

Asked if he thought the work done in the theatre was recognised, Laveau said there was no fixed facility in which the art form could be held or seen. “Not the work in the theatre but the plays, the actors – there is no professional theatre here in TT. I am still trying to get a space to do a 100-seat theatre, and that is challenging, because Trinidad is all about Carnival. We don’t have a tradition in theatre. Theatre is an imitation of Europe and America and so on. It is not indigenous to us. All the books in drama come from abroad. Everything.

“I am saying it is worthwhile, but you must understand the reality that surrounds it.”

Laveau said once places were dedicated to the staging of theatre, there would be more plays and people would start to write for the industry. He said over the years there has been a lot of progress because the workshop had been training people.

“I have seen some actors out there who can equip and sell themselves properly. We had Winston Duke (star of the film Black Panther): he was trained with us and he was also introduced to some of our productions.

“But there is a lot of space outside TT, which includes America and England, for Trinidadian actors. You will be surprised, but outsiders do have respect for you when you say you are from Trinidad.”

He encouraged young actors to be themselves and not to impersonate someone else in the industry.

Laveau said foreigners admire Trinidadians’ intelligence and love for the art form.

The Trinidad Theatre Workshop was founded by the late Nobel laureate Derek Walcott in 1959.

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