Desperadoes Pan Theatre: Not just a home, centre for business

WHAT will steelpan mean to TT in the future?

The movement continues to evolve, with the UN declaring August 11 World Steelpan Day, and the instrument continually gaining more recognition worldwide.

But in the future, will it simply continue to be an ambassador for the nation’s culture, symbolising its creativity and tenacity of its people, or can it be something more?

West Indian Tobacco Co (WITCO) chairman Ingrid Lashley addressed the issue when she spoke at the National Entrepreneurship Development Company Ltd’s national spotlight on its training and business advisory services on Monday.

She believes steelpan will be more than just a national instrument and that panmen and panwomen will be more than just cultural ambassadors. She said pan can and will be a local and foreign revenue-earner, contributing not just to the nation’s pride but to its GDP.

Ingrid said the future will begin with the government’s investment in the Desperadoes’ Pan Theatre on George Street. The theatre can be more than just a home for the 12-time Panorama champions, or a business hub, but also the nexus where steelpan, as a cultural symbol, a domestic and foreign revenue-earner and a tool for the growth and development of TT’s youth can intertwine.

She also said the business model behind Desperadoes and the pan theatre could be the way steelbands do their own business in the future.

Witco signed a memorandum of understanding at the Hyatt on Monday with Nedco to collaborate on an MSME capacity-building programme which will offer training to panmen and women who use the national instrument, which, she said, will help them evolve from cultural representatives to revenue-earners who will develop the steelpan industry of the future.

“We will partner in training to include introduction and understanding of entrepreneurship, facilities management, public relations and social media management,” she said. “With new exposure in these areas members of Desperadoes will elevate themselves from cultural legends to economic, revenue-generating, foreign exchange-earning titans.

“It is anticipated that this programme will serve as a blueprint for the genesis of the steel orchestra as a viable economic unit,” she added. “Over time, Desperadoes is expected to grow into a sustainable business enterprise, sharing the space with other steel orchestras so that a network of steelpan-based business partners will emerge.”

She highlighted the possibilities of the pan theatre being so close to the National Carnival Museum as well as the Renegades and All Stars panyards, saying that this could attract domestic and international tourists, particularly the cruise ship tourists who land in Port of Spain and want to learn about TT’s culture close to their ships.

“ It is indeed an authentic cultural experience, from the sights and sounds, to the gift shops, to maybe a world-class steelpan museum.

"Imagine the calendar of activities that can be promoted at this location. Desperadoes can take a leading position in this strategic growth to contribute to this country’s economic development and the elevation of every single citizen.”

Lashley said steelpan’s future lies in developing it at its home, in Laventille and east Port of Spain. She said that the embodiment of pan will remain there in spaces like the Desperadoes pan theatre.

“In the future, when generations to come continue to capture the story of the steelpan, we, as the present custodians of this national treasure, will be viewed as doing justice to the genius of its pioneers. We would have graciously revered the first melody pan creator, Winston "Spree" Simon, pan innovator, Ellie Mannette, rocket pan creator Rudolph 'the man with the hammer' Charles," she said, in a reference to the Desperadoes' leader immortalied by David Rudder in his calypso The Hammer.

"The story of the steelpan," she argued, "started in Laventille and East Port of Spain. It is here its story must continue to evolve.”