How to Achieve Stability and Longevity as a Theatre Practitioner in T&T

In a nation where two universities are producing countless graduates in theatre and the performing arts, it is still often perceived as a fool’s errand to aspire to live off these disciplines. “I want to live off the performing arts, but I don’t know how.” is a statement we have all too many times from several young theatre practitioners. If you are one searching for those answers, the best person to get inspiration and perhaps some sort of direction from is the Legendary Ellen O’Malley- Camps (Helen Camps); The Matriarch of Theatre in Trinidad and Tobago, who will be the featured presenter at the next Monday Night Theatre Forum.

Helen Camps, as she is known within the theatre fraternity, began in theatre as an actor, adapter and script supervisor with Derek Walcott in 1967. Since then she has become a key player in the development of theatre in Trinidad and the Caribbean, being pivotal in establishing the Little Carib (Trinidad) as a theatre space with technical and administrative infrastructure; founded Teyat Toutafe (St. Lucia) and co-founded Brown Cotton Outreach Theatre (Trinidad) to name a few accomplishments. It is the Trinidad Tent Theatre which she inaugurated in 1982 however, that she is perhaps best remembered. From that company has emerged some of the longest running and commercially successful theatre practitioners in Trinidad to this date such as Raymond Choo Kong (director, producer , actor) Debra Bocaud Mason (actor, director, stage manager), Wendell Manwarren (singer, actor and Drama Director at Lilliput Children’s Theatre), the members of 3canal and Mervyn De Goeas (Director, writer and Guest Director at UTT).

Helen Camps will share her story: her trials and triumphs and process as a theatre practitioner on Monday 1^st February 2016, 7PM at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, in the fourth installment of the Monday Night Theatre Forum. Admission: FREE. Click the Calendar to Sign Up →

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The Monday Night Forum is a biweekly forum hosted by Tony Hall and Raymond Choo Kong. It is presented by Playwrights Workshop Trinbago and Raymond Choo Kong Productions in association with Trinidad Theatre Workshop and The Trinidad and Tobago Performing Arts Network.