The Monday Night Theatre Forum with hosts Raymond Choo Kong and Tony Hall welcomes Trinidad-born actress, dancer, educator, scholar, and published author Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy on April 24 at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop.
Currently a Professor of Adolescent/Adult Literacy at Kent State University, Kilgour Dowdy is a former student of Holy Name Convent and the Caribbean School of Dance. She was first introduced to local audiences through the popular Twelve and Under talent program and worked with Banyan Television Workshop while in high school.
She left Trinidad in 1982 to go to the United States, where she studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music, Dance, and Theater and privately with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, before moving on to pursue classical theatre at the prestigious Julliard School in New York from 1983 to 1987.
Kilgour was one of the founding members of Trinidad and Tobago Television Workshop, later known as Banyan TV, where she was a part of groundbreaking work which tried to tell Caribbean audiences their own stories in native voices.
As a professor, her major research interests include documenting the experiences of black women involved in education from adult basic literacy to higher education. She has written or edited twelve books which span the topics of education, dance, drama, feminism, and culture, including a children’s book about her father, deceased Olympian Lennox Kilgour, who won the Bronze Medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. The Julliard alum is also still heavily involved in dance, theatre and film.
The Monday Night Theatre Forum provides a free and open opportunity to engage in discussions with Joanne Kilgour Dowdy who will be in Trinidad for a brief period. The forum is presented by Playwrights Workshop Trinbago, Raymond Choo Kong Productions, Trinidad Theatre Workshop, Trinidad and Tobago Performing Arts Network, Digital Film Institute and Trinity in Trinidad Global Learning Site.
The Monday Night Theatre Forum takes place at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, Corner Jerningham Avenue and Norfolk Street, Belmont,on Monday 24th April, beginning at 7 pm. For more information, call 351-6293 or visit: http://www.facebook.com/mondaynighttheatreforum.
The Trinidad and Tobago Performing Arts Network 