On festivals, exposure, training, industry

Philip and I were recently in Europe. First we were in London; then we were in Prague, where the Prague Shakespeare Company is running their Summer Shakespeare Intensive. On the weekend, seven Bahamians were present at that intensive.

When we started Shakespeare in Paradise, we had some goals. We hadn’t refined them into mission, vision, etc: we just had a page-long blurb that outlined what we wanted to do with the festival, why we were starting it, and so on. (You can read a pared-down version here, on our SiP page.)

For the first ten years, our goals were part determinations, part dreams. But this summer, two separate Shakespeare companies in two different places invited Philip and me to talk to them about this: Shakespeare’s Globe was one, and the Prague Shakespeare Company is the other. And both talks went well. We were left with the impression that we are doing something remarkable. So to explore that, to mine that possibility, I’m trying to write down what we have talked about.

When we started our festival, these were our goals:

Celebrate and develop Bahamian theatre: We wanted to honour Bahamian theatre, to encourage younger playwrights to be inspired by and build on the giants of the past.
Educate and expose performers and audiences: We wanted to expose Bahamian audiences to a wide range of theatre from around the world, from Shakespeare to Saunders.
Develop the theatre community: We wanted to give people in the community who have talent and passion the opportunity to hone their skills and develop their craft.
Create a theatre industry: We wanted to make it possible for young Bahamians who want to go into theatre to not have to leave the country to do so. We wanted to make it possible for young Bahamians to make a living from theatre at home.

So where are we now? How are we doing?

Celebration of Bahamian Theatre

This happens almost every festival. We present classic Bahamian works in revival, we offer premieres of new Bahamian work, and what’s more, we place these plays side by side with our works of Shakespeare. We’ve called ourselves Shakespeare in Paradise, yes, but we are critical both of the Shakespeare part of the equation and the idea of Paradise. Neither of these things is neutral in our country, and we have tried to tackle them head-on. We want to give our audiences something to think about. We want to inspire them by showing them the great works of the past, and we want to give them the opportunity to understand that while the works of Shakespeare can be deeply tragic and great fun, we also have Bahamian work that can stand beside those plays, and we design our festivals to let audiences know.

Earl Francis and Dominick Stubbs in 2023’s production of *Mr Speaker* by Pat Rahming (YOBT, August 2023)

Beyond that, though, for anyone who was around in 2023, you’ll know that we chose to produce thirteen plays by different Bahamian playwrights, celebrating the depth and breadth of Bahamian theatre over the past fifty years. This is important, we believe, because younger Bahamian performers should be aware of what went before understanding (a) what their heritage is and the tradition in which they are creating; and (b) what standards have been set already in our theatrical history, so that they can aim to meet and surpass those standards. Our Year of Bahamian Theatre presented sixteen plays by fifteen authors over thirteen months.

Training and Exposure

At first, the training was 100% hands-on. People in The Bahamas learn theatre as they go. We don’t have drama classes pretty well anywhere super accessible: there’s virtually no formal drama education in most schools, and very little drama education at the university level. People are introduced to theatre in church through cantatas and pageants mostly, and we fly by the seats of our pants. Two non-profits keep theatre alive in the country and offer people who want to go on stage the opportunity to do so: the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts in Nassau, and the Regency Theatre in Freeport.

So when we presented what we do and how we do it to our friends in the UK and Czechia, we indicated that part of our philosophy is training is by doing. To train by doing requires high standards. The other thing that helps us in Shakespeare in Paradise and in our parent company, Ringplay Productions, is the principle of shared responsibility. Anything that goes up under our name has to meet our standards, and that means that more than one person has to look at our productions. Every show we do is watched in the last week of rehearsal by more than one person on our executive, and any of those viewers has the responsibility of giving the cast and the director feedback to make the vision better.

That works really well for contemporary theatre of most kinds, and particularly for developing new Bahamian works. In particular, Philip Burrows keeps current with trends and ideas in global theatre by travelling to see shows all around the world. This year, in the UK, we saw two shows at the Globe, several others in the West End, others on the South Bank, and we watched them critically. Not everything we see abroad is great; although the acting and performances are always of a very high standard, the productions can leave some things to be desired. Some plays are over-produced for our taste; some are gimmicky, some are too concept-driven to serve the stories they’re telling. But some things are enviably great, and we come home inspired by those. (One of the trends we liked this year was a tendency to use dance prologues and dance curtain calls, particularly in Shakespeare productions … you might see that appearing in what we do sooner or later.) We love the fact that scenes are changed without ever going to black, keeping the movement going, never having anyone have to look away from the stage. You may see that in one or two productions coming up as well. You may have guessed it: This is the exposure part of the equation.

But what about training? Training by doing works well for a lot of contemporary work, as I said, but it reaches its limit when we’re dealing with classical theatre like Shakespeare or others. For one thing, the language is challenging, and it can be a barrier for performers and actors alike. We have long felt that our Shakespeare offerings are the least polished of our repertoire. So! Let’s talk about what we were doing in Prague.

Summer Shakespeare Intensive: Bahamians in rehearsal, July 2024

The Prague Shakespeare Company runs a series of Shakespeare Intensive programmes which immerse actors in Shakespeare’s work from three to six weeks (depending on which Intensive you attend). Students in these sessions take classes in movement, combat, voice and speech, and acting styles, and they also put on a series of Shakespeare plays. In the three-and four-week Intensives you’ll perform in one play; in the six-week Intensive you’ll appear in two.

Four of the Shakespeare in Paradise team have been invited to be faculty at the Shakespeare Intensive. Philip and I spoke about what we do in SiP, and Jovanna and Patrice taught electives: playwriting and acting.

All five of the Bahamians attending the Intensive are in plays that are part of the repertoire: fifteen Shakespeare plays directed by faculty and performed in by a mix of students and faculty. Today, Philip and I sat in on some rehearsals which are in different stages of preparation. They work with different directors who have different processes and in the process, they grow.

This is the training and exposure we don’t yet have at home. We’re beyond excited that we can now provide our actors with opportunities to access the kind of conservatory training they otherwise may have to pay thousands of dollars for (e.g. UK £23K, US $30k per year). And the fact that seven Bahamians are part of the process? We’re reaching one of our goals. Each of these is a touchstone, who can share what they’ve learned with others who are training by doing—thereby developing the theatre community.

So how are we doing? We’re moving closer to our goals. We are preparing, as we had intended, a generation of Bahamian actors, directors and writers who are ready to go from Nassau to the world. Almost universally, our actors are impressing the people they work with, from London to Prague. Our high standards and focus on getting the job done, on getting the story told, on impacting our audiences so that they leave not only having been entertained and diverted but also by having been asked to think and reflect on the world in which they find themselves, are paying off.

Creating an Industry

There’s only one thing that’s missing from this equation. It’s the theatre industry part. That is, by and large, beyond our control; a non-profit theatre alone, especially one that works in a space that can hold 80 seats at most, cannot offer salaries to its participants. But even here, there’s some movement. In 2023 we’ve seen several shows appearing in places where actors are being paid, where people who perform on stage are being remunerated. It’s in its infancy, but could it be there’s a theatre industry on the rise as well? To make it succeed, we need to link it to the tourist market—that’s where the money is that can pay actors to act full time—but even so, that seems to be on the table. Let’s see where we go from here.