Christine takes on 7 roles in new play

A newspaper ad that read: “A call for singers who are interested in acting...” was the catalyst in Christine Johnston’s career move.

At the time she was an accountant, straight out of school, with accounting firm Pannell Fitzpatrick now Ernst & Young. She also sang with the St Ann’s folk choir and entered numerous song festivals representing Trinidad and Tobago regionally. “On a whim I auditioned and I almost died when they called me back...and from my first acting, thereon I was bitten by the theatre bug.”  Now, the theatre producer runs her own production house “Baggasse Company”. She’s also a freelance events co-ordinator, president of the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT) and a member of Telethon for the Arts Committee.

After working a combination of 18 years in various capacities, one in a profession she never really liked and the others steering her away from what she really wanted to do, (she was company secretary for Trinidad Pilots and Berthing Masters Association and manager at Queen’s Hall), she took up theatre full time. Her first acting stint — working with Raymond Choo Kong in the musical production The Fantastiks. “I was the female romantic lead alongside Errol Fabien, the male romantic lead... After that performance Choo Kong asked if I was still interested in acting, to come across to the Trinidad Tent Theatre and I went,” Christine said. Over the years she has worked with actors Godfrey Sealy, John Isaacs, Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts, Leslie-Ann Wells and Deborah Boucaud-Mason.

The 20-something-year-old, then could only apply what she learned in A’level English Literature at St Joseph’s Convent, Port-of- Spain. Although she oftentimes found herself consumed in reading Nancy Drew, Steven King, Robert Ludlum books and as she said, “you couldn’t get past the ‘Mills and Boons’ and ‘Harlequin’ stage” — studying the works of Shakespeare was a plus. “I read some Derek Walcott too but I read more for enjoyment. Schoolwork was enough. After you read Shakespeare you want to read something a little light.” Amidst the many plays in which she starred Christine recalled the musical Ad later changed to Rampanalgas Sunrise by playwright Roger Israel. Together with Leslie-Ann Wells she starred in Carnival musicals J’ouvert and To hell with that written by Felix Edinborough. She then decided to try her hand at producing — her first being Winners and in 1986 formed The Baggasse Company.

The real challenge came when she strayed from the musical and orthodox plays tackling serious societal issues like HIV/AIDS, homosexuality (in the play As Is) and rape (Extremities) since, “nobody was doing these kinds of works”. In 1990 she began directing engaging the works of local playwrights Tony Hall in Red House Fire and Twilight and that of her sibling Judy Agard in A Brighter Day. Some of the more popular plays out of the 56 productions done in the 17 years of Baggasse’s existence are adult comedies M Butterfly, The Shadow Box, The Mind with the Dirty Man, Nikki Does, Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Shag Around. The latter, she said, created some controversy because of its predominance of obscene language. Christine’s retort: “I am much in favour of freedom of speech. Art mirrors life. The harsh realities are that people curse all the time. If you want to convey the realism of the piece there is no way around it.”

Currently, she is putting together a one-woman (where she plays all characters) play called Shirley Valentine written by British playwright Willy Russell. The play which opens April 2, at Queen’s Hall is about a 42-year-old housewife, married with grown children. She’s unhappy with her life and longs to recapture the life of her youth. Why her choice of play? “I had it for ten years. It’s a lovely piece. The themes are universal, the messages are strong. It’s heartwarming, funny, wistful, sometimes sad and a moving piece of theatre... I feel comfortable doing this play because I’m the same age with the character (or at least she’ll be 42 in June).” She admitted it’s a challenge for her, the actress, in capturing all the roles of each character. And there are side-effects.

She oftentimes finds herself carrying on one-woman conversations, even out of character — while operating in the kitchen, in the car when no one is around (and causing drivers passing by to strain their necks looking and questioning who she’s talking to). “It’s seven different characters and it’s capturing the essence of them in voice, mannerisms and expressions. The lines are difficult and it’s a lot of material.” Christine shares few similarities with Shirley — they both had negative experiences at school and “I sometimes desire to go back to the free and more spontaneous times”. Christine has “found a niche that I had never found before. I didn’t care at the time (her earlier years) that I wasn’t paid any money. I did the work because I loved it. It was exciting, different, challenging. Money was never an issue,” Christine said. Her parents, on the other hand, weren’t too keen on the route their youngster was taking. “They said you’ll never survive, liming with these crazy people.”

Christine expressed her hatred for the use of the word “stigma when the topic of homosexuality and its association with “the theatre”, came up. “I take serious offence to people saying it’s a stigma... I think I am very proud to be working with these people — the Peter Minshall’s of this world. It doesn’t affect me in any way. I was naive at 21, when I got in. I think people who are gay are expressive, fairly artistic and fall into an art that will cause them to be expressive and creative. On the next level, if I could use a line from Shylock from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: ‘If you cut me would I not bleed?’ Everybody is human. Putting labels on people I don’t think is necessary.”