Albert Laveau leads TTW into its 50th anniversary

According to Laveau, “The role of theatre is to show people themselves on stage. And as different dramas unfold, to initiate discussion. Is that really how people are? Is that really how some men treat women? Theatre can also allow people to change the drama. She should not do that. She should make this decision instead.”

Laveau began working with the Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW) during a time of anticipated national Independence and on the threshold of political change. That sense of optimism and creation also contributed to an artistic movement.

He says, “There were talks about the possible formation of a Federation of Caribbean States and Trinidad was rumoured to be the capital. Our Independence was still in the future. So the artistes were preparing themselves for this new thrust to come, and trying to forge their own works. Out of the artistic milieu and thirsting for a new creation, Derek Walcott was invited to write an epic poem to mark this momentous event. But Derek did write a fantastic play called Drums and Colours which was staged in the Hollows Gardens. His plays are always rooted in indigenous pride.”

Derek Walcott, St Lucian-born playwright and Nobel Laureate, founded the TTW in 1959. Laveau met Walcott during the genesis of the TTW. “Beryl McBurnie invited Derek to form what she called a ‘marriage of the arts’. There were a number of amateur performing arts groups, drama groups and dance groups around the country For example, there was Phoenix Players, the San Fernando Drama Guild, Company of Players and the Trinidad Dramatic Company.”

He started his career as a stage actor 51 year’s ago and now serves as the Artistic and Managing Director of the TTW.

According to Laveau, he has been acting his entire life. William Shakespeare wrote: “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts.”

He remembered taking the floor of the living room at age four and having the tremendous pressure of perfectly reciting stories while his brothers and sisters jeered him. “I remember that my father would turn over the brass plants pots and that became the stage. And every evening we would tell a story and sing a song. There was no electricity in those days, so we had to entertain ourselves.”

Laveau then recalled that his happy childhood came to abrupt halt at age nine when his mother died unexpectedly. Laveau’s life was dramatically disrupted. He and his nine siblings were split up and shuffled from one relative to the next. Laveau explained that living from pillow to post would have made him more melancholy, if it was not for the invaluable lessons he learned in that living room stage.

“When I look back, I think I was acting since I was a child. It was performing and the audience was not forgiving. In that living room stage I learned to hold the audience. When my mother died our little world came crashing down on us. And that technique proved to be even more useful to me when we had to leave our little cocoon and were separated to different relatives in different parts of Trinidad. Between age nine and 13, I think I moved to different homes and went to four different schools.

So I had to hold my ground. I think the training I had in that living room prepared me to stand my ground and adapt to changing circumstances. My approach was to imagine all the different scenarios of what I was likely to meet in a new situation and how I was going to deal with it. That workshop that sits above your shoulder is the most important workshop.”

Laveau was an extremely shy 18-year-old, when he auditioned for the Carnegie Players. “One of the most critical things you can learn is how to feel comfortable on stage. A wall is removed when the curtain is pulled back and the audience is peering into your soul and they are waiting to behold a spectacle. The word ‘theatre’ comes from the Greek word ‘theatros’ which translates to the ‘seeing place’. Our job as an actor is to create the illusion of a believable reality for the audience’s enjoyment. The audience also has the role of accepting what we present.”

Later Laveau joined the Company of Players and became acquainted with talents like Errol Jones and Claude Reed. “Most of these independent theatre groups were comprised of people who were acting purely on their own instincts or whatever they understood acting to be. What Derek felt was that by coming together we could share our varied skills. He invited people to meet with him every Friday afternoon in the Little Carib Theatre and the TTW made use of the venue for a while.”

But as Laveau explained, the TTW was forced to change locations many times over the years. It was briefly located in the basement of Bretton Hall. “For a while we had the Basement Theatre and seated about 90 people. We were there from about 1962 to about 1970. The TTW was drifting all over the place. It was not until 1989 that we had a somewhat permanent location. ANR Robinson and Patricia Robinson used to watch us perform when we had the Basement Theatre, so we knew them. So we wrote a letter and received a positive response. They gave us permission to make use of the old fire station. We were there until 1998 and we moved all over again. We worked in offices and even the kitchen of the homes of some kind people.” Finally, in March 2004 the TTW moved into its current location in Belmont.

TTW from Page 10

In 1969, Laveau left his job in the oilfield industry and transferred to South Africa for a while. When he returned in 1972, he resumed his role as a senior actor with the TTW and began performing in international productions.

“At the time, Derek was a part-time, resident lecturer at NYU which was not far from the Public Theater. He staged the play Ti-Jean and His Brothers. It’s a West Indian fable about the devil setting a challenge to a woman with three sons. If any one of her son’s could make him feel human emotion he would reward them, but if they failed he would devour them. So the devil goes into different guises and sometimes appears as an old man, a white planter or as himself. I played the devil which was three roles in one. That role pitchforked my career. I got a lot of attention from the press. At that point I thought I could be a professional actor.”

Soon after, Laveau got a contract to perform in the play The River Niger which toured the US for one year: “It was a story about a humble man who has ambitions of becoming a poet, but he got caught up in the gang wars. That play won an award for being the first all black play. That experience launched my career on the international performing circuit.”

While Laveau admits that he has little talent as a singer, he explained that while auditioning for a role he caught the attention of a Hollywood producer while reciting a verse of a calypso. Sometime later, the producer remembered him when looking for someone to play a calypsonian in the play The Charlatan written by Derek Walcott.

The TTW produced the Joker of Seville in 1974. The play was based on the novel by Spanish Baroque dramatist Tirso de Molina about the infamous lover Don Juan. “The Royal Shakespeare Company commissioned Derek Walcott to write the play, but they did not have the actors to fit the roles. So when it was produced local actors were used and it was staged in the theatre of Boston University. It was written as a Best Village play and the Patron Saint Don Juan is honoured every year by recreating the exploits of the notorious lover. The characters are barefooted in a poor village, but there are classical elements too.”

According to him, The Dream on Monkey Mountain was another major TTW production that focused on resolving conflict when at a crossroads: “Stanley Marshal and Errol Jones starred in the play which is about two friends who sell coal. One man dreams about going back to Africa, becoming the leader of his people and being the savior of his race. The other man is only interested in making money and wants to sell his good friend’s dream. But it was around the time of our Independence and it encouraged people to evaluate the direction Trinidad was heading in culturally.”

In 1993, the long room that was once the fire officers dormitory became the setting for epic fantasy The Odyssey by Homer. A member from the Royal Shakespeare Company worked with them and directed the production. “It was a staged dramatised reading. It was the only time we had anything as elaborate as that.”

One of the TTW’s most popular plays was a comedy called Beef No Chicken which ran for 33 consecutive shows. “It was set during an era in Trinidad when WASA was laying down sewage lines and roadways were being built. The comedy is about development. So the character has a roti shop and mechanic business in Couva and he is upset because the highway will take away his business. The famous line in the play is when he is being held up by a bandit and he says ‘So crime comes to Couva’. It also shows the bobol that comes with development.”

With over six decades of experience, he noted that one of his fondest memories as an actor was while playing Moses in the play First Born. Laveau carried Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who was a young boy at the time, in a moving scene: “I was playing Moses on stage when I held Patrick Manning, at age 13, in my arms. He kept saying ‘Please, don’t drop me’. And I said “I will not drop you’.”

Laveau said that the TTW is well known for plays that emanate from our own cultural condition. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the TTW and celebrates decades of work that has its resonance in our people, our history and our country. “There is a lot of material in our own society and our own history that make for astonishing stories.”

But in 2003, the TTW was nearly forced to close-up shop because of a lack of funding. It was not until the University of Toronto offered to purchase the archives of scripts, reviews, biographies, receipts and every document about the TTW that turnaround came. “We were on the brink of extinction because we had no money. I sent about 20 boxes or more of paper. They paid us one and a half a million dollars for our archives. So we received about $300,000 every six months over two and a half years and that is how we managed to survive.”

Laveau has been working towards the continued growth of the TTW and focusing on the TTW’s role as an institution to train those interested in acting and stage management. “The plays we have done have represented our vision for what we believe the Trinidad Theatre Workshop should be contributing to society. We aim for the development of our own art. In addition to our children, teen and adult acting workshops, we also have script writing competitions. We have yet to unearth plays with passion and honesty. ”

So in what, perhaps, is the winter of the TTW Laveau wants to carry the torch and generate new plays and new performers who can go on to generate their own progressive productions that enrich our culture and keep our heritage alive.

With that in mind the company will be launching a series of productions from this month of January as it celebrates its 50th Anniversary.

Included will be the Annual Community Theatre Festival, a series of festivals entitled “The Three Seasons”, a Carnival themes event called “Lemons, Oranges and Lime” (LOL) as well as a Festival of Monologues, Dialogue and Performance Art.

LOL which features a collection of original short works where orators will present portrayals of Carnival characters like the Midnight Robber, Dame Lorraine, Pierrot Grenade and Tobago Speech Bands is the form of performances and film. This event will take place between January 27 and February 5, 2010. Although, LOL is not a competition, the jury will award a prize for the Best Script.