Roy, Gloria ... just good friends

They are unique actors. They are also social workers and members of the “Interactive Team” and Hal Greaves and Dawn Henry, better known as Roy and Gloria commonly seen in the three-minute television skits put on by the Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CADV), have had to clear the air on some issues. Despite what some may think when they run up to the local celebs and hug them on the streets, the two are not married. Their characters are. Hal is a single-parent father of two and Dawn’s a spinster. However, she enjoys taking care of her niece and nephew with whom she lives. “The public has imposed that character on me. There’s no way we could convince the public that we’re not married. They would meet my parents and say, ‘I just meet your daughter-in-law’,” Hal told People. Hal will act clueless when you accuse him on the streets of his hometown in San Fernando, in broad daylight, about not paying his son’s bail — though he just smiled when the “very angry” woman who accosted him some weeks ago accused him of such. “To tell you how Hal and Roy are so different,” Hal said, “Roy is left-handed and I am right-handed.” The two though, many have observed, share a sense of humour. Hal continued: “My character and I are not similar in any way at all... I think he (Roy) is an idiot. “I wouldn’t want to wear that character. I understand what facial expressions and gestures I need to make him effective. I work at making him humorous so that people can remember the jokes and remember the messages. His facial expressions are not mine. Those things are purposefully done. “When I get upset I get quiet, Hal stops communicating. Hal will keep his distance from people, whereas Roy is loud and aggressive,” he said.

In the skit, husband and wife and parents of four children, Roy and Gloria tackle parenting issues in a dysfunctional family setting. “Roy generates the issues but Gloria controls the audience,” Hal informed. “The characters are flawed. Roy does the right thing sometimes even if it is by accident. He’s never willing to admit his problem.” Gloria, however, is “somebody who knows her husband, how he behaves, how he responds to certain things,” offered Dawn. “She has tried to make adjustments to deal with him but Roy just rants and raves.” Hal and Dawn, founding members of the “Interactive Team” have been putting on skits, staging workshops, giving lectures, holding group sessions on numerous social issues such as domestic violence, rape, HIV/AIDS, anger management and coping with old age for the eight years of the group’s existence. Their objective has been promoting developmental issues through effective mediums, mainly drama. “Interactive Team” succeeded “My People Incorporated” which they also conceptualised in 1986. “We look at these issues from several different sides, look at the risk factors involved, cultural factors causing that particular issue to remain unresolved. We also look at the socio-economic, human and behavioural factors so that in a lot of ways our methods are lifestyle management tools and not simply drama for entertainment,” Hal informed. The group of volunteers comprises 16. They vary in age. The directors include Nigel Forgenie/General Manager of San Fernando Credit Union, economist and business consultant, Sherman Baksh/economist and Hal. “Interactive Team” has worked in the past with various NGOs, government and international agencies including CAREC, UNDP, UNDCP, NADAP and Caribbean Family Planning in Puerto Rico and Aruba. In October, the team will return to Aruba to work with the police department there. “Currently, we’re working with the police service in Trinidad tackling the issue of anger management and domestic violence. We do assimilations, coming at them with carefully designed situations for the recruits. The police service has over 4,000 officers and gradually, at some point in time, all will go through our training.”

They have also gone into villages, visited schools and worked with half-way houses and rehab centres. The “Interactive Team” has found that interactive theatre or “national ventilation,” as Hal calls it, has been extremely effective. “We use our characters to help people understand their situation clearly. The audience gets so heavily involved...and people become so open that they are extremely honest. For example, after one skit children have told us that their parents had drugs at home and at one company the issue of stealing came up. It (skit) is realistic and gets the audience to work out what they can do to prevent the problem from happening,” said Hal. “When we go on a stage we are quite aware that the only people acting are us, but the issues we’re addressing are real life for everybody else.” Hal, formerly the Head of Computer Graphics Department and Head Copywriter at Advance Dynamics’ advertising agency, was greatly influenced by his father, Jim Greaves, who was a dramatist. He left his “good job” in 1992 to pursue his “dream.” Hal said: “I always wanted to make a difference. I felt that drama was more than just acting on a stage so that instead of heading north to Broadway and Hollywood, I felt here I could make a difference.” Hal was offered the opportunity to go to Hollywood to work with Disney, Buena Vista Studios, “but I gave it up because I was working with the orphanages at the time.” His knowledge in drama was acquired after reading “everything I could find, on the Internet, looking at tapes from Marcel Marceau and his pantomime to the Japanese Noh theatre to Yoruba opera. My dream was never to win an award for best actor but to mean something as opposed to doing something that would make someone clap,” Hal revealed. On the contrary, Dawn, also of San Fernando, was never really interested in drama but when commuting with a co-worker who spoke of his involvement in drama, she expressed interest. That was 17 years ago. That’s when she met up with Hal and the two have been friends ever since. The social welfare officer attached to the Office of the Prime Minister, Princes Town who’s accustomed to being called “Gloria” by her clients said she always preferred the background. But after being handed her first script, she said, “It was what God wanted me to do.” Dawn has been a source of encouragement for many. “People would stop me and tell me their problems and ask for advice and I give them my number... I enjoy helping people,” she said. “One woman stopped me and asked if I was married to Hal and I said, ‘Only on TV,’ and she turned and told me that’s not true and walked away.”  Although she’s been accused of being too “nagging” by strangers, men particularly, she said that like Gloria, she could be just as disciplinary. She said she didn’t see herself as a celebrity but feels happy when she can reach people. Roy and Gloria will again appear on television for a second season in 13 episodes for the CADV.