Actress Salazar pays tribute to heroines

In commemoration of the UN International Women’s Day, Cacique Award winner Cecilia Salazar will stage her own tribute to women later this evening at the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook. The thespian will bring 1960s national heroine Gene Miles to life once again, as she did last year in August at the same venue. 

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian she promised to deliver a sterling performance as she plays the part of the civil servant who exposed corruption in the Government in the post-independence era. 

“I have been wanting to put this show together for a while now, but things kept happening and it kept getting put off,” said Salazar. 

She said the show is actually the launch of a festival she intends to host in 2014 which will feature the great women of history—past and present. 

She said the special showing which is for one night only, is not just to remember a national heroine such as Gene Miles, but to sensitise the public on the importance of women speaking out. 

“Gene Miles was really the driving force behind the Gas Station Racket Enquiry in 1965. She gave evidence to support the wrongdoing by the then ministry in which she worked—Ministry of Petroleum, Mines, Industry and Commerce,” said Salazar. 

She noted she would also be playing another character, Mrs Lawrence, a piece about an upper class woman who gets lost while on her way to a flea market and ends up in the middle of a rally in Woodford Square. The woman finds her voice in the rally and realised how important it was as a woman to speak out against all social ills. 

Former government minister Verna St Rose-Greaves is also billed to perform a monologue titled Love and The Shoe Box.

Others joining the cast for the evening include film writer Judith Laird, dancer J Mitchell who will be doing a monologue and dance titled Murray Street, singers Gerelle Forbes and Leslie-Ann Gay and jazz artiste Chantal Esdelle. 

Salazar said following the celebration of International Women’s Day she will be hosting a series of workshops which will focus on the role of women in modern society.