Holistic School - in urgent need of funds for purchasing the building that they have called home for the last four years – will stage 'Hercules' a powerful play about the consequences of drug addiction, aimed at fifth and sixth form secondary school students and adults, from May 18th to 20th at the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook. Written and Directed by Sonja Dumas, Hercules is very loosely based on the story of the 12 tasks of the mythological Greco-Roman demi-god hero, Hercules. The play's story takes place in the mythical Caribbean village of Sea & Sun, and tells of a little boy who was born to a high-ranking thug in the village and who faces many challenges along the way to manhood. Like the myth of Hercules, it mixes reality and fantasy, and offers a fun-filled series of adventures for fifth and sixth formers and adults. The play will be performed by the Bachelor of Fine Arts students from the Academy for the Performing Arts of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). The students also produced, directed and created original music and movement for the play.
Holistic has been lauded for its holistic (all-round) curriculum in academics, visual and performing arts, sports, foreign languages and social-emotional education. As a private school with a public mission to encourage the growth of the arts and other holistic curricula in all schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago – community development is an important part of the school's holistic model. Community work in the Holistic portfolio includes the Reading in Key programme - free art, music and drama workshops at NALIS (2004); Developing Healthy Communities (in collaboration with the IADB, Cultural Development Programme, the US Embassy and the Tobago House of Assembly) – free one week arts workshops to students from Black Rock, Mason Hall and Delaford, Tobago. This project also educated students about the HIV/AIDS pandemic through the play Circles written by Sonja Dumas. Subsequently Circles was produced and broadcast on national television on World Aids Day 2004.
Most recently (January 2011 to present), Holistic has shared its music education resources with the Caribbean Networks Arts and Education CANOAE (nonprofit) Foundation to create the First Citizens Asset Management/ CANOAE String Ensemble, providing music education scholarships on strings for students from public schools whose families could not otherwise afford the lessons. Other partners on the string project include string faculty from the Academy for Performing Arts at UTT, the Caribbean Children's Foundation and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. "The owners have been very gracious, since we have never been able to afford our own building and grounds for the school, but our grace period is over, and we need to purchase by August of this year, or relocate," says Dr. Patricia Dardaine-Ragguet, founder and director of the school. "Moving the school at this time will be detrimental to the development of the Holistic Education Model. We hope that we will be able to continue our work with young people, since it so badly needed," Dr. Dardaine-Ragguet continued.
The public is invited to support the work of Holistic and their building project, through the purchase of tickets to Hercules. Tickets are available from Holistic (621-0428/1659) as well as from parents of the school. Show times and ticket prices are as follows:
• Friday, May 18 at 10am and 1pm
Free for Secondary School Students
• Saturday, May 19 at 3pm and 7pm
$200- General Audience
• Sunday, May 20 at 5pm
$250- Reception and Show - General Audience.