The benign, unassuming title of dramatist, Victor Edwards' literary contribution to the contemporary history of secondary school theatre in T&T and the Caribbean masks a remarkably frank and sometimes acerbic account–names called–of the ups and downs of an often under-valued area of the performing arts.
Secondary Schools Drama Associations–Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, 1965-2007, as a title, hardly hints at the intrigue and struggles behind the arduous journey from classroom to stage over a watershed period in the life of indigenous theatre.
However, there are early clues in Edwards' introduction to the volume which is extracted from his 2008 MPhil dissertation bearing the more elaborate name: A History of the Secondary Schools Drama Association and its Role as an Institution for the Development of Drama and T&T.
For example, "the issue of establishing a structure for a postcolonial Caribbean type of association is of tremendous importance," Edwards advises at the start. "An examination of the structures of both Associations in T&T and Jamaica reveals an oligarchic or an almost dictatorial approach to management."
There are first-hand anecdotes to support the author's somewhat hyperbolic contention, as he claims in an account of one 1987 episode in T&T, that the early administrative style of the T&T association "demonstrates the centrality of power of colonial hegemony while at the same time devaluing the region's sovereignty to dominant structures, cultures and markets."
The incident had to do with the refusal of 1987 Secondary Schools' Drama Association President, Ann Louise Tam to entertain a request for a change in the rules for one Drama Festival in the absence of another senior officer, acclaimed dramatist James Lee Wah, who helped found the organisation in 1965. The full details are published in a later section of the 318 page volume.
Intrigue apart, the book chronicles what Edwards describes as "signposts of deconstruction" on the path to development of theatre arts in the secondary school system and the growth of the Schools Drama Festival as a vehicle to drive the promotion of indigenous theatre in the country and in the wider Caribbean region.
Edwards notes the early years, marked by "a search to develop content" during which a growing number of local and West Indian plays were performed on the Festival stage. The work of emerging playwrights of the time such as Dennis Noel and Hafeezul Sukoorali is recognised as being a part of what the author describes as "a new writing consciousness."
The second phase involved the introduction of the Junior/Secondary School system which, Edwards says, had a "profound effect on the form, content and style of the Schools Drama Festival."
He then relates attempts to "democratise the organisation" which, the author says, led to an executive committee being "unceremoniously removed from office" in 1987 after it had become "very autocratic in its management approach." These developments are covered in detail in another interesting chapter.
The fourth phase, as Edwards puts it, focused on the relationship between the Secondary Schools Drama Association and its relations with the Ministry of Education. He identifies the introduction of Theatre Arts as part of the school curriculum as being responsible for shifting "the responsibility of administering the discipline to the Ministry of Education."
The challenge then, Edwards argues, was "how to remain a viable entity in this changing scenario." Then came the Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Association "as a lobby for the sensitisation of other Caribbean countries to the formalisation of Theatre Arts." He describes the 1998 edition of the Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Festival in Guyana as having "legitimised the festival concept as an agent for sensitising Caribbean territories about the CXC Theatre Arts Programme."
Edwards himself served as President of the local association between 1988 and 2006 and as President of the Caribbean Secondary Schools Drama Association (CSSDA) which recently hosted its 9th Biennial Festival in T&T from its inception in 1994 to 2013. In the book, he consequently cites "objectivity" as being among the challenges confronting his analysis of the activities of these two associations over the years.
The current review of the role of state media should also not pass without notice of the Association's attempts to have local theatre form a regular part of state media programming. One section of the book looks at negotiations, broken promises and delay tactics at the height of efforts in 1999/2000 to feature performances arising out of the Drama Festival.
This followed the demise of the late Horace James' Play of the Month feature which ran on T&T Television (TTT)–later to become the National Broadcasting network (NBN) and which is now CTV–part of the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG). From Edwards' account, James died in 2000 and, with him, smooth relations between the theatre fraternity and state broadcast media.
One important highlight of the publication is an appendix which provides details on the hosting of Schools Drama Festivals between 1956 and 2007.
All in all, Edwards' attempts to present painful reality are balanced by an unprecedented effort to relate an otherwise untold story of triumphs and failures. No personal, public or corporate library focused on the story of T&T should be without a copy.
Edwards is also the author of Caribbean Drama for Secondary Schools–an anthology of plays widely used by CXC Theatre Arts students.