The Fyz­abad Con­nec­tion The­atre Com­pa­ny (FCTC) is join­ing the na­tion­wide cel­e­bra­tion in what would have been the 100th birth­day of ca­lyp­so ge­nius, Lord Kitch­en­er, with a se­ries of the­atri­cal per­for­mances.

The play, ‘The Road Make to Walk’—a ca­lyp­so mu­si­cal that chron­i­cles Ald­wyn Roberts’ life and rise to Grand­mas­ter sta­tus—us­es Kitch­en­er’s ca­lyp­sos to tell the tale of this jour­ney.

The Road Make to Walk de­buts at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA) at 5:00 pm on Sun­day 29 May 2022, and con­tin­ues on Sat­ur­day 11 June at 8:00 pm, and Sun­day 12 June at 5:00 pm. Tick­ets cost on­ly TT$150.

The play will run from May un­til mid-Sep­tem­ber this year at var­i­ous lo­ca­tions through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The FCTC is a mul­ti­ple award-win­ning The­atre Com­pa­ny that has been in­volved in the Arts & Cul­ture of the re­gion for more than 35 years.

Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer for the the­atre com­pa­ny, Kevin For­tune, says they are very ex­cit­ed there will be cameos from artistes such as Crazy, Broth­er Valenti­no and Ker­nal ‘Kitch’ Roberts, among oth­ers.

“The play is ed­u­ca­tion, art, and en­ter­tain­ment all rolled in­to one,” For­tune ex­plained. “All ages will be able to thor­ough­ly en­joy the pro­duc­tion, learn new things about this icon, and sing along to the many hits that the Grand­mas­ter has left us in his lega­cy to the world.”

The Road’ is the sec­ond ca­lyp­so mu­si­cal from Zeno Obi Con­stance af­ter the suc­cess­ful ‘Roar­ing 70s’, which was pro­duced by Rawle Gib­bons and Cam­boulay Pro­duc­tions, as well as ‘Er­ic the Mu­si­cal’, which had over a dozen runs in 2011.  How­ev­er, Con­stance may be known best for his one act plays such as ‘The Rit­u­al’, ‘Du­elling Voic­es’ and ‘My Fa­ther’s Child’, which have be­come sta­ples at schools’ dra­ma fes­ti­vals and the CXC ex­ams through­out the Caribbean.

Among the star-stud­ded cast is renowned thes­pi­an Kur­tis Gross, whose ex­pe­ri­ence in ca­lyp­so mu­si­cals is phe­nom­e­nal. From his role as Win­ston in ‘Sing de Cho­rus’ in 1991, he has graced the stage in plays, films and ca­lyp­so mu­si­cals like ‘Ah Wan­na Fall’, ‘Ten to One’ and ‘De Roar­ing 70s’.  Now as the leg­endary Grand­mas­ter, Lord Kitch­en­er, Gross finds him­self in the role he was born to play.

Oth­er mem­bers of the cast in­clude Cacique award re­cip­i­ent Ger­von BJ Abra­ham; the tal­ent­ed Joseph Lopez, mul­ti­ple award win­ner who has won act­ing awards at Best Vil­lage and the Schools Dra­ma Fes­ti­val; An­drew Fri­day, an ex­pe­ri­enced stage and film ac­tor; and the gift­ed Har­mo­ny Far­rell.  Al­so join­ing the line-up are ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Eu­nice Pe­ters and Miguel­la Si­mon. Long stand­ing FCTC mem­bers al­so shar­ing their tal­ents are Mar­cia Lar­o­de, Lee­kee­sha Dun­can, Christo­pher Mc­Collins and Stephanie Smith—all with cov­et­ed ho­n­ours won at the youth and se­nior fes­ti­vals.

‘The Road’ is di­rect­ed by Gene­va Drepauls­ingh, a Ge­og­ra­phy and The­atre Arts teacher who be­gan her the­atre ca­reer at the Sec­ondary Schools Dra­ma Fes­ti­val. She has tak­en the man­tle of di­rec­tor since the 2000s.

As an ac­tor, she per­formed in ‘Tem­ple in the Sea’ and ‘The Ham­let Es­hu Ex­pe­ri­ence’.  As a di­rec­tor, she has been with the Fyz­abad Con­nec­tion over the last 10 years. Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic lock­down pe­ri­od, she di­rect­ed sev­er­al on­line plays in­clud­ing Vic­tor Ed­wards’ ‘Ma­ni­acs’; Grena­di­an Abena Vin­cent’s ‘Vi­ni U Ka’; and well-known scripts by Zeno Obi Con­stance in­clud­ing ‘My Fa­ther’s Child’, ‘The Cin­derel­la Syn­drome’ and ‘Uri­ah But­ler: Fyz­abad Pa­tri­ot’.

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Tick­ets for ‘The Road Make to Walk’ are on sale at Seon’s, Ather­ly’s and the Tu­co Of­fice, all in San Fer­nan­do; Gayelle the Caribbean in St, Joseph; Blue Edi­tion in Tu­na­puna; and Book Berries in Point Fortin.

For more in­for­ma­tion, call +1 (868) 680-0346, or look for up­dates on the Fyz­abad Con­nec­tion The­atre Com­pa­ny’s so­cial me­dia pages.