Stu­dents of the Ari­ma North Sec­ondary School were treat­ed to a “clash” of sorts yes­ter­day, with con­tem­po­rary and tra­di­tion­al mas com­ing face to face dur­ing the school’s Car­ni­val pro­duc­tion.

The an­nu­al event was planned by The­atre Arts teacher and Head of De­part­ment for the Vi­su­al and Per­form­ing Arts, An­tho­ny Fredrick.

Staff and stu­dents gath­ered in the school’s au­di­to­ri­um took in a pro­duc­tion that showed how tra­di­tion­al mas had been eclipsed by “pret­ty mas” over the years.

“To­day’s was a clas­sic court­room case of tra­di­tion­al mas ver­sus con­tem­po­rary mas and their bat­tle for the streets,” Fred­er­ick ex­plained in a brief in­ter­view.

“In re­al so­ci­ety, it seems as though tra­di­tion­al mas is tak­ing a back seat to pret­ty mas, so we’re try­ing to big up the tra­di­tion­al mas­quer­ade be­cause I don’t think enough of us in Trinidad and To­ba­go re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­ate or un­der­stand what it’s about.”

Prais­ing the ef­forts of stu­dents, he added: “Most of my per­form­ers are in low­er school.”