17-year-old Kemesha Bolton, dance and drama major, shows off her moves in front of the trailers that house the Performing Arts Department. -Carlington Wilmot photoTanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
THERE IS a lot of creativity brewing and being crafted and moulded in two trailers on Mountain View Avenue, St. Andrew, These two trailers house the performing arts department at the Excelsior Education Centre (EXED).
The space from which they operate is a mere technicality, as the department has been strengthening impressively. Only five years old, the department is already making its mark on school and the wider society. It has grown from eight students in year one to 46 this year and has a staff of three full-time and eight part-time teachers.
Students in the EXED performing arts programme have the option of working towards a certificate, diploma or associate degree in the performing arts.
Kenny Salmon, the head of the department, explains that everyone has to start at the certificate level, where they receive a general education in the performing arts. When or if they go on to pursue either the diploma or associate degree, they select a major but have to do electives from the other arts. So far, drama
has proven to be the most popular major.
GETTING READY
Despite being only a mere toddler, the department seems to already be spreading its wings and getting ready to soar. "We've probably been trying to do a lot of the things that a five-year-old should not," says Salmon. The department is currently celebrating its latest achievement, having scored impressive wins at the University of the West Indies UWI-based Tallawah tertiary education drama festival, which ended last weekend. The three plays,
The Crossing, Confrontation and Malcochon, which were so successfully received at Tallawah that they will make up the department's first mini-season.
The mini-season of performances are scheduled for December 4-6, at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Next March, the department plans to showcase its first major production.
"We think that this is going to be a major step in exposing the public to what we do," says Salmon. The productions, whether they are for the competition or for the season, are a part of the student's grades.
Salmon does not attempt to pretend that the EXED performing arts story is a fairytale. He admits that the department has its problems, but argues that many of them are internal. Among these is sustaining the required numbers for the courses. Another is that the students in the performing arts programme generally spend longer hours at school than the other students, especially due to rehearsals. He noted that while other students generally attend school between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., the performing arts students often find themselves working late into the night and also coming in on weekends.
EXTRA HOURS
So far, all these extra hours seem to be working out. The department just won the trophies for 'Best Production', 'Best Director' and 'Best New Play' at the Tallawah drama competition for tertiary institutions. The department has also performed very well in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commis-sion's (JCDC) drama and dance competitions.
Myra Powell, a vice-principal at EXED, noted that the department's victories have been very useful to the institution. "They have been doing superb work in marketing the institution, along with their other work of training the students," she said. Despite their successes, the department has problems with its infrastructure. The trailers are simply not adequate. Salmon explained that they recently received a dance studio which is on the Excelsior High School campus and is shared with the high school. He also explained that the department will also be looking to deal with the space issue by attempting to get the use of the ASHE centre, if it proves to be suited to them.
In their preparations for the Tallawah competition, the department had to deal with the space and inappropriate nature of the trailers. Salmon explained that what they therefore did was use the areas surrounding the trailers as an outdoor theatre.
The lack of appropriate space is also deemed problematic by the students, who are generally rather enamoured with the programme. Deandre Solomon, a second year student in the diploma programme, pegged limited space as the
thing she liked least about the
programme.
RELATIONSHIPS
Interestingly, when asked, many of the students pointed to the staff and their relationship with the students as one of the best things
about the programme. The staff features Amina Blackwood Meeks, Patsy Ricketts, Michael Reckord, Lloyd Reckord, Orville Hall, Katanya Davis and Salmon. Solomon noted that she can always be confident of being 'cheered' once she enters the department. Amoy Taylor, another second year student, echoed that sentiment. "In the other institutions I've been in you just pay your school fee, take your notes and that's it," says Taylor. "Whenever I have a problem I can always depend on this institution to cheer me up," she continued.
"I can relate to them (the staff)," said Sukenia Thompson. "We can just sit down and reason."
Despite the camaraderie between the students and staff members of the department, all is not as sugary sweet with the rest of the world. "People tend to think that it's because we dunce or we don't have enough subjects why we do the arts," says Taylor, labelling that as her major complaint.
BACK BURNER
Thompson's least favourite thing is somewhat similar. "Sometimes we're put on the back-burner," she says of students and staff outside the department.
Indeed, this sentiment is one of the things that Salmon and say the department has been working to change. They argue that the programme aims to show that the performing arts is not merely an 'extra-curricular' activity, but rather a career choice.
This ideology has shaped one of the three major goals Salmon hopes to see the department achieve. He noted that the programme includes a course in entrepreneurship. According to Salmon, he would like this aspect strengthened so that every student who graduates leaves the programme with a project, so that they do not have to go seeking a job. Likewise, Salmon also argues that he would like the drama in education segment properly integrated so that each student has the option to become a teacher upon graduation. Salmon would also like to see a professional company created out of the graduates of the programme.
