Day 14: Tuesday September 20
Today was another productive day.
I spent most of the morning troubleshooting and mixing sound for the Home section of YPF and was able to create in the studio in the afternoon. It has been also been a pleasure to come home every day and socialize with other young professionals, enjoying breakfast, dinner and drinks with company in our backyard. I am starting to feel at home in this landscape. Walking around Arima today, for the first time I did not feel afraid or that I did not belong. I am celebrating myself and the personal growth that I have made!
Tonight I also took in another concert, the Malick Folk Performers adaptation of Tedwyn Dailey's The River, directed by Louis McWilliams and Anton Brewster. This time at The Queens Hall. Compared to NAPA, The Queens Hall is an historic venue. It opened in Trinidad in 1959, through the efforts of the music community led by Mrs. May Johnstone, a music teacher. and partially funded by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago. The 30,000 square-foot arts centre is located on 3 ½ acres of land at the entrance to St Ann's and Cascade and seats 782 people.
The concert was the type of theatrical performance I hadn't seen since my youth: an over-the-top dramatic sensibility with a Caribbean sense of comedic timing, writing and delivery told through story, song, dance and costume. I came late so I did not fully catch on to the story. I look forward to being able to pick up the cultural markers in time--thoughts and phrases that went over my head tonight. The audience was in stitches!
I loved this painting in the lobby.
History about the Hall and Mrs. May Johnstone
Every Trinidadian of a certain generation knows Paul Keens-Douglass, legendary orator and writer.
Vandana, an Invocation of classical ballet and classical Indian dance. Choreographed by Santnarine Balkaransingh and Navy Herrera, 2008
Noble Douglas Dance Co.
