Playwrights of The Week
Playwrights of The Week
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Nandi Keyi Playwright of the Week
Nandi Keyi was born in London, England to parents from Trinidad & Tobago. Like many children of first generation Caribbean immigrants eking out a living in 1960s England, Nandi was dispatched, at age five, to spend the rest of her childhood years with relatives in the Caribbean. Later she had a decade long journalism and theater career, writing hundreds of articles for major daily and community newspapers in North America before turning her attention to creative writing. Her critically-acclaimed plays have been produced and anthologized. Her essay “Still Shipwrecked on the Shores of My African Self,” was published by the international peer review journal, “Changing English: Studies in Research and…
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Derek Walcott Inspirational Plays
Cry for a Leader, produced in St. Lucia, 1950. Senza Alcum Sospetto (radio play), broadcast 1950, produced as Paolo and Francesca, in St. Lucia, 1951. (And director) Henri Christophe: A Chronicle in Seven Scenes (first produced in Castries, West Indies, 1950; produced in London, England, 1952), Barbados Advocate (Bridgetown, Barbados), 1950. Robin and Andrea, published in Bim (Christ Church, Barados), 1950. [more…] Three Assassins, produced in St. Lucia, West Indies, 1951. The Price of Mercy, produced in St. Lucia, West Indies, 1951. (And director) Harry Dernier: A Play for Radio Production (produced in Mona, Jamaica, 1952; radio play broadcast as Dernier, 1952), Barbados Advocate (Bridgetown, Barbados), 1952. (And director) The Wine of the Country (produced in Mona, Jamaica, 1956), University College of the West Indies (Mona,…
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Derek Walcott A Poet and a Visionary
He had an early sense of a vocation as a writer. In the poem “Midsummer” (1984), he wrote: “Forty years gone, in my island childhood, I felt that the gift of poetry had made me one of the chosen, that all experience was kindling to the fire of the Muse.” – Walcott At 14, Walcott published his first poem, a Miltonic, religious poem in the newspaper, The Voice of St Lucia. An English Catholic priest condemned the Methodist-inspired poem as blasphemous in a response printed in the newspaper. By 19, Walcott had self-published his two first collections with the aid of his mother, who paid for the printing: 25 Poems (1948)…
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Midsummer, Tobago
Broad sun-stoned beaches. White heat. A green river. A bridge, scorched yellow palms from the summer-sleeping house drowsing through August. Days I have held, days I have lost, days that outgrow, like daughters, my harbouring arms. Derek Walcott
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Derek Walcott Playwright of the Week
Walcott was born and raised in Castries, Saint Lucia, in the West Indies with a twin brother, the future playwright Roderick Walcott, and a sister, Pamela Walcott. His family is of African and European descent, reflecting the complex colonial history of the island which he explores in his poetry. His mother, a teacher, loved the arts and often recited poetry around the house. His father, who painted and wrote poetry, died at age 31 from mastoiditis while his wife was pregnant with the twins Derek and Roderick, who were born after his death. Walcott’s family was part of a minority Methodist community, who felt overshadowed by the dominant Catholic culture…
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Yvonne Weekes: Playwright, Poet & Mother
According to Peepal Tree Press Yvonne Weekes legacy living on today. She is remembered in Montserrat as the inspired and dynamic director of the Rainbow Theatre Company, with brilliant productions of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, Old Story Time, and other Caribbean plays, which she produced while working as Director of Culture on the island. She also took part in the satirical play ‘Women + Men + Women’ at Carifesta in Trinidad. It is a pleasure to have this book available and added to the growing volcano literature that has evolved during Montserrat’s volcanic period. Additional information can be found on Peepal Tree Press!