Event

The Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA) will be participating in Pre-Carifesta performances from Saturday 9^th to Monday 11^th August, 2008. These performances, hosted by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture & Gender Affairs, will give the audience a sense of the upcoming performances for Carifesta 2008 in Guyana. Each of the performances is free and open to the public.

The first production to be showcased is ‘Ramleela - Shree Rama’s Triumph Ravana’s Tragedy’, at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain, on Saturday August 9^th 2008 at 8:00 p.m. Ramleela, the enactment of the glories and life of the incarnation, Lord Rama, is a religious observance. Mrs. Kamalwathe Ramsebeik the director, producer and writer of this production, noted that the goal is to make audiences experience the theme of Ramleela - the Good triumphing over Evil.

The National Steel Symphony Orchestra will also be performing at the Van Guard Hotel Ballroom (Hilton Tobago) at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday 9^th August, 2008.

‘Ogun Iyan – As in Pan’ will be staged at the Scherzando Panyard, Curepe, on Sunday 10^th August 2008 at 6.00 p.m. ‘Ogun Iyan - As in Pan’ is a work that highlights the turmoil of the birthing process of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Instrument – The Steel Pan. Directed by Louis McWilliams and written by Rawle Gibbons, ‘Ogun Iyan - As in Pan’ makes a critical connection between the works of the Orishas and the Creation of the Pan – the one possessing the other.

‘D’Masquerade’ will be staged at Creative Arts, San Fernando on Monday August 11^th 2008 at 7:00 p.m. D’Masquerade is designed to reawaken consciousness in the true spirit and meaning of the masquerade by encouraging audiences to actively participate alongside the traditional characters of carnival, joining them in the utilisation of the “mas media” to protest certain evils which plague present day Caribbean Society. D’Masquerade was directed by Norvan Fullerton and written by Gilbert O’ Connor while Felix Edinborough acted as the Assistant Director/Playwright.

Each performance will be hosted again as a series of school shows from October 2008, in Trinidad and Tobago.