November 2011


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Jamaican Theatre launched

The University of the West Indies Press has launched “The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century” by the late Wycliffe Bennett and his wife Hazel Bennett.

Author Wycliffe Bennett (1922-2009) was widely regarded as the godfather of the Jamaican theatre in the second half of the twentieth century. He brought all his experience and insight to his last book, “The Jamaican Theatre: Highlights of the Performing Arts in the Twentieth Century.” Bennett saw almost every theatrical production of note in this period, directed some productions himself, and, in addition, worked as a manager and trainer in speech, radio and television. His wife, Hazel is co-author of the liberally illustrated work. Together, the Bennetts have produced the first book of its kind, a panorama of performance, from the imported touring companies and fledgling local elitist groups of the 1920s and 1930s, to the birth of the Little Theatre Movement during the war years; from the small, ambitious groups of the 1950s and 1960s to the thriving commercial “roots theatre” of the new century.