8
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 19 MARCH, 2017
DCFA OLD YARD
The jammettes are causing
a commotion at the Old Yard. In short
dresses and torn stockings they stride the yard, accosting the men,
posing for photos, demanding the attention of all with their laughter,
speech and gestures. It’s hard to imagine these talented young actors
as anything other than what they portray, hard to imagine them as
UWI students in the year 2017, using a smart phone, taking a maxi
home after class.
The irony of art is that sometimes, the better it is, the more it
connects with us at an emotional and even spiritual level, the less
we see the discipline, workmanship and dedication that create it. In
Old Yard 2017, the annual Carnival event of The UWI St. Augustine’s
Department of Creative and Festival Arts, these traits were very much
on display as students and visiting performers shared the power and
subtle brilliance of traditional mas.
“The philosophy behind this event experience is similar to the
Disney model. When you come through the gate of the Old Yard you
are transported into the period of the old barrack yard, when those
characters would have come alive at Carnival time,” says Dr. Jo-anne
Tull, Lecturer and Coordinator of Carnival Studies, as well as Project
Director of the Old Yard.
Held at the DCFA grounds on February 19 this year, Old Yard
plays several roles. It is a teaching lab for both performing and festival
management students (who handle all aspects of the event management
side of the yard). It is a living museum that preserves culture. It is
a promoter of traditional Carnival to new generations. As Dr. Tull
says, “a significant portion of our audience is school children. That
is deliberate.”
And of course it is an immersive and entertaining experience.
The yard is inhabited by bats, minstrels, stick fighters, burrokeets, the
Midnight Robber, jab jabs and all the gorgeous and grotesque characters
of Dame Lorraine mas. And though there is a stage, the “Gayelle”, there
Old
NewGe
B Y J O E
