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Monday, February 5, 2007 – St. Lucia's hosting of the 7th Caribbean
Secondary Schools Drama Festival ended over the weekend with officials
expressing great confidence about the future of the performing arts in the
region.
A total 150 participants from eight Caribbean territories namely Antigua,
Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and
Tobago, and St Lucia took part in the grand event, which ran from 28th of
January to the 3rd of February.
Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF), Gabriel
“Teddy”Francis thinks the hosting of the festival ties nicely with the
re-established link between the Ministries of Education and Culture. He said
this will go a long way in reviving effort and interest at the school level in
St. Lucia.
“We were really thrilled by the level of performances and the different styles
of theatre—the re-emergence of popular theatre, as the presentation of many
countries. Also the training aspect through the facilitators from the countries,
ensuring the finer skills of theatre are mastered and perfected by the
participating students,” he said.
The CDF Executive Director also thinks the hosting of the Caribbean Secondary
Schools Drama Festival will provide a valuable boost to the island's drama
programme and give birth to new horizons in terms of the performing arts within
local secondary schools.
“It will certainly work towards the revitalisation of our own local competition
or festival. The establishment of the association of secondary schools drama is
very important here, as it exists in some of the other countries notably
Trinidad and Jamaica, and this will point the way forward for us. It also serves
as a sterling example for the broader aspect of culture in schools,” said the
CDF Head.
The event followed on the heels of activities in tribute to the accomplishments
of St. Lucia's two Nobel Laureates—1992 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature
Honourable Derek Walcott and the late Sir Arthur Lewis, who won the Nobel Prize
for Literature in1979.
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