 |
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
News
|
||||
|
News
|
Dateline: 10th February, 2006
New AD at Talawa Jamaican playwright now living in Britain, Pat Cumper, is to be the new artistic dirtector of black theatre company Talawa. She replaces acting AD Ben Thomas who has filled the post since Paulette Randall left last year (along with many other staff and board members) when, in July, the Arts Council withdrew its funding for the company's proposed ne theatre in Westminster because of “a series of ongoing issues around organisational weakness, the financial viability of the building project and its artistic and business plans”. In October ACE reinstated its revenue funding for the company. A biography in the magazine Caribbean Beat says of Pat Cumper that she was already one of Jamaica’s leading contemporary playwrights — best known for her 1978 play The Rapist — when she decided to move to the UK. "But despite her reputation back home, and the awards under her belt, she found it hard to get her plays produced. In 2002 she had her breakthrough, when The Key Game was produced in London by Talawa. The Guardian declared her one of the top black and Asian women working in British theatre." She moved to Britain permanently in 1993, although she had spent three years at Girton College, Cambridge, from 1973, after which she returned to Jamaica. Of her appointment company chair Joy Nichols said, “Pat brings with her a high level of experience and the capabilities needed to sustain the high standard already set by Talawa. I am absolutely positive that Pat will rise to the many challenges that theatres in general and Talawa in particular are facing in responding to the needs and aspirations of the community.” Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
|
|||
|
|
