Director TK Dawkins eager to make playwright debut in 2023
Published:Monday | January 9, 2023 | 12:33 AMAaliyah Cunningham/Gleaner Writer
The year 2023 is a big one for many people in entertainment as they plan to expand and grow. For artistic director, presenter and producer Toni-Kay ‘TK’ Dawkins, 2023 is all about stepping into a new realm as a playwright as she plans on making her debut by year’s end.
“I do have a project that is going to be around dating in Jamaica, told from the woman’s perspective. I think that the female experience is told very often from the male perspective, because there are just so many male writers and directors and playwrights. I am curious to see how my female perspective would differ, and to see how the audience will connect with it or not. The thing about it, there are a lot of techniques in writing and I am learning as I write, so, hopefully, that is something that we can have by the end of the year,” Dawkins told The Gleaner.
The daughter of popular playwright Basil Dawkins, she has been in the theatre industry for many years, mostly wearing the hat of director. She recently directed the drama No Hope for Hopie that is now showing at the Little Theatre in Kingston.
“It is the story of a young women who left the country and came to Kingston for a better life. She tries to stay on the straight and narrow and becomes associated with a local church. So she becomes an active member of the church and is church leader, and sadly, a very unfortunate situation that many Jamaican women can relate to happens to her. And she leans heavily on her church community to kind of help her to make it through, because that is the only connection she really has. She does not have any friends or family. So, we just follow her journey trying to make it through,” Dawkins shared aboutthe play’s plot.
She has directed many of her father’s plays over the years and says, for her, the best part is usually working with the actors and learning along the way.
“We have Dennis Titus, Lennox Richards and Rachel Allen, who are all graduates of the Edna Manley School of Drama. It is the first time having a full slew of actors from our School of Drama here, locally. I learnt so much from them. It was such an easy process. Everybody got along; everybody came in professional and ready to work. It was a wonderful experience interacting with them and learning from them,” she said.
Daddy-Daughter Duo
Though the daughter of a man who has had over two decades in the theatre industry, Dawkins feels no pressure to live up to her father’s work, but moreso, to ensure she always delivers quality.
“The beautiful thing about it is, although my father and I are in the same space, that is the theatre space, we have completely different roles. He points it out all the time that ‘Toni-Kay, you are a director and not a playwright; and I am a playwright and not a director.’ I don’t interfere in what he does, and he does not interfere in what I do, but that is not to say that I do not feel the fear of living up to father’s legacy or work because I am doing something completely different,” she said.
“Now, when it comes to the project that I am launching at the end of the year, where I am stepping into the role of playwright, that is a little bit more nerve-racking, because I am actually doing his role and I would be compared to him for the writing. But for right now, as a director, because it is so different, he is so supporting, so we complement each other instead of compete, in terms of what we do,” Dawkins continued.
The synergy of their relationship is also evident in Dawkin’s online series, Dadviceja, where she garners an older, more experienced perspective on issues that many persons would love to hear a father’s thoughts on.
“It came about because I recently got out of a relationship, and my dad and I go walking in the evenings, and I usually talk to my dad about a lot of stuff. I asked him something and it was particularly helpful, and I said to myself as a joke, ‘Dad, you know I should start taping you and play you on TV because I know it would be so helpful.’ So I said, ‘I am going to do it right now.’ I asked him a random question, and maybe people watch it, maybe they don’t, and people really found it helpful. I said you know what, I am just going to continue and see what happens, and people would just keep sending messages,” she shared.
As the year has just begun and there is plenty time for people to embrace new things, Dawkins says that she hopes that one of those things will be theatre. She believes that for the industry to improve, more people will have to take the time out to go and watch a play as part of their entertainment experience.
“I would like to see Jamaicans generally watch more theatre...especially younger people. What that will do is encourage more playwrights and more directors and give more actors opportunities. It will allow us to see more stories from different perspectives, because there is actually an audience. If we want to boost more local content, more people will have to go out. So people can say, instead of having a drink at the bar tonight, or instead of having dinner at a restaurant, let’s check out a play. I would love that,” she urged.