Pantomime tradition continues with ‘Skoolaz 3.0’ on Boxing Day
Published:Sunday | December 24, 2023 | 6:17 AMYasmine Peru - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Come December 26, the Pantomime Company will present Skoolaz 3.0, the first full length, face-to-face, Boxing Day production since the pandemic. A reboot that is straight out of the panto guide book, it also sends a signal that pantomime is here to stay.
Head cook and bottle washer, Anya Gloudon, who also wears the title producer of the newly formed Pantomime Company, shared that it has been exciting working on this year’s panto which is directed by Michael Nicholson, who, incidentally, was in the original Schoolers and also assisted Brian Heap with direction for Schoolers 2 in the ‘90s “so it’s like the legacy continues”.
The year 2023, however, has been one for the books for the Pantomime Company. The musical, Trash and Hype, was unusually mounted in April, and had a successful run at the Little Theatre on weekends.
“April went very well,” Gloudon stated.
“The school groups in particular were very supportive and enthusiastic. It was a great re-entry into the market as a live production. The Pantomime Company was formalised earlier in the year and is now a stand-alone production company devoted to producing pantomimes. Trash and Hype gave the team the confidence that we are on the right path ... and made it an easy decision to plan for a return to Boxing Day,” explained Gloudon, who has been working with the pantomime for as long as she can remember.
Trash and Hype had a special April 23 performance which was dedicated to the memory of Anya’s parents Ancile and pantomime doyenne, Barbara Gloudon, and also establishing a scholarship fund.
PANTO 2023
Interestingly, the team had actually started working on a new script for this year – and had gone quite far too – when that incident at a school in Ocho Rios happened, and in the blink of an eye, Skoolaz 3.0 was born.
“You may recall the children unwittingly bought drug-laced sweets and something clicked – Schoolers had that in the storyline where the students were buying ‘Happiness Tonic’. We took out the script – written by Barbara Gloudon from a concept by Blakka Ellis and Michael Nicholson,” Gloudon said.
Skoolaz 3.0 tells the story of two schools, Hattipha College and Sunshine Academy for girls, and the plan by the Ministry of Education to merge them.
As the producer explained, “The principal at Hattipha College is dismayed – the school’s motto is Manus Rulus Foreveramus! He has no interest in running a school with girls! He is also focused on the school getting ready to play in the finals of the Channing Cup for football, and Hattipha have won it 19 times in a row.”
Things get more interesting, and complex, when two of the girls from Sunshine Academy decide that they want to play football and two boys from Hattipha have agreed to secretly training them. If the principal Mr Dryer finds out he would not approve. Miss Chastings, the principal for the girls school, has taught her girls to be fearless and go for their goals.
“In the midst of this is Papacita the school janitor, who gets himself inna mix-up and is selling a suspicious sweets to the youth. Well, story come to bump in true pantomime style when Hattipha’s star players disappear and the girls have to take the field. Papacita has to face his consequences and as in pantomime tradition, all’s well that ends well,” Gloudon said.
She underscored that “the script had so many topicalities from the ‘80s that still stand in the 2020s”.
Quizzed if she see the pantomime tradition continuing for another 50 years, Gloudon stated confidently that “I know pantomime will never die”.
“There are the challenges of course: how do we make it appeal to this new generation? Well, Grub Cooper has no age paper so he has refashioned some of the music to fit in with the sound of the youth while keeping the classical feel that Grandma can enjoy.”
She continued, “It will change, evolve and continue because there are young persons who come every year and are inspired by what they see on stage. We have a new cast member who used to come and watch her aunt perform, and now she is on stage in panto ... see it deh – legacy!”