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Stories by Michael Reckord

Published:Wednesday | August 23, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

There was quite a bit of retrospection by members of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) for its 55th season of dance, which ended recently at the Little Theatre.Barrington Moncrieffe, the company's artistic director, was one of those looking...

Published:Thursday | August 17, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

It is back-to-school time and tens of thousands of children and adults are psyching themselves up for a year of hard studying, the traditional path to academic success. But there may be a way to make that journey not only more successful, but also...

Published:Sunday | July 30, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The horrors of the trafficking in humans were sketched out by permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Carol Palmer, who is also chair of the National Task Force in Human Trafficking, at the in-house launch of a documentary on the...

Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Dance educator and critic Alfdaniels Mabingo didn't originally desire a dance career. "I wanted to be a Catholic priest," he confessed to me after a class at the School of Dance, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, last week. He...

Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Audiences of two comedies playing this weekend, Frenemy (Jamaican Shopping Club Theatre, Cargill Avenue), and Heist (Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, Mona), should find lots of opportunity to laugh, for both plays are quite funny. But...

Published:Wednesday | July 12, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Corruption and violent crime affected the main speakers at the recent launch of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts (PSCCA), 50th anniversary.They praised the PSCCA's contribution to the strengthening of theatre and culture in Jamaica....

Published:Tuesday | July 11, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The merriment displayed by clergy, church workers, families and friends performing in Sunday's concert at Jamaica College, belied the gravity of its cause. Proceeds are for the rebuilding of the Clifton Boys' Home, which was completely destroyed by...

Published:Monday | July 3, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Jamaican theatre turned out to be very different from what Tom Trainer expected. The Fulbright scholar and actor, who came here last October from Villanova University, Pennsylvania, had to rethink his topic after starting his research.Wanting to...

Published:Thursday | June 29, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The producers of Blood, staged over the weekend at Phoenix Theatre, Haining Road, New Kingston, may have created a new type of ‘total theatre’. Over a half-century of paying close attention to Jamaican theatre, I had never seen anything quite like it...

Published:Tuesday | June 27, 2017 | 1:09 PMMichael Reckord

For 17 years, on the last Sunday of alternate months, the main lawn of The Jamaica Pegasus was the venue of concerts called Jazz in the Gardens. Then, in February, producers Nancy McLean and Cathy Nunez renamed the show Jazz 'n Cabaret in the...

Published:Thursday | June 22, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Jazz lovers have a new space,Terra Nova Hotel’s Regency Bar & Lounge.  Last Wednesday saw the inaugural Jazz After Dark in the classy, comfortable room. The hotel's general manager Roderic Crawford, a band led by...

Published:Thursday | June 15, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

TThe recently launched non-governmental organisation (NGO), Youth For Arts & Recreational Development (YARD), aimed at helping at-risk youth, will have a fundraiser on Sunday. It's a remount of David Tulloch's 2012 drama Wine & Roses...

Published:Thursday | June 8, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The publicity for this year's 2 Seasons Talking Trees Literary Fiesta, that drew me to Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, on May 27, indicated it would involve at least two dozen performers in a short play, poetry readings, the launch of a book of poetry...

Published:Monday | June 5, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The 17th annual Powerful Women and Men Perform for Charity Concert, which was staged at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday, left the large audience satisfied. There were smiles on many faces as it ended and the comments on the show made by...

Published:Thursday | June 1, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Audiences attending the evening presentations of Fabian Barracks' Wah Sweet Nanny Goat over the next few days may not have the amazing - even unnerving - experience of hundreds of teenagers around them chanting dancehall lyrics during the blackouts...

Published:Tuesday | May 30, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Quite a few members of the audience started dancing in their seats near the beginning of Sunday's concert at Jamaica College (JC) in the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium; but when it ended three and a half hours later, nearly everybody was dancing on...

Published:Thursday | May 25, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

After decades of strategising, numerous fundraising events and months of sacrifice by staff (who sometimes worked without pay, I was told), it seems the Ward Theatre Foundation's efforts to make the theatre fully functional again are paying off....

Published:Friday | May 19, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Fittingly, since poetry is a blend of the two, words and music imbued the ceremony at King's House on Wednesday when Lorna Goodison, "a superlative poet with a high international reputation", was invested as Jamaica's second nationally appointed...

Published:Thursday | May 18, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

At The Terra Nova Hotel last week Thursday, an award-winning actor made Owen 'Blakka' Ellis' sensuous poem about eating fish, Come Eat, every bit as sexy as The Mighty Sparrow's well-known calypso Saltfish. And he did it without the benefit of music...

Published:Tuesday | May 16, 2017 | 11:45 AMMichael Reckord

The breadth and depth of the talent of Jamaica's performing artistes was delightfully demonstrated at the Swallowfield Chapel, Kingston 6, on Sunday evening. Despite the inclement weather, a large audience gathered in the beautiful, technologically...

Published:Thursday | May 11, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Maybe a dozen or so years ago, lovers of what's generally called classical music said they feared it was dying in Jamaica. Aficionados of classical and quasi-classical music should have been really happy with the menu offered over the last two...

Published:Tuesday | May 9, 2017 | 12:09 PMMichael Reckord

The Philharmonic Orchestra of Jamaica (POOJ) contains some of the island's best classical musicians and they were in good form for the concert they gave on the weekend at the University Chapel, Mona. So delighted was the audience at the end of the...

Published:Thursday | May 4, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Anthony Winkler (1942-2015) was a "unique" Jamaican novelist, poet and playwright whose work "deserves greater exposure and further analysis", says Dr Kim Robinson-Walcott, author of a PhD thesis based on Winkler's work and the book Out of Order!...

Published:Thursday | April 27, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

Last month Jamaica was reintroduced to Suzanne Beadle, whom I have known for 20 years as an actress-director. She is now also a playwright/producer.Through her recently formed company, Soulart by Suzanne, Beadle has her first commercial play, 70 x...

Published:Tuesday | April 25, 2017 | 12:00 AMMichael Reckord

The concert mounted by the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) at The Little Theatre on Easter morning, "in celebration of the NDTC's 55th anniversary", will be remounted at the St Andrew's Scots Kirk in May.The concert showcased some fine young...

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