For the Reckord

  PAM BRIGHTON began working as an assistant director at the Royal Court in London. She then worked at many theatres in England. She was Artistic Director of the Half Moon, Hull Truck and Double Joint. She lived and worked in Canada for four years. She is well known for her style of popular political theatre, as in Skyvers, The Housing Show, George Davis is Innocent OK, Binlids and The Laughter of Our Children.

  YVONNE BREWSTER, founder member of the Barn Theatre (Jamaica) and Talawa Theatre Company (UK) has worked in theatre, film, television, radio, and universities as a director, lecturer and actor. She is a Fellow of Rose Bruford College, Central School of Speech and Drama and the Royal Society of Arts, a Licentiate of the Royal College of Music. She received the OBE for Services to the Arts (1993) and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University (2001). She edited three collections in the Methuen series Black Plays. Her autobiography The Undertaker’s Daughter was published in 2004.

  MERVYN MORRIS, Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing and West Indian Literature at the University of the West Indies, is the author of Is English We Speaking: And Other Essays (Ian Randle Publishers, 1999), Making West Indian Literature (IRP, 2005) and six books of poetry, including I Been There, Sort Of: New and Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2006). He has been a theatre reviewer for The Daily Gleaner, The Sunday Sun and The Jamaica Observer.

  DON WARRINGTON, renowned Black British actor, emigrated to Newcastle, England from Trinidad in 1961. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Philip Smith in the sitcom Rising Damp, his career has included many other leading TV roles including Nigel Beaumont in C.A.T.S. Eyes, Judge Ken Winyard in New Street Law and Patrick in Manchild. In theatre, Clifton in Elmina’s Kitchen and Kwaku in Statement of Regret at the National Theatre are his most recent portrayals. In 2008 he attained ‘celebrity’ status when he became a contestant in Strictly Come Dancing on BBC Television. Mr. Warrington was awarded an MBE in 2008 for his services to drama and serves on the Board of Talawa Theatre Company.

  Acknowledgements

  I am most grateful for the support of members of Barry Reckord’s family: Lloyd Reckord, his brother, founding Artistic Director of the Jamaica National Theatre Trust, who loaned me programmes of his company’s productions of In The Beautiful Caribbean, The White Witch 1975 and The White Witch 1978 from his archive. Michael Reckord for making available his interview with Barry Reckord published in The Gleaner in 2003, Margaret Bernal for the loan of newspaper clippings of reviews of Skyvers 1971 and for making a chronological listing of Barry Reckord’s works as found in The Jamaica National Theatre Trust: a Local Theatre with a World View by Cynthia Reckord (1983 thesis, UWI, re-edited by Margaret Reckord Bernal [2008]) available to me. I thank them all for their unstinting assistance and encouragement. Without access to the archives of Jamaica National Theatre Trust, under whose auspices much of Barry’s work in Jamaica was produced, my job would have been well nigh impossible. Through the kindness of Dr. Beverly Hart of the Victoria and Albert Museum archives the prompt copy of the Royal Court production of Flesh To A Tiger in 1958 was searched for and found. I am indebted to her for her help. Deep gratitude is due to Diana Athill who at the age of 92 sat on the floor pulling out stacks of odd pages of manuscripts much dog eared and in some chaos to help with the search for the texts, and to Munair Zacca and Errol Lloyd who searched and found original copies of The White Witch 1978, 1985. To Professor Mervyn Morris, Don Warrington, Joan Ann Maynard, Michael Abbensetts, Errol Lloyd, Sebastian Born, Professor Barry Chevannes, Carrol Chin Lenn, Andrew Walby, Starr Brewster, Roland Rees and last but certainly not least Pam Brighton, much appreciation is due.

  Yvonne Brewster