Glen Campbell and Dahlia Harris in a scene from the play Straight Jacket. (Photo: YouTube)
Acclaimed playwright Patrick Brown is encouraging budding theater practitioners to stay true to their craft despite the challenges. After receiving the Order of Distinction in October, his latest achievement came in November as a winner of the Musgrave Medal (Bronze).
“Honestly, it’s tough out here. The numbers are small, but I would tell anyone to follow your dreams, whatever they are. Who can I tell they can’t follow their dreams and make them successful? Aim for quality because that is what will matter. Quality, of course, is subjective, because to some people quality may mean Shakespeare. You have to know what product will appeal to Jamaican audiences. Theater is not theater without an audience. You have to know what your audience is and what will please them,” Brown told The Jamaica Observer.
The official ceremony was held on November 22, at the Philip Sherlock Center for Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies’ Mona campus. Brown was unable to attend.
Holder of an undergraduate degree in engineering from the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, the Kingston native in the center decided to pursue what he really wanted soon after graduating from Kingston College in 1976.
“I went to KC and a Spanish teacher took four of us to The Ward Theater and that was my first exposure to theater and it stuck with me. I studied in Trinidad and was assigned as the entertainment manager for my hall. That year, I wrote a skit for the hall concert, and once I graduated I expanded that scene into a two-hour play. It was called Corn cob and it was directed by Keith Noel,” he recalls.
Brown’s hit shows include Puppy Love, Mo, Joe and Flo, Right Girl’s Wrong Address, AND Straight jacket?
Brown said receiving a Musgrave Medal was the furthest thing from his mind.
“I don’t normally think about things like that, I just enjoy my craft. It’s a token of appreciation, but I get that from my audience. I’m not thinking about it from anyone. I think I’m better than last time and doing they leave my audience wanting more,” he said.
As for the state of Jamaican theatre, Brown believes it is starting to get back on track after the new coronavirus.
“Before Covid, we had a little thing. We’re relatively young in terms of theatre, compared to that. My goal is to help create what we can call Jamaican theatre,” Brown said.
Musgrave Gold Medal recipients were cultural engineer Lenford Salmon, author and environmental activist Diana McCaulay and chemist and master blender Joy Spence; Silver recipients were entomologist and lecturer Dr Eric Garraway and author Geoffrey Philip. Other bronze recipients were author and lecturer Dr Safiya Sinclair and biologist Dr Susan Koenig.
Rhodes Scholar David Salmon is the 2022 recipient of the Youth Medal for Advocacy and Leadership. He was also unable to attend.
Patrick Brown
