Dear Editor,
My association with Dave Martins goes as far back as to the 1980s, and it was through theatre, and not music. It was a creative side of him that was seldom recognized; so, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass without hailing him as a writer of two of our most outstanding local musicals, and crediting him for his work in the theatre.
In 1988, Guyana celebrated 150 years of the abolition of slavery and indentureship, and the Guyana Commemoration Commission was created with the purpose of organising the celebration of this major milestone. Artists came from Africa and India to join with Guyanese in celebrating the occasion, and Dave was commissioned to write a musical for this event.
Dave spent endless hours in our libraries, researching and writing. In the end, the musical ‘Raise up’ was never staged by the Commission, and this happened without any explanation being given.
Dave called Ron Robinson (Ron and I were running The Theatre Co. at the time) from the Cayman Islands early in 1989 to ask us (The Theatre Company) whether we would be interested in staging the play. We jumped at the wonderful opportunity to stage this musical production, and immediately sought and received permission from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to stage the play.
The production premiered at the National Cultural Centre on November 25th, 1989 for 7 performances, including 2 matinees. It was well attended.
Sir Shridath Ramphal, who attended the performance, had recommended that the play be staged at the opening of the Heads of Government meeting that was due to take place in Africa a few weeks later; but this, unfortunately, never happened.
The Theatre Company then decided to take “Raise up” on a one-month tour to the Cayman Islands and the USA, performing in 10 venues at universities and other theatre spaces in Miami, Mississippi, Virgina, Washington, Michigan and New York.
The mayor named the day we performed in Brooklyn, New York ‘Raise up Day’. We were invited and performed an excerpt of the play on ‘Nine broadcast plaza’, a television programme.
In 2006, for Guyana’s 40th Independence Anniversary, Major General Joe Singh, CEO of GTT at the time, proposed sponsoring the staging of a historical production for the occasion. The late Billy Pilgrim was asked, and was of course delighted to write this musical, but ill-health prevented him from doing so, and Dave was approached, and agreed to do so.
The musical, which Dave called “ALL IN WAN”, premiered at the National Cultural Centre on May 26th, 2006 for 4 performances. The musical was produced by GEMS Theatre Productions and was directed by Ron Robinson, with Dave as musical director. It was an epic production with a cast in excess of 100 artistes, including Keith Waite and Terry Gajraj, who came to Guyana for the occasion. In my view, this musical is more than worthy of being produced again for staging at the National Cultural Centre.
I recall inviting Dave to Guyana for two further occasions, to perform his unique style of singing and story-telling: at the Accountants Conference meeting in 2005, held at the Princess Hotel; and for a pre-CARIFESTA event held at the Theatre Guild in 2008.
When we performed “Raise up” in Grand Cayman, and concluded the final performance after the 10-city US tour, we had comprehensive discussions on the Link Show satirical review, which we started in Guyana in 1981. Dave was very keen, and a year later, he started “Rundown” (the Cayman satirical show) at the Harquail Centre, which he wrote from 1991-2008, until he moved to Guyana.
He was also Chairman of the Cayman National Foundation, and chaired the annual ‘Pirates Week’ celebration in that country.
In summing up, Dave was much more than a calypso singer; he was a songwriter, singer, musician, playwright, educator, and entertainer par excellence.
Sincerely,
Gem Madhoo
GEMS Theatre Productions
