Two-time Queen of Carnival Shynel Brizan on how she got into stilt-walking and moko jumbie mas; balancing the demands of Carnival with motherhood; and the experience of winning her second title last year while four months pregnant — as told to Caroline Taylor. Published in the January/February 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat So I actually …
Continue reading Shynel Brizan in her own words | Caribbean Beat
After decades delighting audiences in Trinidad & Tobago and Great Britain, Melanie (Hudson) La Barrie makes her Broadway debut. Caroline Taylor learns more. Published in the November/December 2022 issue of Caribbean Beat It’s what the Independent called “a gloriously silly, unexpectedly poignant” jukebox musical that — using the music of Grammy-winning songwriter and super-producer Max …
Jeanine De Bique, Trinidad-born classical singer, on the influence of her upbringing, and why Trinis “could do anything” — as told to Caroline Taylor in the November/December 2018 issue of Caribbean Beat I went St Gabriel’s RC School in San Fernando, and was in choir participating in the Music Festival and SanFest. I had a love for …
Continue reading Jeanine De Bique: “It doesn’t matter where you come from” | Caribbean Beat
October 6th: the promo I saw a Facebook post today that made me smile. Hard. Wide. Wisftfully. Nostalgically. One of my "idols" — the incomparable Anna Deavere Smith — was performing at my old workplace, Second Stage Theatre. Why the wist? A dozen years or so ago, I'd have been working on that show. Seeing that show …
Continue reading Anna Deveare Smith brings “Notes from the Field”
This guide was written as an assignment for The Guardian (UK), and published as An insider’s cultural guide to Port of Spain: steel, sass and sweat 1) Your city's culture in five words Steel, seascapes, sass, and sweat. 2) What sound defines your city? The hills and valleys of Port of Spain’s residential communities is a strange combination …
Continue reading An insider guide to Port of Spain, Trinidad | The Guardian (UK)
A couple of months ago, I was happy to be part of what hopefully will be another landmark moment in T&T scripted television drama, when the Pauline Mark-led team behind The Apartment: About Last Night shot the pilot movie for what we all hope will be a successful multi-season local TV series. Next month (the week of …
I'm late on posting this, but a few months ago some colleagues at the new arts & media outfit, A Big Box of Crayons, interviewed me for their "20 shades of crayon" series. You can read the full interview here. The good folks over at the Trinidad & Tobago Performing Arts Network picked up the story...and …
I think it's nearly 10 years I've been trying to decide whether I agree with this! I first heard it said by Phylicia Rashad on a New York TV station, and I've been mulling it ever since. I thought I disagreed with it, actually thinking film was more life-like and theatre more "artful" – at …
Continue reading “Theatre is life, film is art, TV is furniture”
Caroline Taylor 