The Jamaica Alternative Theatre Company is a 12 member troupe of actors, past students of the Jamaica School of Drama at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. The company is a composite mix of students who graduated ‘from when saltfish did a shingle house top’, to recent graduates.  

Explaining the concept behind most of their productions, Artistic Director, Pierre Lemaire, a Frenchman who has made Jamaica his home, said that the Company aims not only to entertain, but also to educate. “It will be a mix of running workshops and doing plays.”  He added that even if the people laugh a lot, at the end of the play, they should leave thinking about it. 

The group also does non-traditional dramatic productions for community awareness development and to help with general social awareness. “We have a non-traditional production to be performed at the Rio Grande Valley,” Mr. Lemaire said with enthusiasm. He also mentioned Nature Conservation, an environmental group, which has asked the group  to do a play informing the community about the dangers of using chemicals in the river for fishing.” 

Lemaire, a teacher at the College since 1979 said a number of the members who had worked together decided to get together and form a company. The group also features guest members like Fae Ellington, Michael 'Stringbeans' Nicholson, and Alwyn Scott. The Company was only officially launched in May, and has already produced several dramatic productions such as A Carol For Moneybags, a children's musical by Barbara Gloudon, No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre and Antigone by Jean Anouilh. 

One of their most outstanding productions was 'Dare to be Different', an applied theatre production including approximately 20 students from the Randolphe Lopez School of Hope in Kingston, directed by Pierre Lemaire. It was staged at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, in March. “That was the result of a theatre workshop we did with the (Hope School) students to use theatre for development,” says Mr. Lemaire.

The Company spent almost a year training intellectually challenged young people to produce the drama. “We use drama games to teach them drama techniques. It's a very slow process, but it helps them to find themselves and to be in touch with themselves in order to act. We have to work at their rhythm, and find what makes them respond.” Despite the hard work, Mr. Lemaire finds his work refreshing. “It takes longer than normal, but it is much more rewarding,” he states.

“At one point, we said that it didn't matter if we did the play, because just seeing them progress so far was reward enough. For example, it took us a full year to get one of them to smile.” The only drawback to the program is that they need consistent funding in order to continue, because as Mr. Lemaire explained, if the Company does not carry out continuous training with the students, they will forget all that they have been taught. “We need funding,” he says. “The School of Hope will need funding to continue that program.

The program we did in March was funded by the Chase Foundation. And we also volunteered a lot of our time. It's not to make money out of it, it's just to do something that we feel needs to be done.” Another of their upcoming events is a play with the working title, ‘One Way Ticket’ scheduled for staging in 2009. The musical will look at the social dynamics of migration from Jamaica to England. Some of the Company's members will travel to England to interview Jamaican immigrants about their experiences as immigrants in England, and will also interview Jamaicans in the communities from which these people migrated, or returning Jamaican residents, to understand how migration affects the lives of persons both home and abroad. 

“The play will be divided in three parts: the ska generation (1970s to 1980s), the reggae generation (1980s to 1990s), and the dancehall generation (1990s too present),” explains Mr. Lemaire. “Conroy Cooper will write the play based on the interviews. It will be performed in England and in Jamaica.” 

  For more information, check their website at jamaicalternativetheatre.page.tl or call Pierre Lemaire at 876-470-8460.