By Makeida Antonio
Scores of young dancers and actors brought Antiguan theatre back to life on Saturday evening with a production called ‘In Flight: Where dance and drama collide 42,000 feet in the air’.
It was a massive effort by major drama groups, dance groups and other clubs from across the island to complete a CAPE school-based assessment (SBA) for the dance and performing arts classes at the Antigua State College (ASC).
The production was put together by five executive members, three assistants, three managers, six stage hands, 15 actors and 25 dancers.
D’heuvel Anthony as Jason and Eddenya Aska as Jasmine were the star actors, while the cast and crew were as follows – Director Jévonté Spencer, Finance Manager Amaya Gomes, Marketing Manager Ke’Niqua Howell, Public Relations Officer Kezia Webb, and Human Resources Manager Kijuana Duplessis.
It took Spencer two months to prepare for the production, which included holding numerous auditions just to find the right individuals to fit his vision.
“Writing, directing or managing an event at that scale was not a hard task for me. I’ve gained experience in these areas from Theatre Arts in secondary school and Performing Arts and Drama at college.
“I’m extremely elated by the outcome; we’ve surpassed the SBA requirements and have set high standards for each group to come after us,” Spencer expressed in an interview.
ASC Dance Lecturer Tavia Hunte said the students put on an excellent performance and the crowd was much bigger than anticipated.
“We exceeded our SBA expectations. We are actually the first group throughout the course’s life who have completed the SBA.
“The goal we set for attendance was 116 when initially planning; on the night of the show the estimated number of persons was 400-plus,” Hunte told Observer.