The 2018 Sir Derek Walcott Memorial Lecture

[dropcap]K[/dropcap]ate Snodgrass, the present Artistic Director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre has pocketed many awards and achievements during her ongoing tenure in the fields of teaching, directing and playwrighting. But after a lengthy introduction, which recognized the level of talent and dedication Snodgrass has invested into her craft, she made it clear that the “2018 Sir Derek Walcott Memorial Lecture” was in no way going to be a critical analysis, but instead a presentation of her experiences with Derek Walcott to which she owed many of her successes.

The lecture was held on Derek Walcott’s birthday and Nobel Laureate Day, January 23 at its regular location in the National Cultural Centre. Dame Pearlette Lousiy, Chairperson of the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee and Senator Fortuna Belrose, Minister for Culture, attended the event along with local poets, playwrights, artists, friends of Derek Walcott and other customary faces who frequent similar happenings. However, although last year’s Nobel Laureate Festival events did not witness much of Derek Walcott due to wavering health, for the first time, neither of our esteemed Nobel Laureates were alive during celebrations.

Kate Snodgrass’ presentation was a collection of anecdotes which encompassed the side of Derek Walcott as a teacher. Walcott’s Nobel Prize winning Omeros among other poetry collections are sometimes what he is firstly recognized for but in other parts of the world persons feel indebted towards him for his work in theatre and drama. In 1959 the Little Carib Theatre Workshop was founded by Walcott and is now internationally recognized as the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre was also established by Walcott in 1981 where Kate Snodgrass’ lecture was sourced.

Snodgrass meticulously revealed an array of experiences starting from her initial encounters with Walcott and the intimidation he sometimes inflicted. She explained that Walcott’s teaching techniques were quite different in a playwright class as opposed to his poetry classes. In his playwright class, “He didn’t care for the beauty of words,” she said, but he wanted “action and the truth” from plays. “Sometimes a student wouldn’t get past their first line of dialogue,” she continued. It was because from the first line, there were numerous perspectives of the scenes, words or stage directions that Walcott could identify. Whether he got past a first line or one student, “It was a lesson for everyone,” Snodgrass revealed.

He highlighted the importance of actors in his productions and classes. There were appreciated in a special way by Walcott because that’s who brought the work to life. Similarly, according to Snodgrass, he warned actors, “Don’t manipulate your relationship with your audience, it’s a sacred one.”

Another lesson that latched onto Snodgrass was Derek Walcott’s encouragement to always revise a piece. It didn’t matter whether the play was already award-winning, to Walcott there was always something that could use improving. Snodgrass gradually told of so many instances that involved Walcott’s wrath, insistence, calmness (in few cases), gratitude and ingratitude, ideas, perseverance and how his eccentric teaching style left people with stories to tell. She noted that his work constantly carries a uniformed theme: “an insistence that there must be a change in consciousness for there to be unity” which many times refers to colonizer and colonized people. He also displayed a crossover of poetry and drama, where the dialogue of a play would sometimes start as a poem and then be transformed. Snodgrass was also able to explain that he had a specific admiration for role-playing within plays.

One anecdote I particularly enjoyed proved how much Derek Walcott disdained “fatuous” behaviour. This reminded me that on that day, many people celebrated two men without knowing exactly why. 

The most resounding point, which Kate Snodgrass interpreted as the epitome of Walcott’s teaching is: “Whether your work is good, bad or indifferent we all have to own it.”

The ”2018 Sir Derek Walcott Memorial Lecture” ended with few questions from a satisfied and impressed audience.