Rehearsals continue weekly for the October opening of Pampalam, one of Barbados’ well loved and long-standing theatrical productions.
Subtitled All In De Fine Change, much of the material reflects the prevailing recessionary climate.
Besides the usual cast members, the show, which will run for eight nights in October, features two newcomers, Leon Phillips and Stacey Cummins.
Phillips joins the seven-member cast as Tootsie Gill, the well-loved, cantankerous homosexual character in De Dream Is Over and Wuh Yuh See, Yuh Don’ Get. He also plays an errant teenaged school boy, full of bravado, who is the friend of the incorrigible Shaquanda (played by Cummins).
Starting out on the church stage with the New Testament Church of God, reciting poems and later acting, the Combermere old scholar took on the role of comic writer in the popular Bacchanal Time calypso tent in 2000.
He then became a comic actor with MADD, and later established his own theatrical group, Odds ‘N’ Ends in 2006.
The 37-year-old actor is honoured to be working with so many veteran cast members and describes the experience as “a life-changing” one.
At 26, Cummins is the youngest member of the Pampalam cast. Her versatility is seen in her roles as a “Bashy Girl” in a poem of the same title, and in her masterful performances as the older and belligerent Ina Birch in Pampalam At De Airport, and Dora’s feisty sister, Gwennie Rice, in Dumplin’s In De Stew.
Emerging with Best Talent at the 2003 Holetown Festival Queen Show with In Defence Of The Glamour Girl, Cummins went on to command further attention on the NIFCA stage that same year.
She was subsequently awarded a Prime Minister’s Scholarship for this Alicia Edwards composition, and has since appeared at the 2005 season of Laff-It-Off.
“I’m excited to be a part of Pampalam,” says Cummins. “It has taken me to a new stage in my development as an actress.” (PR)
