By Leon Suseran
The development and propagation of the Guyanese theatre and film industry rests in the arms of competent
film writers and directors like Shaundel Amanda Phillips, a proud Berbician who has put the county on the national and international levels with her exemplary skills. She has stretched herself thin in almost every area of service possible and still finds time to do what she does the best, deal with young people.
Phillips has the innate quality to lead and a gift for the arts and, for the past years of her life, she has been using these gifts and talents to move the arts and film industry, along with other specialists in the fields.
She grew up at Lot 57 Stanleytown where she spent the first five years of her childhood, after which she moved to Asylum Street in New Amsterdam, then finally moving to Lot 86 Amsville Housing Scheme, in the town.
Shaundel Amanda was born to Mary “Sheila” Phillips and Vibert “Scratch” Phillips, a contractor, who was involved in the contract to build the Timehri International Airport, many years ago. She has eight other siblings.
Shaundel recalled fond memories of growing up in a large family.
“We did everything together. My father, because of his work, could not spend much time in the home, so my mother took charge and kept us under her firm but gentle hand. I spent most of my childhood with my siblings and other cousins as well as holidays in Buxton where my father was from.”
She attended Dolly Pitt Kindergarten at Lot 51 Stanleytown, after which she moved to Hibiscus Nursery, then to Overwinning Primary before gaining a place at the New Amsterdam Multilateral School (NAMS).
After high school in 1986, she entered teaching at the Berbice Educational Institute (BEI) shortly after and joined the Teachers’ Training College in 1994. Her leadership qualities were harnessed there as the Student Representative, Campus Queen and First Female President of the Student Council.
“It was very rewarding, we were called the revolutionaries because we changed a whole lot of things on campus”.
She later joined the staff of NAMS which was like “coming back home”. “It was my motto, to ensure that, for the children of ‘Multi’, education was very meaningful and relevant,” she stressed.
Being in the very first batch of University of Guyana Berbice Campus students in 2000, she entered to read for a Diploma in Arts in General Studies and graduated with the only Disctinction on that programme. She and six others later moved on to the Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, where she studied twice per week in Georgetown. Currently, she is pursuing the Masters of Education Programme in Supervision and Management. Her thesis deals with looking at Theatre Arts.
Shaundel enjoys teaching. She is Head of the English Department at NAMS and currently teaches CXC classes as well as CAPE students, English A, English B, Communication Studies, Literatures in English and the subject which she pioneered, Theatre Arts.
It was no accident that she, upon entering the office of the then Headmaster of NAMS, Mr Elton Lewis, observed the Theatre Arts syllabus on the table. That morning would change her life forever and put her on a journey of expanding the arts in Guyana, and would later see her becoming a film writer and Director.
“He had some new stuff on the table. He asked me to look at the syllabus and tell my teachers about it,” she recounted. She borrowed the document and started to read it.
“I said, you know what, this is a subject I need to teach.”
But it was not easy for the new subject to have taken off, since it had not been done yet at any school in the country.
“In terms of getting guidance, it was very, very difficult. I kept in contact with the Ministry Of Education’s Unit of Allied Arts and I spoke with my university lecturers because I also did some courses in drama and we persevered.”
During that year, she breathed a sigh of relief and reaped the benefits of her labour since the new subject on the block, Theatre Arts, garnered 100% passes. The subject was then introduced in other schools across Guyana.
“There were Grades 5 and 6 in English. It was not good. So, I used the subject and combined it with English and reworked the entire programme, so that for this 2011 CXC Exams we had 65 Grade Ones in English A,” she proudly asserted.
Being a pioneer in the field, she later served as Guyana’s representative on the CXC Panel as well as participating in the compilation of the new syllabus and “ensuring that Guyana’s cultural forms, like Mari-Mari, Queh Queh, Mashramani, Maticoure are now on the CXC Syllabus.
While contending that there was too much about the culture forms of other Caribbean countries, Phillips said she made sure she put Guyana’s culture forms listed before, on the syllabus, so that other students across the region would become familiar with them. “…because for years they kept examining Carnival. And when I told them about Mashramani they wanted to know what it was.”
Theatre Arts as a subject, she said, has a pivotal role to play not only in education but “pushing the country to the next stage”.
“In other countries in the world it is a billion-dollar industry, but because of a number of issues in Guyana, the entertainment industry is not at that level. It is going to get better, but with a whole lot of hard work.”
Her efforts and successes in Berbice did not go unseen as Phillips started to branch out to the national level where she became involved in writing and directing her own theatre productions, along with the likes of Dr Paloma Mohammed and Henry Rodney, among other popular theatrical artistes, directors and actors.
After the President’s Film Endowment Project was launched, she was invited to be a part of it. “For me, it was a step in the right direction. It was taking theatre out of the classroom, into the world at large”.
She wrote and directed one of the eight films that were subsequently launched at the Theatre Guild in September of this year. Her film, ‘Hope’, was filmed on location in Berbice and the actors were, yes, her own CXC students.
“They juggled between acting in the films and writing the exams and they emerged successful. That movie is looking at one of the issues that cut across the grain of our Guyanese society—that is confronting change across the different ethnic groups and acceptance of persons for what they are and not changing them,” she explained.
She attended the premiere of the films in New York. The event was held at the Billie Holiday Theatre on August 21.
“Writing and directing films is a very enriching and rewarding experience. Modifying the story to the script for film was different. The intricacies we went through….Dr Paloma (Mohammed) and Bryan Zamm took us through the process step by step, and I am so much a better person, because in the film industry it calls for extreme discipline.”
“It was a very, very challenging process but I am happy I had the opportunity to make a difference in terms of creating a new Guyanese film industry where we have eight short films, all made locally. Most of the films were very well received. Everybody was able to clap when they saw all the other movies, but at the end of my movie, persons were speechless, such was the impact.”
“I didn’t know I would have been given the opportunity to write and direct a movie but I thank God. My stumbling on that Theatre Arts syllabus was no accident, it was by design.”
She credited the parents of the Theatre Arts students for their strong commitment and support since, on a lot of occasions, she had to take the children on overseas outings.
Phillips noted that Guyana has a bright future in the film industry but much more needs to be put in place. She made call on the Ministry of Culture to get on board for other teachers to get the training “and all the stakeholders need to work for the same thing”. She credited the Minister of Education’s input – recently to allowing her to take some children on a class trip -and his instrumental function in allowing her to make her movie and “for the renewed interest to ensure that the subject goes a far way in this country”.
She made a call for a school being developed to train students in that area.
“I would like to see more being done in Region 6 per se, because every time you need to go see a production—we don’t have a Cultural Centre in New Amsterdam—we would bring persons from GT… and thanks to people like Desiree Edghill and Henry Rodney. But then we need to do better, we can’t always need to be going to where things are, things need to come to us,” she emphasised.
“Gaiety Cinema is now a store, Faaz Cinema has been turned into a shopping mall, but there is still Strand Cinema. Funds can be put in place and we can have our own theatre here. Because we know Berbice for a fact, has a very high suicide rate and I attribute that to a lack of recreational activities for adults and children…there are very few opportunities for release.”
She noted the benefits of the “therapeutic value of drama” as an art, and stressed “It is my fervent hope that I am around and able to pioneer such a venture, so we can see Berbice going some place. Wise men came from the East, so we have all the knowledge here; we need to use it and take it forward.”
One of her special gifts is a love for people. She is also very candid.
“I’ve had many persons who have said that I am too plain spoken but at the end of the day it saves you and me a whole lot”. “If I didn’t like people, I don’t know what I would have done”.
Her calling in life? Serving people. “You’re serving people. It is far-reaching. Lots of persons don’t know what their calling is. I can’t be the person who will just sit down and idle. I find a means of fixing a problem. I see the satisfaction in what I do and that is what matters. For me, satisfaction comes when you’re able to make a difference in the lives of children.”
In 2010, she received an award from the Guyana Cultural Association of New York at the Guyana Folk Festival Awards in New York.
In addition to being a teacher, writer and director, she is also the (English) Subject Committee Chairperson in Berbice for the Department of Education, Master Trainer in the NCERD English Course for Non Graduate teachers, Member on the Technical Advisory Board of New Amsterdamers International NGO, and a full- time mother to her 21- year- old daughter, Nikiya, a final- year Nursing student.
When asked how she finds time to do it all, she responded, “It is challenging but I love it. I have always been different, in the sense that, mundane activities never hold my interests. I get easily distracted and bored.”
Shaundel is currently working with a group of 40 students to stage the play ‘Watch de Ride’ as part of their School Based Assessment. She revealed that her desire is to launch her own Non- Governmental Organization someday.
“I see ways in which we can do so much; where the students’ energies can be piloted in after- school ventures in terms of getting stuff done, when I look at Stanleytown, Savannah Park, New Amsterdam area where there is dropout students… we can get them engaged. I have already spoken to some community -minded organizations and they promised to give me their support.”
Phillips is also planning the big NAMS reunion to be held next August as she wants to “ensure the school takes its rightful place in the history of this country”.
The movie she is working on now deals with how young people treat older folks, “a young male taking care of his grandmother, much to the ridicule of his friends, finds strength”, while another film deals with young kids who are living on the streets. Those will be released in 2012.