CDS: Always ambitious, usually succeeding
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from February 2001.
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The rest of the five paragraphs saluted all participants, but named only Val Morgan for her characterisation of the "outraged spinster". Writer "L.D." added that the Saturday show was a sellout, "despite heavy rain and thunder".
There are no known records of how much money was made or spent on the production. [As an aside, readers may be intrigued to know that Cayman's currency was the Jamaican dollar. By way of price comparison, a head of lettuce cost 30 cents; admission to a "big dance" at the Lighthouse Club was 50 cents; a nursery sold "rose plants" for J$4.]
Audience response to that first effort obviously encouraged the group to continue.
It had started when a few people got together socially to discuss the possibility of putting on the play. They included Valarie and John Morgan, Stanley Panton, and John Maples among others. During rehearsals, others joined in. Among them were Peter Phillips and John Furze.
While planning their second play, they also decided to organise formally. They drew up a memorandum and articles of association and, in April 1971, registered the Cayman Drama Society as a Cayman company limited by guarantee. The society then applied to be registered as a not-forprofit association.
Members of that first committee were Mr. Panton as chairman; Maureen Moody, deputy chairman; John K. Shield, treasurer; John G. Morgan, secretary; John Furze, Valarie Morgan and John Maples. Also in April, CDS raised the curtain on "the most hilarious group of amateur actors you've ever seen together in one production". This quote comes from an article that started on The Caymanian Weekly's front page. The play was Doctor in the House.
This time the reviewer was anonymous but no less effusive. He or she also commented on the actors by name: Stuart Hurst, Colin Medhurst, Ken Morgan and Keith Ball were praised for "darned-good-acting" along with Gloria Myers, Lionel Downer, Allyson Alberga, Hazel Mackenzie. The play ran one week, Wednesday through Saturday, again at the Town Hall.
By December 1971, CDS had around 55 members. With the best dramatic instinct, they explored a different genre for their third production - the well-received "thriller" Wait Until Dark. Over the next three years, they reached their goal of presenting three plays per year. Almost every production could be considered a first of some kind: Love's a Luxury was carried to Cayman Brac High School in 1973; Johnny Belinda was performed at the new Cinema on West Bay Road.
But GT Town Hall was still home venue. In 1975 there were only two plays, but again, both were popular with audiences – Arsenic and Old Lace and The Hostage. The following year, CDs got together with the Cayman singers for The Boyfriend. Every production was noteworthy in some respect, but in 1978 members outdid themselves, not only in quantity but quality. First there was the remarkable South Pacific. Little stages were built to each side of the main stage and the Town Hall was transformed. The cast was large in size, enormous in talent, and set the standards for musical productions ever since.
No less impressive was the next production: A Man for All Seasons, full of pageantry and historical drama. Star Spangled Girl starred the reigning Miss Cayman (Patricia Jackson-Patino). The group continued with Love Is... at the Royal Palms Hotel, and, at various venues, Parrots Review for a Pirates Week in its infancy.
By the end of its first decade, CDS was a veteran theatre group, with 27 different productions to its credit.
1980s
Since its inception, CDS had as one of its goals, "To obtain by licence, lease or purchase the use of land, building and equipment for the exhibition to the public on payment or otherwise of dramatic and other forms of artistic entertainment".
In May 1979, it was announced that the Racquet Club had offered CDS a piece of land at a peppercorn rent of CI$1 per year for 20 years, with an option to buy. The then building committee pledged its full support. In April 1980, another newsletter reported good progress.
However, later in 1980, it was learned that the Racquet Club was for sale. Not sure what the legal situation would be with a new owner, it was agreed that CDS would withdraw from the deal. All parties were apparently amicable: the society was reimbursed $4,000 for marl fill already on the site.
In 1981, with Bill Bazelmans as CDS chairman, another site was offered at a peppercorn rent for 50 years. This came about because Bill and his business associate Arni Sumarlidason owned the Cayman Foods land and building [currently being rebuilt for the Red Bay Primary and Lighthouse Schools] in Prospect. The westernmost portion of the land was totally undeveloped; the offer was gratefully accepted.
By that time, fundraising and productions had enabled CDS to put $45,000 into the building project. The foundation was laid, a steel frame and roof erected. Then the money ran out.
One reason, according to the CDS history, was the announcement in 1981 that the Inn Theatre Company would be building a complex off West Bay Road, using funds donated by Mrs. Helen Harquail. "This had the effect of totally drying up any source of funds from fundraising activities, as no one could understand why Grand Cayman would need two theatres," CDS summarised. "Thus no further work was carried out and the site was left to become overgrown and inaccessible." While the building project ground to a halt, CONT'D ON FACING PAGE FROM FACING PAGE play production never did. CDS started the new decade with Noel Coward's sophisticated Blithe Spirit, still at the Town Hall. Through 1984, ten more plays were performed there. The range reflected members' interests and available talent: from Agatha Christie's dramatic Witness for the Prosecution to the first of the famous - or infamous - pantomimes, Jack and the Beanstalk in 1981, followed by Cinderella the next year. By 1985, more and more community groups were using the George Town Town Hall for their activities. Major "renovations" not only replaced the stage with free-standing platforms but also affected the acoustics.
CDS moved to the Catholic School Hall for its first production in 1985, Toad of Toad Hall. The all-purpose facility was appreciated, but not ideal as a theatre since it lacked dressing rooms and lighting equipment. CDS did just one more show in the Town Hall. Table Manners, toward the end of '85. For the rest of the decade, the group was based primarily at first the Harquail Theatre Workshop, then the F. J. Harquail Theatre itself. Productions there included an original script, Girl in a Wheelchair, the pantomime Sleeping Beauty and Fiddler on the Roof (with the Music Club).
Notable exceptions were 84 Charing Cross Road at the Royal Palms and, in 1989, three productions upstairs from Lord Nelson's Pub in Trafalgar Square. The room was transformed into the Victory Theatre and the concept of "dinnertheatre" was established. The 1980s closed with a rollicking Pirates of Penzance at the Harquail, again in association with the Music Club.
Meanwhile, CDS was restricted in what it could do by the smallness of the Victory Theatre and the availability or not of the Harquail. The buildingsub-committee was reactivated to look into the possibility completing the structure at Prospect.
All members of this group had experience in some aspect of the building trades, with Peter and Penny Phillips as co-chair. They were an ideal choice. Both had been active, working members since the early. 1970s, with a short break in the mid-80s. Penny took roles on stage, backstage, front of house. Peter preferred set construction and lighting, serving as stage manager as often as not. Owners of Phillips Electrical Ltd., they brought their own technical expertise and business acumen to the CDS building subcommittee.
The group met throughout 1989 and found that the structure in question could be turned into a "very rough and ready workshop" at a cost of CI$50,000. At their annual general meeting that year, CDS members were asked to approve a bank loan for this amount. They did. What happened next deserves to be quoted verbatim from the society's history:
"After the adjournment of the AGM, which had been held at the Victory Theatre, some of the members moved downstairs to celebrate the decision. At that time, Evelyn and Jack Andresen asked Peter and Penny more questions regarding the costs and, quite out of the blue, offered to donate a sum of US$50,000 towards the theatre. This was, of course, most gratefully accepted and
