The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

THE seed for BAM was planted some years ago, when Bahamian entrepreneur Rowena J Poitier was handed a task in college to come up with a theatre related business.

It was at that time that she dedicated herself to the passion of theatre and the Bahamas Artist Movement (BAM) was born. This theatre company is new to the art and culture scene, and Ms Poitier said she hopes the organisation will help to educate the community and artists, and to evoke social awareness through productions and community outreach.

Seeking to give acting education scholarships to those from lower income communities that may not otherwise have an opportunity to express their artistic talents, BAM’s productions will address social issues locally and globally.
With each production being paired with a philanthropic organisation whose work relates to the social themes of the production, Ms Poitier said a portion of the proceeds will be donated to a partnering organisation, sharing their mission with audiences.

Holding classes at the New Providence Community Centre on Blake Road, BAM will officially open on September 17 until December 13. The classes are available for teenagers ages 13-19, from 4-6pm.

There are also adult classes, beginning from 6-9pm.
Speaking more on BAM, Ms Poitier told Tribune Entertainment, BAM is basically about people finding issues or social problems in their communities, trying to find a solution to those problems and to address them as well, while making money doing so.

“The theatre company will be BAM’s first initiative. What we hope to do is become a repertory theatre company where we have regular seasons and we also have an educational programme. That is the structure of it,” she said.
Ms Poitier added that BAM decided to pair with various philanthropic organisations because it is socially conscious. She said the first organisation that BAM plans to pair with is the Bahamas Crisis Centre.

“Any performances that we do, it will be geared towards those issues. We [will help to] make their cause known. Any money that we make from the production, a percentage of that will go to that cause,” said Ms Poitier.
She said the theatre company will play with a number of different concepts on how people share theatre and what theatre is.

“We are going out into communities, especially lower income communities, and we are working with people to talk about violence and other issues. We will get the community involved, which is theatre as well, where everybody becomes an actor. But what we are doing in our training is, we are training people to know how to go out into the community and address these issues in the medium of theatre,” she said.

When asked what pushed her to start a theatre company, Ms Poitier said she was that girl who would cry in high school because when she was asked what she wanted to be, she always wanted to be an actress. And yet there was not an outlet for her to do that, she said.

“There was no opportunity or training, so I never thought that I could really do it. I ended up doing it anyway, but I don’t want children to have to grow up like that. I want them to see that there are opportunities and I want to teach them about the industry and the technique. I want to make a difference socially, because we have so many issues going on. Especially with this wave of violence and it really needs to be addressed and I feel like art is a really good medium for that,” said Ms Poitier.
She said a few scheduled performances have already been planned for BAM.

“We have been commissioned to do a project with the Ministry of Culture sometime next month. At the end of the workshop on December 13, there will be a final performance where the community is invited,” she said.
Students enrolled in BAM’s classes will have a twelve week master workshop in auditioning, preparing for the business, acting techniques, improvisation, stage combat, movement and cirque clown techniques.