'Stop the pussyfooting' Jamaican producer tells ABA

If you set your ambitions low, even mediocre achievements will make you feel good. If you set your goals and standards high, you will become relentless in your pursuit of excellence… Paul O. Beale.

I have been noticing, with serious concerns, the attitude and behaviour of the ABA. Some of the officers of the awards treat it as though it is a private members club that selects people to go to heaven. If that is the case, let it be known so that ‘lost’ sheep can repent and come on board. If that is not the case and further to that, if it is the case that the ABA does represent the industry that we have all worked so freaking hard to build, the ABA officers must stop the pussyfooting and start looking at the constructive criticisms of the awards with a deeper respect for the stakeholders in the industry.
20 odd years ago when the ITI made representations here, I was at a few of those early meetings that lead to the advent of the Actor Boy Awards. I was not as vocal then because I was just getting my footing in theatre. I remember however, that the awards started out in a most disgraceful manner by excluding plays in the popular Jamaican Theatre genre from all categories for award consideration. A category was created called “Best Roots Play”. This was not only an insult to the work that the great Ralph Holness et al were doing for the marketing of theatre in this country, it was indicative of the kind of selfish, short sighted, discriminatory and retrograde thought that characterised a process that emanated from an embryo of good intentions. As of the birth of the ABA, it fed on a substrate of seriously flawed thinking and misguided attitude. To have not only neglected the main stay of Jamaican theatre but to further disrespect those who had the greatest potential of its economic development, was a catastrophic blunder from which the ABA has not recovered.
A child born 20 years ago would have now developed into an adult and be able to stand on his/her own in a light of respect and high regard or in shame and failure. The ABA has not grown up all these years and thus its metamorphosis resembles that of Phylum Chlorophyta. The ABA has failed miserably in all departments that are used to measure success. It has failed in marketing (product development, in respect of marketing communication, location and distribution). Those who run the organization over the years have failed to position the ABA in the society as something respectable and as a measure of excellence in achievement in theatre. They have failed to properly market the ABA to the media and to sponsors, such that it may receive the support that it could garner, they have failed to properly administer the basic functions of the awards to cater to the reasonableness of it initial intent. It is therefore a good time for the officers who run the ABA to introspect and initiate progressive changes because these are urgently needed… if and only if, the objective of the awards is to recognise excellence in the industry. Excellence cannot be honoured by mediocrity, the converse is true. The officers must stop holding the stakeholders to ransom and must come to the mature understanding that ITI meant for the awards to be for the industry and not the few who might have been privileged to be a part of its ‘physiology’. The ABA must understand that it operates in several environments and that such a recognition would go a far way in curing it of the arrogance that now plagues it. The disease has been diagnosed and it has been found treatable. However, if a good prognosis is to be realised, ABA must accept that it is sick and hence commence the administration of medicine.
I know that I will be ultimately accused of saying these things because I have not won an award. I have indeed won a number of awards from the ABA but I have not been hypocritical enough to collect any of them. There is too much hypocrites in the industry, who echo the sentiments that I have in private, but have not the balls to take their comments to the public table so that all can eat of it. Call me a case of sour grapes or a cry cry baby but do not call me a hypocrite.
The ABA lacks the creative, insightful and pragmatic management that is required for a truly productive and developmental representation of the industry. It is time that the constructive criticisms of the ABA be treated with respect and a positive attitude. If patrons come to your show and tell you that the show is bad, do you tell them to kiss your ass? No you either close the show, revamp it or keep it going and the bank takes your house. When you are running your house do as you like but when you seek to represent serious industry builder, do so with professionalism, humility and respect. The comments from us, should not be absorbed in the personal fabric of those who run it. If you are going to represent an industry so with professional disposition and follow the example set by the other professional bodies and peer groups that have shown much success of similar representation.
Paul O. Beale, 2012

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