Email

Print

Alligator High is located in an inner-city community, but the drama unfolds mainly in a staff room. It's a story of rape, teenage pregnancy, dysfunctional families and poverty told from the teachers' perspective. Here's more from the theatre company's rehearsal.

Cherisse Halsall reporting
Saving Alligator High premieres on Friday night at the Bliss Center. It's a play about an Educational institution where everything that can go wrong does.

Julianne Ellis Bradley, Director, Saving Alligator High
"Saving Alligator high is about a school that is in trouble and it is on the brink of being closed by the Ministry because of all the problems you have, you name it, the problem is there at Alligator high and so we will see how they manage if they manage to save Alligator High."

"Some of the problems that you will see in Alligator high may be some things that thankfully we are not there yet but certainly we can see some things such as indiscipline. We can see things such as motivation of staff and students and how we can deal with the day to day issues facing our education system. We also see how the community plays a role as well in the education of our children."

"M'wafica Haynes is one of the actors in the production and he told us that his role in the play has shown him the importance the community can and should play in aiding educators."

M'wafrica Haynes, Actor
"I'm acting as the good guy in this play. I'm excited to be what they call Mr. Bell and it just falls into my character or the type of person, well no the type of person that I am but what I do It's about fitness and I get to teach the kids P.E. and involve the kids in extracurricular activities. I must say that i t really deals with a lot and it's got so many messages that you can take away from it but if we can zero in it's that we should pay like, teachers go through a lot and as a community we should like, get more involved with the schools. The teachers aren't able to do it by themselves and as a community we should get involved and play a more integral part in what the kids do at school."

Saving Alligator High is originally a Jamaican Play written by the prolific playwright Patrick Brown. Julianne Bradley, who is also one of the co-founders of Jankunu Productions, told us why the company decided to adapt it for the Belizean audience.

Julianne Ellis Bradley
"We thought it had a timely message we thought saving Alligator high is able to highlight some of the challenges we face as a society and of course we like the fact that it was a comedy, you laugh but you still get that message that we want you to leave with."

Jankunu Productions started just over a year ago its a theatre production company our aim is to improve and develop theatre in Belize and to build on all the development that has gone on before and to have theatre be a mainstay, we think that Belizean audiences deserve good entertainment, and we think theatre is one of those things that we can see ourselves on stage and we can also have good clean fun that the whole family can enjoy. 02:08

Tickets are on sale now at the Bliss Center with prices ranging from $50-$25. The Play opens this Friday November 15th with two more shows on November 16th and 22nd.