Buoyed by the encouraging public response to the Barrack Yard Tent Experience (BYTE) during this year’s Carnival, organizers will stage another production at its location in the car park of the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on upper Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain from Friday, July 3 to Sunday, July 4.
It is titled The Arts of War, and will feature another aspect of “barrack yard life,” using calypso and other traditional cultural expressions of Trinidad and Tobago in the telling of the tale.
The BYTE is the brainchild of The Last Badjohn of Calypso (Kurt Allen) and Black Stalin (Dr Leroy Calliste), and is jointly produced by The House of Badjohns and The Office of The Calypso Monarch in dedication to Stalin who is recovering from a stroke.
“It is a war against all the negative elements in the society,” said Allen, of the production. “The story centers around a conflict among children in the community, and the efforts of the elders to resolve it before it escalates into violence. What patrons will see is how our cultural expressions can be used to bring peace and understanding among ourselves.”
The BYTE setting is a barrack yard community, reminiscent of the mid 1900s where the calypso art form was spawned, in which, he said, socially conscious lyrics, melodies, vibrant rhythms, creative medleys, Caribbean fashion, interactive set designs, drama, dance choreographies, and ‘feel good’ music can be found.
The interactive nature of the set design allows for the yard’s occupants, ‘jamettes and saga boys,’ to co-mingle with audience members during the presentation of performances, which in this instance, will include calypso, humour, parang, chutney, spoken word, extempo, steelpan, and limbo, among others.
The BYTE is produced as both a domestic and export product, offering a high level of quality, innovation, vibrancy, heightened sense of expectation, and respectability for which the calypso tent was once known.
“The BYTE intends to be financially profitable and we’re thinking of self-sustenance in a few years, said Allen. “And it is possible based on the model we’ve designed. I also wish to record our appreciation for the support this venture has received from the Ministry of the Arts and Multiculturalism. Our intention is to use this space to stage a production every month, in which our patrons will receive something of value.”
So what exactly is different about The BYTE? It is more of a Broadway-styled production that highlights the creative expressions of T&T, he said, and makes a strong statement that “the arts are not seasonal.”