Jumbies: A Caribbean Musical Drama
by Dr. Leah Brown

Jumbies: Act 1 Scene 2

Jumbies: Act 2 Scene 2

Abstract

This production of Jumbies: A Caribbean Musical Drama served as the culmination of a course in the Artist Diploma Program at UTT's Academy for the Performing Arts called Music Production. The course gave students both onstage and backstage experience within a production and provided them with an opportunity to participate in the implementation of a production from its conception to its final performance. Apart from taking on performing roles in the show, under the direction of faculty, students were able to plan and implement a production through a series of task-oriented procedures and activities; from designing programs and fliers and organizing photo-shoots to scheduling and running rehearsals and planning a production budget. Students in the course also participated in the workshopping of characters, their stories and resolutions, all as part of the creative crucible that the course provides. This new musical uses Caribbean themes and motives and has taken on a didactic and restorative function as it explores a range of social issues like environmental degradation, food purity, drug addiction, domestic abuse, mental health, and corporate control. Since its writing the musical has inspired other pieces of research that focus on the benefits of taking musical theatre into communities in crisis.

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