The Board, Management and Staff of Queen’s Hall extend sincerest condolences to the family of beloved playwright Tony Hall who passed away on Monday 27th April 2020. Condolences are also extended to the theatre and film fraternity who revered him as their mentor and friend.
Tony Hall (Michael Anthony Hall) was born on July 16, 1948 in San Fernando. He was a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director. He was also known as a producer/presenter on the Gayelle television series (1985-1990), a ground-breaking cultural magazine for television. Tony wrote and directed for street, stage and screen since the late 1960s. From the mid ‘70s, he created award winning works as screenwriter, director, producer and performer in film, video, and TV, mainly with a collective of artists at Banyan Studio. Those projects include: ‘And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon’ (1992/USA release 1994), an award-winning BBC/TVE/Banyan documentary that gave “an astonishingly searing look at TV” in the Caribbean.
From 1987, he collaborated in Carnival as a mas-maker, working closely with master masman Peter Minshall. An alumnus of the University of Alberta and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Tony presented the Jouvay Popular Theatre Process (JPTP), implemented worldwide as a performance model for actor ‘training’ and play-making as well as for personal and community development. Tony conducted his theatre practice in Trinidad through his own Lordstreet Theatre “Peoples of the Sea” Company, which he co-founded with Errol Fabien in 1990, and a Playwrights Workshop, which he started in 2003.
With the former, he created landmark plays including: ‘Jean and Dinah…Speak Their Minds Publicly’ (1994), winner of five Cacique Awards for theatre in 1994-95; ‘Twilight Cafe’ (2001), also winner of five Cacique Awards for theatre in 2002-‘03; ‘The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club’ (2006) with lyrics and music by David Rudder, awarded Most Outstanding Original Music in 2006; and ‘MIss Miles the Woman of the World’ (2011). A Tobago resident, Tony contributed as lecturer and arts facilitator at many institutions in the USA and Europe, as well as the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) and The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine. (Source: Dominic Kalipersad).
May his contribution to the culture and the TT identity be remembered, always. Rest in Peace.
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