JCDC Auditions for Performing Arts Competition Begin Jan. 21
By: , January 18, 2019The Key Point:
Photo: Rudranath Fraser
Students of Portmore Missionary Preparatory School, in St. Catherine, performing a dance, titled ‘Dutchy Bangarang’, during the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Mello-Go-Roun’ festival family show, held in August, 2018, at the National Arena, Kingston. The annual Mello-Go-Roun’ features the best of the best in the Performing Arts.The Facts
- The competition constitutes five major areas of the arts, including music, speech, dance, traditional folk forms and drama.
- On Monday at 9:00 a.m. auditions in the areas of music, speech and dance will take place at the St Luke’s Anglican Church Hall , 89 Slipe Road, Kingston; St Andrew Parish Church Hall, 16 Ellesmere Road, Kingston and St. John’s Methodist Action Centre, 2 Duke Street, Montego Bay, respectively.
The Full Story
Islandwide auditions for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) National Performing Arts Competition will commence on Monday, January 21.
The competition constitutes five major areas of the arts, including music, speech, dance, traditional folk forms and drama.
On Monday at 9:00 a.m. auditions in the areas of music, speech and dance will take place at the St Luke’s Anglican Church Hall , 89 Slipe Road, Kingston; St Andrew Parish Church Hall, 16 Ellesmere Road, Kingston and St. John’s Methodist Action Centre, 2 Duke Street, Montego Bay, respectively.
Information regarding the schedule can be obtained online at the JCDC’s website, www.jcdc.gov.jm or at the JCDC Head office, 3-5 Phoenix Avenue and the JCDC parish offices islandwide.
Director of Community, Cultural and Development Services, Marjorie Leyden Vernon, told JIS News that auditions are a critical stage of the competition.
“This is where it will be determined if you move on to compete at the parish finals and from the parish finals this is where you earn your various medals – bronze, silver, gold – also your certificates of merit and participation,” she outlined.
Further, she said that at the parish finals a decision is made on whether “your item has reached the mark and level to move on to compete at the national finals for trophies and awards.”
Mrs. Leyden Vernon noted that the auditions, which will run until March 4, 2019, will be held at 13 locations across the island.
She said the auditions are open to all Jamaicans, “from age six and below to as old as you would want to be able to participate.”
“So, there is no age boundary in the performing arts competition,” Mrs. Leyden Vernon added.
She said that persons who missed the deadline for submitting their entries can still do so at the auditions. However, she is advising that they visit a JCDC parish office prior to the event to get further details on the category and venues for the auditions.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Leyden Vernon informed that the JCDC has received some 5,000 entries.
“At this time we have seen quite a few entries in the competition…We are looking to increase that to almost 10,000 based on former years of entries in the competition,” she said, adding that entries were opened since October 2018.
“So, we have been in the communities gathering the entries. Persons have been notified and have been coming in with their entries, so we are now at the round where we will see the entries and make that determination of who moves on to the parish finals,” she noted.
The JCDC has been running the performing arts competition for over 50 years. It is one of the strategies of the Commission to preserve the performing arts in Jamaica.