Cy Grant
Encyclopedia
Cy Grant was a Guyanese
actor, singer, writer and poet, who in the 1950s became the first black person to appear regularly on British television
. Following service in the Royal Air Force
during World War II
, he worked as an actor and singer, before setting up the Drum Arts Centre in the 1970s appointed director of Concord Multicultural Festivals in the early 1980s. A published poet and author of several books, including his 2007 memoir Blackness and the Dreaming Soul, he was an Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University
, a title awarded in 1997, and since 2001 a member of the Scientific and Medical Network. In 2008 he was instrumental in setting up an online archive to trace and commemorate Caribbean aircrew from World War II. A father of four children, Grant lived in Highgate
, London
, with his wife Dorith.
, Demerara
, British Guiana
(modern-day Guyana
), one of seven children in a close-knit middle-class family. His father was a Moravia
n minister and his mother a music teacher originally from Antigua
. At the age of 11, he moved with his family to New Amsterdam
, Berbice
. After leaving high school, Grant worked as a clerk in the office of a stipendiary magistrate but was unable to study law overseas because of lack of funds.
, which had begun to admit non-white candidates following great losses in the early years of the war. One of around 500 young men recruited from the Caribbean
for aircrew, he was commissioned as an officer after training in England as a navigator. He joined 103 Squadron
based at Elsham Wolds
in Lincolnshire
, one of a seven-man crew of a Lancaster Bomber. On his third mission, Flight Lieutenant
Grant was shot down over the Netherlands
during the 1943 RAF offensive, Battle of the Ruhr
. He parachuted to safety in a field but was captured by the Germans and was made a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III
camp, 160 km east of Berlin
. He was finally liberated by Allied Forces
in 1945.
In 2007 Grant took part in filming for the documentary Into the Wind, directed by Steven Hatton. The film, a feature length documentary about the veterans of Bomber Command, features Cy talking about his wartime experiences as a Lancaster navigator.
in London and qualified as a barrister
in 1950. Despite his distinguished war record and legal qualifications he was unable to find work at the Bar
and decided to take up acting. Apart from earning him a living, he saw acting as way to improve his diction for when he finally entered Chambers.
His first role was for a Moss Empire tour in which he starred in a play called 13 Death St., Harlem. He career received a boost after successfully auditioning for Laurence Olivier
and his Festival of Britain
Company, which led to appearances at the St. James Theatre
in London and the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York
.
But faced with limited roles for black actors, he decided to increase his earning potential by becoming a singer, having learnt to sing and play the guitar as a youngster in Guiana. This proved very successful and he was soon appearing in revues and top cabaret venues like Esmeralda's Barn, singing Caribbean and other folk songs, as well as on BBC
radio (The Third Programme and the Overseas Service
) and on his own Associated TeleVision
series, For Members Only.
In 1956, he co-starred with Nadia Cattouse
and Errol John
in a BBC TV drama Man from the sun, about Caribbean migrants, and appeared in the World War II film Sea Wife
, alongside Richard Burton
and Joan Collins
(1957).
In 1957, Grant was asked to take part in the BBC's daily topical show, Tonight
, to sing the news in calypso
. The journalist Bernard Levin
provided the words and Grant strung them together. Tonight was hugely popular and turned Grant, the first black face to appear regularly on TV, into a household name. But he left after two and a half years, anxious not to become typecast.
His acting career continued apace and in 1957 he appeared in Home of the Brave, an award-winning TV drama by Arthur Laurents
, and travelled the following year to Jamaica
for the filming of Calypso in which he played the romantic lead.
Grant's general frustration with the lack of good roles for black actors was briefly tempered in 1965 when he played the lead in Othello
at the Phoenix Theatre
in Leicester
, a role for which white actors at the time routinely "blacked up
". Between 1967 and 1968 he also voiced the role of Lieutenant Green
in Gerry Anderson
's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
, becoming the first regular black male character in televised science fiction.
A brief return to the Bar in 1972 reflected Grant's disenchantment with show business as well as his growing politicisation. After spending six months at a Chambers
in the Middle Temple, he decided he no longer had any passion for the law and resolved to challenge discrimination through the arts.
an John Mapondera, Grant set up the Drum Arts Centre in London to provide a springboard for black artistic talent in 1974. Considered a landmark in the development of black theatre, among its highlights was a series of summer workshops in 1975 at Morley College
run by Steve Carter
of New York's Negro Ensemble Theatre. This led to a production of Bread by Mustapha Matura
at the Young Vic and workshops with the National Theatre
for two consecutive years. In 1977 Ola Rotimi
produced his Nigerian adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, titled The Gods are not to Blame
, at Jackson's Lane Community Centre and Greenwich Theatre
; while The Swamp Dwellers by Wole Soyinka
was produced at the Commonwealth Institute theatre. Drum, which was based in London's Covent Garden
, also premiered Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts
at the ICA
in 1975. Among the exhibitions it mounted was Behind the Mask – Afro-Caribbean Poets and Playwrights in Words and Pictures at the Commonwealth Institute and the National Theatre in 1979.
Grant stood down as chair of Drum in 1978 following internal disagreements, leaving him room to concentrate on his one-man show of the epic prose poem by Aimé Césaire
(Cahier d'un retour au pays Natal), an attack on colonialism and European values that Grant cites as a major influence on his thinking. After a platform performance at the National Theatre and a two-week production at the Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre
, he began a two-year nationwide tour in 1977.
In 1981, Grant became director of Concord Multicultural Festivals in the 1980s, which over the next four years staged 22 multicultural festivals in cities in England and Wales
, beginning in Nottingham
. These were followed by two county-wide festivals in Devon
(1986) and Gloucestershire
(1987). Both lasted several months and involved a vast range of local, national and international artists, as well as workshops, in an attempt to celebrate the cultural diversity of present-day Britain.
(1973); Bricktops, Rome
(1956); and for GTV 9, Melbourne
. In addition, he entertained British forces in Cyprus
, the Maldives
, Singapore
and Libya
. His concert appearances include the Kongresshalle of the Deutsches Museum
in Munich
(1963), and Queen Elizabeth Hall
, London (1971). In 1989 he helped organise the One Love Africa, Save The Children International Music Festival, in Zimbabwe.
Grant recorded five LPs
. His 1964 LP Cool Folk (World Record Club), which features Where have all the flowers gone? Yellow Bird, O Pato, Blowing in the Wind, Work Song, and Every Night When the Sun Goes Down, is a collector's item.
His other LPs are Cy Grant (Transatlantic Records
); Cy & I, with Bill LeSage (World Record Club
); Ballads, Birds & Blues, (Reality Records); and Cy Grant Sings (Donegall Records).
Two of his best known singles are King Cricket and The Constantine Calypso, recorded in 1966 for Pye in celebration of Garfield Sobers
and Learie Constantine
respectively, two of the West Indies' most famous cricketers. Both songs were featured in the BBC2 series Empire of Cricket (June 2009).
Grant's recording involvement in British radio broadcasting was also extensive. The BBC Sound Archive
has more than 90 entries for his radio work between 1954 and 1997. These include a series of six meditations based on 24 of the 81 chapters of the Tao te Ching
for the BBC World Service
, The Way of the Tao, 1980; The Calypso Chronicles, six programmes for BBC Radio 2
, 1994; Panning for Gold, two programmes for BBC Radio 2; Amazing Grace
, BBC Radio 2; Day Light Come and Wild Blue for BBC Radio 4
.
In addition, Grant discussed his experiences as one of the first generation of African-Caribbean actors in Black Screen Britain: Part 1 - Ambassadors for the Race, on BBC Radio 4 (March 2009), and TV's Black Pioneers on BBC Four
(June 2007).
In May 2008 Grant went to Holland to visit Joost and Hans, and the idea for the website took root. It was launched on 17 October 2008, with the names of 70 West Indians who had flown for the RAF. But thanks to regular updates by surviving crew and relatives, as well as by historians in the field, it is now known they numbered around 440 and that at least 70 were commissioned and 103 were decorated.
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
actor, singer, writer and poet, who in the 1950s became the first black person to appear regularly on British television
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
. Following service in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he worked as an actor and singer, before setting up the Drum Arts Centre in the 1970s appointed director of Concord Multicultural Festivals in the early 1980s. A published poet and author of several books, including his 2007 memoir Blackness and the Dreaming Soul, he was an Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University
Roehampton University
The University of Roehampton is a campus university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, south-west London.-History:...
, a title awarded in 1997, and since 2001 a member of the Scientific and Medical Network. In 2008 he was instrumental in setting up an online archive to trace and commemorate Caribbean aircrew from World War II. A father of four children, Grant lived in Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, with his wife Dorith.
Early life
Grant was born in the village of BeterverwagtingBeterverwagting
Beterverwagting, also known as B.V, is a village located in South America Guyana; on the East Coast of the Demerara river. Located roughly 10 miles from the capital Georgetown, its an important feeder village for the sugar estate located in La Bonne Intention, a village adjacent to it...
, Demerara
Demerara
Demerara was a region in South America in what is now Guyana that was colonised by the Dutch in 1611. The British invaded and captured the area in 1796...
, British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
(modern-day Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
), one of seven children in a close-knit middle-class family. His father was a Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
n minister and his mother a music teacher originally from Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
. At the age of 11, he moved with his family to New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam , located in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, 62 miles from the capital, Georgetown, is one of the largest towns in Guyana. It is located four miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean mouth of the Berbice River, on its eastern bank, immediately south of the Canje River...
, Berbice
Berbice
Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1815 a colony of the Netherlands. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom in the latter year, it was merged with Essequibo and Demerara to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831...
. After leaving high school, Grant worked as a clerk in the office of a stipendiary magistrate but was unable to study law overseas because of lack of funds.
Career in the Royal Air Force
In 1941 he joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, which had begun to admit non-white candidates following great losses in the early years of the war. One of around 500 young men recruited from the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
for aircrew, he was commissioned as an officer after training in England as a navigator. He joined 103 Squadron
No. 103 Squadron RAF
No. 103 Squadron was a Royal Air Force bomber squadron during World War I, World War II and the Cold War, switching to helicopters in the late 1950s until it was disbanded for the last time in 1975.-Formation in World War I:...
based at Elsham Wolds
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Elsham Wolds is a former Royal Air Force station in England, which operated in World War I and World War II. It is located just to the north east of the village of Elsham in north Lincolnshire.-World War I:...
in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, one of a seven-man crew of a Lancaster Bomber. On his third mission, Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
Grant was shot down over the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
during the 1943 RAF offensive, Battle of the Ruhr
Battle of the Ruhr
The Battle of the Ruhr was a 5-month long campaign of strategic bombing during the Second World War against the Nazi Germany Ruhr Area, which had coke plants, steelworks, and 10 synthetic oil plants...
. He parachuted to safety in a field but was captured by the Germans and was made a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III was a Luftwaffe-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. It was in the German Province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan , southeast of Berlin...
camp, 160 km east of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He was finally liberated by Allied Forces
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
in 1945.
In 2007 Grant took part in filming for the documentary Into the Wind, directed by Steven Hatton. The film, a feature length documentary about the veterans of Bomber Command, features Cy talking about his wartime experiences as a Lancaster navigator.
Showbusiness career
After World War II, he decided to pursue his original ambition and study law, seeing it as a way to challenge racism and social injustice. He became a member of the Middle TempleMiddle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
in London and qualified as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
in 1950. Despite his distinguished war record and legal qualifications he was unable to find work at the Bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...
and decided to take up acting. Apart from earning him a living, he saw acting as way to improve his diction for when he finally entered Chambers.
His first role was for a Moss Empire tour in which he starred in a play called 13 Death St., Harlem. He career received a boost after successfully auditioning for Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
and his Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
Company, which led to appearances at the St. James Theatre
St. James Theatre
The St. James Theatre is located at 246 W. 44th St. Broadway, New York City, New York. It was built by Abraham L. Erlanger, theatrical producer and a founding member of the Theatrical Syndicate, on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant. It opened in 1927 as The Erlanger...
in London and the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
But faced with limited roles for black actors, he decided to increase his earning potential by becoming a singer, having learnt to sing and play the guitar as a youngster in Guiana. This proved very successful and he was soon appearing in revues and top cabaret venues like Esmeralda's Barn, singing Caribbean and other folk songs, as well as on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio (The Third Programme and the Overseas Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
) and on his own Associated TeleVision
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
series, For Members Only.
In 1956, he co-starred with Nadia Cattouse
Nadia Cattouse
Nadia Cattouse is an actress, singer and songwriter....
and Errol John
Errol John
Errol John was a Trinidadian actor and playwright.Born in Trinidad, he was home schooled then began his career as an artist and journalist. Deciding to pursue a career in acting, he joined the Whitehall Theatre Group...
in a BBC TV drama Man from the sun, about Caribbean migrants, and appeared in the World War II film Sea Wife
Sea Wife
Sea Wife is a British film based on the 1955 James Maurice Scott novel Sea-Wyf and Biscuit. Shot in Jamaica, the film is set around events in 1942 among a group of survivors from a torpedoed British refugee ship.-Plot:...
, alongside Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
(1957).
In 1957, Grant was asked to take part in the BBC's daily topical show, Tonight
Tonight (1957 TV series)
Tonight was a BBC television current affairs programme presented by Cliff Michelmore and broadcast in Britain live on weekday evenings from February 1957 to 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne...
, to sing the news in calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
. The journalist Bernard Levin
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin CBE was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by The Times as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship to the independent school Christ's Hospital and went on to the London School of Economics,...
provided the words and Grant strung them together. Tonight was hugely popular and turned Grant, the first black face to appear regularly on TV, into a household name. But he left after two and a half years, anxious not to become typecast.
His acting career continued apace and in 1957 he appeared in Home of the Brave, an award-winning TV drama by Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents
Arthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
, and travelled the following year to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
for the filming of Calypso in which he played the romantic lead.
Grant's general frustration with the lack of good roles for black actors was briefly tempered in 1965 when he played the lead in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, a role for which white actors at the time routinely "blacked up
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
". Between 1967 and 1968 he also voiced the role of Lieutenant Green
Lieutenant Green
Lieutenant Green is the assistant of Colonel White in the Supermarionation television series series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. He is of Trinidadian origin, and as well as being the only non-white male on Cloudbase, he is the only officer to hold the rank of lieutenant...
in Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
, becoming the first regular black male character in televised science fiction.
A brief return to the Bar in 1972 reflected Grant's disenchantment with show business as well as his growing politicisation. After spending six months at a Chambers
Chambers (law)
A judge's chambers, often just called his or her chambers, is the office of a judge.Chambers may also refer to the type of courtroom where motions related to matter of procedure are heard.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :...
in the Middle Temple, he decided he no longer had any passion for the law and resolved to challenge discrimination through the arts.
Cultural activism
In collaboration with ZimbabweZimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an John Mapondera, Grant set up the Drum Arts Centre in London to provide a springboard for black artistic talent in 1974. Considered a landmark in the development of black theatre, among its highlights was a series of summer workshops in 1975 at Morley College
Morley College
Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of 10,806 adult students...
run by Steve Carter
Steve Carter (playwright)
Horace E. "Steve" Carter, Jr. is an American playwright, best known for his plays involving Caribbean immigrants living in the United States.-Biography:...
of New York's Negro Ensemble Theatre. This led to a production of Bread by Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura
Mustapha Matura is a Trinidadian playwright living in London.In 1971 his play As Time Goes By was first performed at the Traverse Theatre Club in Edinburgh and the Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, with a cast of noted Caribbean actors including Stefan Kalipha, Alfred Fagon, Mona...
at the Young Vic and workshops with the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
for two consecutive years. In 1977 Ola Rotimi
Ola Rotimi
Olawale Gladstone Emmanuel Rotimi, best known as Ola Rotimi regarded as one of Nigeria's leading playwrights and theatre directors.- Early life :...
produced his Nigerian adaptation of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, titled The Gods are not to Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale that year...
, at Jackson's Lane Community Centre and Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre
The Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.-Building history:The building was originally a music hall created in 1855 as part of the neighbouring Rose and Crown public house, but the Rose and Crown Music Hall was...
; while The Swamp Dwellers by Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...
was produced at the Commonwealth Institute theatre. Drum, which was based in London's Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, also premiered Sweet Talk by Michael Abbensetts
Michael Abbensetts
Michael Abbensetts is a writer who was born in British Guiana on 8 June 1938. He attended Queen's College from 1952 to 1956, then Stanstead College, Quebec, Canada, and Sir George Williams University, in Montreal ....
at the ICA
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
in 1975. Among the exhibitions it mounted was Behind the Mask – Afro-Caribbean Poets and Playwrights in Words and Pictures at the Commonwealth Institute and the National Theatre in 1979.
Grant stood down as chair of Drum in 1978 following internal disagreements, leaving him room to concentrate on his one-man show of the epic prose poem by Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
(Cahier d'un retour au pays Natal), an attack on colonialism and European values that Grant cites as a major influence on his thinking. After a platform performance at the National Theatre and a two-week production at the Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, he began a two-year nationwide tour in 1977.
In 1981, Grant became director of Concord Multicultural Festivals in the 1980s, which over the next four years staged 22 multicultural festivals in cities in England and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, beginning in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. These were followed by two county-wide festivals in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
(1986) and Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
(1987). Both lasted several months and involved a vast range of local, national and international artists, as well as workshops, in an attempt to celebrate the cultural diversity of present-day Britain.
Recording career
Grant performed Caribbean folk songs and calypso all over the world, including Esmeralda's Barn in London (residency, 1950s); the New Stanley Hotel, NairobiNairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
(1973); Bricktops, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(1956); and for GTV 9, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. In addition, he entertained British forces in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. His concert appearances include the Kongresshalle of the Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
(1963), and Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
, London (1971). In 1989 he helped organise the One Love Africa, Save The Children International Music Festival, in Zimbabwe.
Grant recorded five LPs
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
. His 1964 LP Cool Folk (World Record Club), which features Where have all the flowers gone? Yellow Bird, O Pato, Blowing in the Wind, Work Song, and Every Night When the Sun Goes Down, is a collector's item.
His other LPs are Cy Grant (Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records
Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. It was established in 1961. It started began primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records - by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom. Within a couple of years, the company had...
); Cy & I, with Bill LeSage (World Record Club
World Record Club
The World Record Club Ltd. was the name of a company in the United Kingdom which issued long-playing records and reel to reel tapes, mainly of classical music and jazz, through a membership mail-order system during the 1950s and 1960s....
); Ballads, Birds & Blues, (Reality Records); and Cy Grant Sings (Donegall Records).
Two of his best known singles are King Cricket and The Constantine Calypso, recorded in 1966 for Pye in celebration of Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers AO, OCC is a former cricketer who captained West Indies. His first name of Garfield is variously abbreviated as Gary or Garry. He is widely regarded as one of cricket's greatest ever all-rounders, having excelled at all the essential skills of batting, bowling and...
and Learie Constantine
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine MBE was a West Indian cricketer who played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. He took West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket and was the team's leading all-rounder and opening bowler for the entirety of his career...
respectively, two of the West Indies' most famous cricketers. Both songs were featured in the BBC2 series Empire of Cricket (June 2009).
Grant's recording involvement in British radio broadcasting was also extensive. The BBC Sound Archive
BBC Sound Archive
The BBC Sound Archive is a collection of audio recordings maintained by the BBC and founded in 1936. Its recordings date back to the late 19th century and include many rare items including contemporary speeches by public and political figures, folk music, British dialects and sound...
has more than 90 entries for his radio work between 1954 and 1997. These include a series of six meditations based on 24 of the 81 chapters of the Tao te Ching
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching, Dao De Jing, or Daodejing , also simply referred to as the Laozi, whose authorship has been attributed to Laozi, is a Chinese classic text...
for the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
, The Way of the Tao, 1980; The Calypso Chronicles, six programmes for BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, 1994; Panning for Gold, two programmes for BBC Radio 2; Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton , published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God,...
, BBC Radio 2; Day Light Come and Wild Blue for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
In addition, Grant discussed his experiences as one of the first generation of African-Caribbean actors in Black Screen Britain: Part 1 - Ambassadors for the Race, on BBC Radio 4 (March 2009), and TV's Black Pioneers on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
(June 2007).
Writings
- Ring of Steel, Pan Sound and Symbol, published by Macmillan Caribbean. The history, science and musicology of the steelpanSteelpanSteelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
, the only acoustic instrument to be invented in the 20th century.
- A Member of the Royal Air Force of Indeterminate Race, published by Woodfield Publishing, 2006, takes its title from the translation of a caption that appeared beneath Grant's photograph in a German newspaper shortly after his capture by the SS in 1943 – evidently sneering at the RAF's deployment of black aircrew.
- Rivers of Time: Collected Poems of Cy Grant, published by Naked Light, 2006, maps Grant's poetical journey through life, from his teenage years to the present, and reflecting the influences that have come to bear on him in his understanding of himself and the world. Some of the 88 poems have appeared in earlier collections: Blue Foot Traveler: An anthology of West Indian Poets in Britain by James Berry, 1976; Caribbean Voices: Vol 2, The Blue Horizons by John FigueroaJohn FigueroaJohn Joseph Maria Figueroa was a Jamaican poet and educator, of Galician origin.Figueroa taught at the School of Education of the University of the West Indies Mona campus, and at universities in Britain, Africa, and the United States...
, 1970.
- Blackness and the Dreaming Soul: Race, Identity and the Materialistic Paradigm, published by Shoving Leopard, 2007. Part autobiography, part cultural study and part philosophical exposition, the book tells the story of Grant's long journey of self-discovery and the major influences upon it, from Aimé CésaireAimé CésaireAimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
and Lao Tzu to PythagorasPythagorasPythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
and African mythology. It is, above all, a critique of the dualisitic nature of Western culture that has led to our alienation from ourselves and the natural world.
- Our Time is Now: Six Essays on the Need for Reawakening, a collection of essays published 11 February 2010. ISBN 0-9562901-2-4.
Caribbean aircrew archive
The website Caribbean aircrew in the RAF during WW2 aims to provide a permanent archive of volunteers from the West Indies who flew for the RAF but whose contribution has been generally overlooked. It is the initiative of Cy Grant and Hans Klootwijk, author of Lancaster W4827: Failed to Return, which recounts the fate of Grant and his fellow crew members after their plane was shot down over the Netherlands in 1943. The book is based on research carried out by Hans' father, Joost Klootwijk, who was 11 when the bomber crashed into a farmhouse in his village.In May 2008 Grant went to Holland to visit Joost and Hans, and the idea for the website took root. It was launched on 17 October 2008, with the names of 70 West Indians who had flown for the RAF. But thanks to regular updates by surviving crew and relatives, as well as by historians in the field, it is now known they numbered around 440 and that at least 70 were commissioned and 103 were decorated.
Stage career, television and filmography
- Member of the Lawrence Olivier Festival of BritainFestival of BritainThe Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
Company, London and New York, 1951 - Man from the sun – BBC TV drama, 1956
- Sea WifeSea WifeSea Wife is a British film based on the 1955 James Maurice Scott novel Sea-Wyf and Biscuit. Shot in Jamaica, the film is set around events in 1942 among a group of survivors from a torpedoed British refugee ship.-Plot:...
– World War ll film co-starring Richard BurtonRichard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Joan CollinsJoan CollinsJoan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
; "Number 4"; 1957 - Home of the Brave – Granada TV drama by Arthur LaurentsArthur LaurentsArthur Laurents was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S...
, 1956 - TonightTonight (1957 TV series)Tonight was a BBC television current affairs programme presented by Cliff Michelmore and broadcast in Britain live on weekday evenings from February 1957 to 1965. The producers were the future Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock and the future Director-General of the BBC Alasdair Milne...
– singing "topical calypsos", BBC TV, 1957–60 - Calypso – film directed by Franco RossiFranco RossiFranco Rossi was an Italian film screenwriter and director, mainly known for having directed the six hour long Italian-German-British-Swiss TV mini-series Quo Vadis? in 1985....
co-starring Sally Neal and Louise Bennett-CoverleyLouise Bennett-CoverleyLouise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou, OM, OJ, MBE was a Jamaican folklorist, writer, and educator. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica and attended Ebenezer and Calabar Elementary Schools, St...
, 1958 - The Encyclopaedist – drama by John MortimerJohn MortimerSir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, BBC TV, 1961 - OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
– Phoenix TheatrePhoenix Arts CentreUpper Brown Street is a theatre in the city centre of Leicester, England. The centre hosted live shows and films of the arthouse and world cinema genres. In 2010 it was reborn as an important music training and performance venue under a new name.- History :In the 1963 Leicester City Council ...
, LeicesterLeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, 1965 - Cindy Ella – musical based on Cinderella; with Cleo LaineCleo LaineDame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...
and Elizabeth Welch, and George Brown, Garrick TheatreGarrick TheatreThe Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
, London, 1966. (Cindy Ella was also a BBC2 production in 1967 and issued as a LP) - Captain Scarlet and the MysteronsCaptain Scarlet and the MysteronsCaptain Scarlet and the Mysterons, often referred to as Captain Scarlet, is a 1960s British science-fiction television series produced by the Century 21 Productions company of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, John Read and Reg Hill...
– sci-fi puppet series as the voice of Lieutenant GreenLieutenant GreenLieutenant Green is the assistant of Colonel White in the Supermarionation television series series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. He is of Trinidadian origin, and as well as being the only non-white male on Cloudbase, he is the only officer to hold the rank of lieutenant...
; ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, 1967–68 - The Persuaders!The Persuaders!The Persuaders! is a 1971 action/adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment for initial broadcast on ITV and ABC. It has been called "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that had begun eleven years earlier with Danger Man in 1960", as well as "the most ambitious and most...
– one episode of TV series, with Tony CurtisTony CurtisTony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, Roger MooreRoger MooreSir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
, Carmen MunroeCarmen MunroeCarmen Munroe OBE is a British actress, born in Berbice, Guyana. Since the early 1950s she has been a resident of the UK. She made her West End stage debut in 1962 and has since played an instrumental role in the development of black British theatre and representation on small screen...
; 1971 - Shaft in AfricaShaft in AfricaShaft in Africa, released in 1973, is the third film in the blaxploitation trilogy of films that starred actor Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. John Guillermin directed and Stirling Silliphant did the screenplay. The cost went up to $2,142, 000, but the gross fell to $1,458,000...
– action film co-starring Richard RoundtreeRichard RoundtreeRichard Roundtree is an American actor and former fashion model. He is best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and in its two sequels, Shaft's Big Score and Shaft in Africa .-Personal life:Born in New Rochelle, New York, Richard Roundtree graduated from...
; diplomat Emir Ramila; 1973 - Freedom Road: Songs of Negro Protest – musical reconstruction of US Civil Rights struggle with Cleo Laine, Elizabeth Welch, Madeline BellMadeline BellMadeline Bell is an American soul singer, who became famous as a performer in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, having arrived from the US in the gospel show Black Nativity in 1962, with vocal group The Bradford Singers.-Career:She worked as a session singer, most notably backing for Dusty...
and Pearl Prescod; ATV/Elkan Allan, 1964 - Softly, SoftlySoftly, Softly: TaskforceSoftly, Softly the popular BBC television police drama series, was revamped in 1969, partly to coincide with the coming of colour broadcasting to BBC 1...
– one episode of detective series; BBC TV, 1974, - The Iceman ComethThe Iceman ComethThe Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1940 the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 9 October 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling where it ran for 136 performances to close on 15 March 1947.-Characters:* Night Hawk-...
– by Eugene O'Neil; Royal Shakespeare CompanyRoyal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, 1976 - At the Earth's CoreAt the Earth's Core (film)At the Earth's Core is a 1976 science fiction film produced by Britain's Amicus Productions. It was directed by Kevin Connor and starred Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Philippa Herring and Doug McClure. It was filmed in Technicolor...
– sci fi film with Peter Cushing; Ra; 1976 - Return to my Native Land – platform performance Lyttleton Theatre, National Theatre; one-man show, Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court TheatreRoyal Court TheatreThe Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
; and national tour 1977-79 - Night and DayNight and Day (play)Night and Day is a 1978 play by Tom Stoppard. The sets and costumes were designed by Carl Toms and it ran for two years at the Phoenix Theatre in central London, UK. The lead roles of Richard Wagner and Ruth Carson were created by John Thaw and Diana Rigg, respectively.The play is post-colonial in...
– by Tom StoppardTom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
, Derby Theatre, 1981 - Blake's 7Blake's 7Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
– sci-fi series; Hal Mellanby; BBC TV, 1980 - Metal MickeyMetal Mickeythumb|Metal Mickey, a robot character on UK children's television in the 1980sMetal Mickey was a five-foot-tall fictional robot, which was created, controlled and voiced by Johnny Edward. A modernised vision of a 1950s space toy, Metal Mickey first appeared on British television in the ITV...
– children's TV series; Mr Young; London Weekend TV, 1981–82 - Maskarade – Jamaican Christmas musical directed by Yvonne BrewsterYvonne BrewsterYvonne Brewster, O.B.E. is a stage director, teacher and writer.Born in Jamaica, Yvonne Brewster went to the UK to study drama in the mid-fifties at the Rose Bruford College and the Royal Academy of Music...
for Talawa Theatre CompanyTalawa Theatre CompanyThe Talawa Theatre Company was founded in London in 1985 by Jamaican born Yvonne Brewster, Mona Hammond, Carmen Munroe and Inigo Espejel, becoming the UK's most prominent black theatre company...
, Cochrane TheatreCochrane TheatreThe Cochrane Theatre is a receiving and producing theatre that aims to present all aspects of the performing arts within a proscenium arch. The theatre is situated in Holborn, London.-History:...
, London, 1994
External links
- Cy Grant's Website
- Cy Grant's Blog Spot
- Cy Grant - Daily Telegraph obituary