Kevin Roderiques' crime drama "Number Seven" to debut Off-Broadway for Vincentian independence
The play, with a 12-member all-Vincentian cast, will be staged in Kingstown on September 5 before its New York run on October 24.
NEW YORK, United States. Vincentian playwright Kevin Roderiques' crime drama "Number Seven" is set to premiere Off-Broadway during celebrations of St Vincent and the Grenadines' 47th independence anniversary in New York.
Roderiques, who wrote and directed the play, said it would first be staged at Russell's Auditorium in Kingstown on Saturday, September 5, before its Off-Broadway debut on October 24 at Nazareth Regional High School, 475 East 57th Street, Brooklyn.
"'Number Seven' marks a significant milestone for the nation's arts community," he said.
A murder in high society
The play centres on the murder of a prominent lawyer, Douglas Hamilton, and follows police detectives as they investigate several suspects in a case involving blackmail, jealousy, fear and betrayal.
Roderiques said it was celebrated as "the first Vincentian play to address crime within the upper echelons of society". It has previously been staged in Grenada and St Lucia.
The 12-member, all-Vincentian cast will serve as "cultural ambassadors for the nation", he said.
Thirty years in the making
Roderiques, who leads the Agape Performing Arts Theatre and has worked in Vincentian theatre for three decades, called the production "a dream 30 years in the making".
"For 30 years, I have poured my heart onto stages across this nation. Every late night, every empty house, every standing ovation led here," he said. "'Number Seven' is my gift to the people who believed in Vincentian theatre when belief was hard to find."
"This is not my moment. It is our moment," he added.
An earlier Vincentian production
Vincentian playwright Jerol Huggins Jackson said his own full-length drama, "Truth Be Told", was staged Off-Broadway at the 777 Theatre in New York with an entirely Vincentian cast in September 2013.
He said that production was also presented at venues including the Segal Centre for Performing Arts in Montreal, Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto and Cramton Auditorium at Howard University in Washington, as well as theatres across the Caribbean.
"These documented performances clearly establish that a full-length play written and directed by a Vincentian and performed by a Vincentian cast appeared on a New York stage more than a decade," he said.
