A: Of course! I hate to be called Mr. Joseph. Keep it simple, like a placid lake. Calm. The only time I don’t like it is when a fish jumps up and disturbs the calm.

Q: How long have you been on stage?

A: God have mercy! You are talking about my professional entry on stage. You are making it sound so long. Are you referring to my entry to drama…professionally?

Q: No. The first time you acted.

A: Oh! That was in school, about 8 years old, fighting to get into the choir, hands in the air shouting “Miss! Miss! Me! Me!”

Q: The first big play?

A: I started at Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW) with the older guys. Stanley Marshall, Errol Jones, Derek Walcott. I was taking my God given gift and trying to join with the rules of the theatre.

Q: The gift was obvious at an early age?

A: Yes. My grandmother was the first to spot it. I did alot to get what I wanted. I cried for ice cream, and it wasn’t no child cry. It had to look good.

Q: Your first play?

A: It has been long you know. I think there was a church group at the time doing a TV series and I was paid for that. Suddenly after, TTW asked me to do a part in The Black Jacobins.

Q: And this was when?

A: The 70’s. And then came Smile Orange. The biggest break I got at the time. I had an interview in the Evening News. The interviewer asked what roles I would do and I said, “anything!” My intention was to play so many different characters so that I could build on my ability to perform. As an actor, the more you can play, the more you are able to work. Mind you, I never refused the backstage work. I wanted to learn all aspects of theatre. I did lighting, costume, stage management…I even built sets. I am a Joiner by trade really. I did all this knowing that when the day came for me to run things as a director of producer, I would surely know if somebody is doing shit.

Q: You say that you’re a Joiner by trade?

A: Yes, but I came to realise that building a set is different to building a wardrobe. I understand the entire stage and I advise the young ones to get to know the technical side of things so that they can command the stage properly. Too often people become stars too quickly having done one show and they don’t know the backstage work or have the needed discipline. Those stars pitch and burn out in no time.

Q: While fulfilling your love for drama, what were you also doing from 8 to 4?

A: I was a Clerk in an office due to my studies in Accounting and Business. I went on to Administrative Management. I was actually running a Real Estate office at the time. Then I left because it didn’t allow me time for theatre.

Q: You did this in the 70’s?

A: At the time it was suicide to leave your job for theatre. If you could have married both job and theatre it would have been good.

Q: Did you live off theatre then?

A: Huh! No. You couldn’t!

Q: So what did you do after you left the job?

A: I went on to Sales Management thinking that I could fix the last problem by performing for my customers. I had freedom. When I went to a customer who is spending thousands of dollars, I had to make him happy, and the best way I knew to do that was to talk a lot of shit in between the sales, crack a joke, you know, and I always got the sale.

Q: Then why did you leave that job?

A: After 2 years, I realised that because of the high sales figures I was bringing, I was asked to do more. To spend more time in the office. In other words, I was being forced to drop drama. I could not compromise the fire burning inside of me. How could you explain to a business man, who wants to make millions, that I want to do drama in the evening because it is helping me to cope.

Q: You left and then what?

A: I started my own marketing business, wanting more freedom, but I realised that the freedom I wanted was suffering because my business was successful. I had to make a choice. I chose drama. I knew that I was going to catch my ass. I knew things were going to be hard, but I knew that God had given me a talent and I had to build on it and be financially rewarded from it. To have my cake and eat it. The years after that were long and…they were hell. I think I worked with nearly all the major theatre companies in Trinidad. I had to build myself. I had a plan. Never having a mother and father and all. They were difficult personalities to deal with. They didn’t see me as a talent They saw me only as a helper.

Q: No mother or father? They died?

A: No. They’re alive. Can you imagine having a father in England and he eh have time for you or a mother who right here and she eh have time for you? I was alone. A lot of people don’t realise that when you’re alone, there’s a force that protects you.

Q: It was you and who?

A: 3 brothers and 2 sisters all in the same position. Everyone was on their own.

Q: Where were you all staying?

A: Every-which-where!

Q: At what age?

A: Pre-teens.

Q: How did you survive?

A: I just told you. There is a force within that you have to tap into. If you don’t have anyone, you have to go in and talk to that being inside. I was a bit reclusive you know.

Q: So how did you get an education?

A: I paid for myself to go to school. I remember at the age of 13 asking my mother to go to school. She said “No! You have to work!” I said “no!” A mother’s responsibility is to send their child to school. I told myself, if she wouldn’t do it, I would. It was crazy saying to a child who still wants to play with toys to go to work. This is the first time I am telling anybody these things. Huh!

You are talking about a mother who just packed whatever she had on a truck and left us in an apartment. She said as she left, “if you could pay the rent, pay it.” As children, we didn’t realise the seriousness of the situation because we were happy that she left, until the floor got cold and we became hungry. We had only one more week in the apartment. When the landlady realised what was going on she said nicely, “ I don’t know what to do, but you have until the end of the month.” That was one week away.

…continued Next Week