Emma Lewis (Global Voices) shares an obituary article for UK-born, Jamaica-based educator, writer and theater director Brian Heap, who passed away on Sunday, March 24, 2024. Lewis writes, “Connection meant so much to him; he was a people person.” We are all deeply saddened by this news.
On March 24, England-born educator and stalwart of Jamaican theatre Brian Heapdiedat the age of 73. The Jamaica Gleaner newspaperreportedthat he “had been quietly ailing since September last year [and] passed away while in hospice care.”
Heap is being mourned by many in Jamaica’s theatre world and beyond. In 2020, he was selected as the Caribbean regional winner of the prestigiousCommonwealth Short Story Prizefor his powerful story of grief and family entitled“Mafootoo.”
Partnering with thePhilip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, where he had served as director before his retirement, he donated part of his prize money to set up two contests: a playwriting and a short story competition for students of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
Fellow writer and poet Pamela Mordecai posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Brian Heap leave us and gone to heaven! Will miss you, bredren. May the angels lead you into Paradise where there will be nuff smadi dat will welcome you wid open arms. Condolences and comfort to all who are dear to you…”
“Smadi” is a Jamaican term for an important or significant person.
Puerto Rico-based poet and academic Loretta Collins Klobah recalled: “Another person who mentored me kindly in Jamaica has passed on. Brian Heap, was a professor of theatre at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, when he talked to me about the island’s drama and helped me find scripts from the annual Pantomime.”
According to his brother, Heap came to Jamaica as a young graduate teacher from “a very working class town in Lancashire.” He was supposed to stay for just two years but never left. Educated at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the University of Leeds, he later completed his doctorate at UWI.
His impact on theatre and education in Jamaica for the past 40-plus years was extraordinary. He taught at Campion College, a high school, and at St. Joseph’s Teacher Training College, both in Kingston, before turning to drama. He later served as Director of Studies at the Jamaica School of Drama (theEdna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts). He was also staff tutor in drama at UWI’s Mona campus from 1975. Arriving as a teacher, he fell in love with Jamaica’s rich theatre tradition and is often described as “Jamaican by assimilation.”
One of Heap’s major achievements was his revival, in 2003, of the University Players, which had become dormant. The group went on tostageboth Caribbean and classic plays and musicals to great acclaim, receiving multiple nominations for Jamaica’s International Theatre InstituteActor Boy Awards. In 2018, heretiredfrom his position as its artistic director, as well as from his duties as staff tutor and head of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts.
Over the course of his career, Heapdirected15 of Jamaica’s annual pantomimes. With his love of Jamaican history and culture, he was the inspiration behind“Augus’ Mawnin’,”an artistic celebration of Emancipation Day (August 1), which was also performed overseas for audiences in the Jamaican diaspora.
In addition, he appeared in productions of Lorraine Hansberry’s “Raisin in the Sun,” Trevor Rhone’s “School’s Out,” Louis Marriott’s “Bedward” and Derek Walcott’s “Remembrance,” and in the pantomimes “Pirate Princess,” and “Bruckins.” He has writtenseveral books, conference papers and articles, and received theSilver Musgrave Medalfrom the Institute of Jamaica in 2002.
In paying tribute to Heap, actress, colleague and friend Hilary Nicholson told Global Voices, “Brian had tremendous intellectual and artistic generosity; he did his work so that others could find and develop their talents in the arts, particularly in theatre arts. He enabled others to enjoy their talents and skills, whether he was working with deaf children, university students, or other colleagues in the theatre.”
She remembered him as “an encouraging, kind and caring theatre director — never imposing his will, but always seeking to connect with others so that they would grow, even as the artistic piece would grow. Connection meant so much to him; he was a people person.”
Noting that Heap worked for years in process drama, drama in education, and drama for development, Nicholson stressed his love for Jamaica and its culture: “He had the ability to incorporate ordinary details of Jamaican culture in his work and to turn the ordinary into something special.” [. . .]
For full article, see https://globalvoices.org/2024/03/27/brian-heap-a-generous-teacher-and-inspiring-figure-in-jamaican-theater-dies-at-age-73/
Also see https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024/03/25/dr-brian-heap-dead/ and https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20240326/tributes-theatre-stalwart-brian-heap
