Minshall applauds All Stars victory

Celebrated masman Peter Minshall has applauded the selection of Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars as the 2014 Band of the Year (Large) winner. The Duke Street, Port-of-Spain, band portrayed Sailors Ashore at a Tropical Fiesta, a traditional sailor mas with approximately 2,000 masqueraders. Speaking on Monday, Minshall, who said he was not feeling well, said of the All Stars victory:

“It feels like if every river, even Maracas, was polluted, and have been cleansed. I felt refreshed and clean. It has reached the point where all the other s--t has now balanced itself.” Asked about his input into the production of the Miss Miles band, presented by theatre director and playwright Tony Hall, Minshall said: “I cannot appraise my own work. I was not on the road and only saw pictures of the band in the papers. I never saw it in performance. It was a very elemental design but the challenge was exciting.

“Tony’s inspiration was based on three characters dressed in black some time last year in Woodford Square. I think that Tony needed to have about 100 people to be effective. “I thought that if you are going to put Miss Miles on the road she needed to look young and sexy. She also had to look like an avenging angel.” About the influx of small creative bands in the mas, like K2K, Cat in Bag and Vulgar Fraction, Minshall said: “A band doesn’t have to be big to win Band of the Year.

“One little costume had the power and integrity to upstage an entire Carnival. That’s what art does.” He was referring to his design of the Humming Bird for Sherry Ann Guy in 1974. “There ought to be a competition in which bands need to be no less than 30 and no more than 300 masqueraders. Breaking with all the old rules, one criteria would be the band with the most creative mas will win the prize of $3 million. All young people who would want to do something creative will be inspired by this.”

Refusing to comment further on the Band of the Year competition or the proliferation of bikinis, feathers and beads costuming and mega-sized bands, Minshall added: “The rules for creating art in Africa and in India have always been community-oriented. That is what Carnival has always been and we have that in our memory. ‘Good art’ no longer just happens in a gallery.”

Source: Trinidad Guardian

Minshall goes to Yale

Peter Minshall.

Veteran masman Peter Minshall will tomorrow take on the role of lecturer at the Yale School of Drama, New Haven, Connecticut in the US. Yale School of Drama and International Performance Studies at Yale, in collaboration with Scarlett Project, will host Minshall’s lecture—Blue Devils, Bats, and Fancy Sailors. Minshall will explain what it is “to play mas” and how T&T’s traditional art form has long transcended mere costume and has developed into a performance art—a form of street theatre—the enactment of adornment and a dance of the cloth. In sharing his personal creative journey, Minshall will describe the carnival foundations upon which he has drawn, and the contemporary works of art and theatre that he has created over the course of three decades.

The Bandele people of Peter Minshall’s Lost Tribe 

 He will explain how a mas creation can satisfy all the criteria that constitute a work of art. “Peter Minshall is the most important artist in theatrical/ para-theatrical design in his era—the Picasso of Caribbean carnival,” cited Joseph Roach, professor of Theater and English and director of the International Performance Studies at Yale. Fellow Yale School of Drama professor of directing, David Chambers, said: “Peter Minshall is one of the world’s greatest artists, a true genius and a world leader.This is global public art of the highest order, practised throughout the Caribbean, in Brooklyn, Toronto, London and elsewhere. “We hope this to be just a first step to get Peter Minshall more involved at Yale: in our dreams a full-bore mas down Chapel Street.” Scarlett Project officials are thrilled to have spearheaded this event, which has been one and a half years in the making. A release from Scarlett Project stated, “Minshall trained in Carnival design in the streets of Port-of-Spain and in theatre design in London. Since the 1970s he has pioneered the ‘living art’ of the masman, transforming the notion of puppetry into gigantic sculptural characters that move freely with the energy of live dancers. “Minshall creates mas individuals and mas bands as works of contemporary art that are public, participatory, and performative.

His work has engaged thousands as makers, performers, participants, and viewers, both in the Carnival of Trinidad and in spectacle events worldwide, including ceremonies he designed for the Barcelona and Atlanta Summer Olympics and the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.” More Info Scarlett Project is a non-profit art organisation launched in February 2011. The organisation advocates the region’s interest in creating self-sustaining avenues for those in the creative industry, through producing works from emerging and established Caribbean artists and by providing training and educational workshops on West Indian art. The organisation’s artistic directors are doctorate candidate of Art and Museum Education at Columbia University, Daniela Fifi, and Master of Arts candidate at Yale School of Drama, Paul Pryce.

Source

Related articles

• Designing carnivals: Trinidad's foremost Caribbean artist lectures at Yale Rep, March 23
• The changing face of Carnival
• Carnival is Ackin's profession ...not his release
• Mac Farlane's SANCTIFICATION at the stadium on carnival Monday.
• The cure for Carnival Tabanca

A Minshall Quote.

The Face Book group Peter Minshall  mas fans are celebrating  their first anniversary today. Numbering 1,630 members it continues to grow from strength to strength. Check them out and if you got a Minshall memory or photos you want too share drop in join the group ...enjoy!

Related articles

• Looking for some quotes (edugeek.net)
• 'The Cape': The Best Moments and Quotes from 'Goggles and Hicks' (buddytv.com)