Yvonne Weekes

Catch Yvonne Weekes, Desiree Reynolds and Maya Chowdhry at the Peepal Tree Salon at Waterstones Picadilly, click here for information

Yvonne Weekes believes that if you touch one soul, you change the world. If this is true, her impact has already been as forceful as the volcano she fled. As writer, actor, director, producer, performance poet, teacher facilitator, caring friend and mother, she has touched the souls of many and changed the lives of quite a few.

Yvonne was born in London to Montserratian parents and grew up in London and Montserrat. Yvonne is a graduate/trained teacher of Drama and English. She also holds a Masters Degree in Education gained from the University of the West Indies. She started teaching Drama and English in England in 1981. In 1987 she moved to Montserrat where she taught English and formed the Rainbow Theatre Company directing and producing plays which traveled to a number of the islands. Yvonne has the distinction of being the island's first Director of Culture.

ACTOR
Yvonne Weekes has worked with a number of outstanding Caribbean directors including: David Edgecombe (St. Thomas/ Montserrat), Alwyn Bully (Dominica) Patrick Foster and Thom Cross (Barbados) Henk Tjon (Suriname) and the late Earle Warner (Barbados)

WRITER
Yvonne is the winner of the distinguished Frank Collymore Literary Arts Endowment Award for 2005 with her novella entitled 'Volcano"". Yvonne was first published in an anthology of black women writer's entitled ""Charting the Journey"" (1988/London. Her work has been published in a number of anthologies including: Poui VI a literary journal produced annually by the University of the West Indies.

In 2004 she produced her debut CD of spoken word poetry with music entitled Madness. Her performance poetry has been showcased at a number of local events including Cool Jazz and she has been the featured poet at several poetry events in Barbados. 

EDUCATOR
Yvonne has been a key figure in the development of the Caribbean Examination Council Theatre Arts syllabus from its inception. She has also been instrumental in the training of teachers for this examination in St. Lucia, Trinidad and at home in Barbados.

FACILITATOR
Yvonne has successfully combined her all of her skills to offer unique workshops dealing with a number of social issues in order to empower, train and educate. Most notably she has run workshops for the University of the West Indies UWI/HARP project that deals with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She has also facilitated workshops dealing with domestic violence against women

DIRECTOR
Currently she is the Theatre Arts Cordinator in the Performing Arts Department at the Barbados Community College. She directs and produces most of the graduating class' productions. To her credit she has directed ""Ti-Jean and His Brothers"" (Walcott), ""A Hero's Welcome"" (Pinnock), ""The Amen Corner"" by James Baldwin and Shakespeare's. ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"". In 2006 she directed ""Sizwe Bansi Is Dead"" by Athol Fugard as part of the Black History Month celebration for the Embassy of the United States of America - Public Affairs Section.