Recently elected president of the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT) Christine Johnston exudes confidence, is not at all complacent and might be just what NDATT needs to take it into the year 2000.

She wants to see the association become more vocal and more visible in the national scheme of things. And she definitely wants to see the laws regarding censorship changed. It's been moving between the front and the back burners since 1991 when it reared its head in Godfrey Sealy's Home Sweet Home and last year with Jean and Dinah and is surely lurking round a corner.

"We need to find a resolution that is satisfactory to all parties. When Kamla Persad-Bissessar was Minister of Legal Affairs she was trying to help us do something similar to the Cinema Act. We had proceeded to a certain level but now she is gone."

So for NDATT the fight continues. For a while it ad seemed to the general public that a side effect of the censorship issue was the withdrawal of the Central Bank Auditorium as a theatre space, but Johnston says this was not in fact so.

"What happened was the bank told us it had adjusted its corporate policy and wanted to give the space to a broader base. We did in fact meet with the bank this week and they told us they are looking at next year very openly, which is a good thing. There are lots of things in the auditorium that make it ideal for theatre, the point is, there are lots of spaces for lectures and seminars but good theatre space is severely limited."

The past executive had taken on a number of projects, including buying lighting equipment for the little Carib, and Johnston would like to se a continuation of the effort to improve the space at the Little Carib, in collaboration, of course, with the board of management.

Overall, she says she is looking forward to trying to do a number of things. After the AGM she called the executive together and asked each member to put down for future discussion their vision of what they would like to see happen in the next term, so that the vision is united. These, she intends to prioritise for implementation.

Cascade "born and bred" Johnston has a mass of long curly hair and is one of those Trinidadian mixes that you just can't pinpoint. Wrinkling her brow thoughtfully she thinks about it, eventually describing herself as a mix of part Chinese on both her parents' sides, African and 'a little' Portuguese.

She has an air of energy that says she would much rather be off and doing something than sitting still to do an interview. While we talk cell phone and beeper ring constantly mostly simultaneously. It seems that Johnston's entire life was working up to this point. She's been in theatre for 20 years, has been actor, director and producer and spent six years as manager of Queen's hall. She now freelances in events management.

But unbelievably, when she left St Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain, she was really headed for a career as an accountant. She had done an apprenticeship at Pannel Kerr Foster and afterwards a small company called Trinidad Pilots and Berthing Masters Association offered her a job as an accountant.

She didn't get into drama for the simple reason she had not been exposed to it at school and this leads her to talking about her pet peeve.

"I always tell people I happened on theatre purely by accident and this is one of the problems with our schooling system. It's been years since our artists have been trying to get drama considered as a legitimate subject. A lot of children fall through the cracks because they are not academic, neither are they sports minded. They are probably artistic but there is no way for them to address that in the school system.

Mind you, I am not talking about the drama clubs that are extra-curricular. But it can happen that if you are not in class with the particular teacher who is in charge of the club you may never be aware of it, never be exposed. In all my years at Convent for example, I was never aware of the drama club. It is a labour of love for the teacher, yes, but it does not penetrate to everyone."

Fortunately for Johnston, she had always been a singer. Judy Stone was holding auditions for a musical, The Fantastiks, and she, without any previous training or exposure, applied. Through that production she met Errol Fabien and Raymond Choo Kong, now leading lights themselves of the theatre world.

"I remember Raymond had just started working out of the Trinidad Tent Theatre and he told me to come down if I was interested. When I went I saw people falling off ledges, rolling over each other and I said what madness. I thought, I can't do this. But once I got into it I realised I could. It was fun. Helen Camps, who was in charge, was amazing. I got my basic grounding from her and all my basic theatre training came from those days. It was a very exciting time."

But around 1986 there came a split in the Tent Theatre and the Baggasse Company came into being and since then she's been very busy. She freelances as well as an events manager, organising launches and parties and the entertainment for these events. For example, she is involved in the Millennium Expo and is a member of the entertainment committee.

On the personal side of things, while love is on the cards for her - she lives with a partner - she has no intention of having children or getting married. She does not feel particularly maternal, although she will mother a cast and crew; but she does not believe in the institution of marriage. "Too many people using it as an excuse to fool around and not respecting their vows."

But getting back to her favourite subject theatre, what she would like to see is more support from the corporate world. This she says is now just moderate.

"People knock us for the comedies," she says ruefully, 'but these are the plays that pay the bills.'

"For example, theatre can address issues like domestic violence but people don't turn out for the plays that address issues. So that is what we want more corporate support and then we could afford to do the serious plays."