THEATRE AND POETRY HERO
DEREK WALCOTT
By Michael Alexander
Caricom Regional Youth Ambassador
Regional Youth Ambassador Program
cryap2002@hotmail.com
http://www.caricom.org
Newsday
July 15, 2002
Page 53
Playwright and Poet born: 1930 St. Lucia.
Walcott first began writing and directing plays at his school in St Lucia and later founded the Arts Guild of St Lucia.
He attended the University of the West Indies, Jamaica (1950-54) where he also wrote and staged a number of plays.
In 1958, he studied theatre in the USA, after which he returned to Trinidad where he founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop based first at the Little Carib Theatre.
Walcott continued to write and direct plays and took some of his productions on tours in the Caribbean, USA and Canada.
Derek Walcott has written 38 plays and published fifteen volumes of poetry He has received numerous prizes, including the 1989 Medal for Poetry awarded by Queen Elizabeth II and the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Derek Walcott continues to be an inspiration to young, aspiring, Caribbean playwrights and poets.