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Trinidad Theatre Workshop founding member Eunice Alleyne has had a long and varied life in theatre, beginning in high school. While at St. Joseph’s Convent Port-of-Spain, she was drawn into the choral group because of the quality of her voice. During A-Levels, Alleyne joined the Barajuan (Barataria/San Juan) Literary and Cultural Club, where she participated in debates, choral speaking, as well as doing choral speaking at the Catholic Youth Organization. After leaving school, she continued training and won the Islandwide Prose and Verse Competition.

In addition to working at the Government Broadcasting Unit and the Office of the Prime Minister, she worked with various groups to educate people about theatre and public speaking. These included Horace James and Joy Ryan in a group called “Three’s a Crowd”, which went around to community centres doing prose and verse and educating people about culture, and Sydney Hill to do readings of Shakespeare at the public libraries. Both ventures were shortlived.
Alleyne later joined the Company of Players, where her perfomance in “The Rose Slip” got favourable reviews from Derek Walcott, which inspired her to continue work in the theatre. Alleyne said her small roles in “The Insects,” “Drums and Colour,” and “Dream on Monkey Mountain” helped to build her integrity as an actor because she moved right on to be Best Actress in Derek Walcott’s “Remembrance.” “This shows you that you have to take small steps, and this resonated with me – there are no small parts, just small actors.” Her first and last efforts as a director were the plays “B. Wordsworth and Testimony.”
Following this, Alleyne helped found the Trinidad Theatre Workshop (TTW), where the members spent two years workshopping and doing improvisation before they put on their first productions. The group later moved to Bretton Hall, where “theatre was alive and there was a lot of social and intellectual connection with the audience.”
Alleyne did a series of radio plays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and then went away to Boston to study. When she came back she did the TV drama “Who the Cap Fits” with Tony Hall. “TV dramas are real training programs, because you have to create the dialogue and everything yourself. It really stretched you, you just had to create.”
Allyne acted in “The Maids,” “Departure in the Dark,” “Marie Laveau,” and others. She was appreciative of the travel and working opportunities working with Derek Walcott opened up. She also got to work with other directors and to experience different styles of directing. Alleyne said her most difficult and most rewarding role was as Lena in “Boesman and Lena,” a South African play, due to the differences in the rhythm of the language.
Alleyne played Dr. Cuffie in Westwood Park and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the National Drama Association of T&T in 2003. She co-authored “Three Women” which won four Cacique Awards. She recently played a Yoruba elder, Ma Sandrin, in Pearl Eintou Springer’s short play “Freedom Morning Come.” Alleyn also had a starring role in the film “Sally’s Way,”which won Best Family Film at the 2015 T&T Film Festival. “”I rather like film, when you’re on stage, you have butterflies in your stomach, adrenaline is pumping and you have to get it right, but it’s better in film, there are more takes and more time to learn lines.”
Alleyne said being an actress, public servant, wife and mother required a lot of juggling and balancing each one to fit it into the scheme of things. “It’s a lot of work but if you’re committed, you manage to do it. I have no regrets.”
Alleyne said she constantly updates her skills as an actress by going to workshops, doing training and reading about acting because there’s always something to learn. She puts a lot of time and work into individual roles and said there are a lot of brilliant actors in T&T, but they are in too much of a hurry to get on stage, and need to develop their craft. Alleyne said theatre is very active in T&T and there’s a tremendous amount of talent present, which needs to be harnessed and showcased. “There’s a place for everybody in T&T theatre, it’s very rich and diverse although it could be more so. The problem is money is needed because you can’t do anything without a budget. It doesn’t have to be much, but it has to be there.”
Her advice to young actors was “Learn self-confidence, you’ve got to do it, no-one else can do it for you. Buckle down to hard work, be committed, be serious, be punctual and know your lines.”

Unedited notes below

Arts Festival, Barbara Kissoon, she would train while working at the Red House recording births, deaths and marriages, and won the Islandwide Prose and Verse Competition. She later moved on to working at the Government Broadcasting Unit before becoming Director of Information at the Office of the Prime Minister.
She worked with Horace James and Joy Ryan in a group called “Three’s a Crowd”, which went around to different community centres doing prose and verse and educating people about culture, but it didn’t last very long. She also worked with Sydney Hill to do readings of Shakespeare at the public libraries, but this was also shortlived.
Alleyne worked with the Company of Players for a short while, where she acted in two widely varying roles, as a 16-year-old and a 90-year-old. She was also encouraged to direct by Jean Herbert, and ended up directing B. Wordsworth and Testimony, which were the only two plays she ever directed. While with the Company, she acted in The Rose Slip, which got positive reviews from Derek Walcott, and also met Albert Laveau. She said this period was a turning point where she decided she must continue in theatre. Alleyne also played small roles in The Insects, Drums and Colours and Dream on Monkey Mountains. She said this helped to build her integrity as an actor “There are no small parts, only small actors.”
Alleyne helped to found the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, the members of which spent two years workshopping and doing improvisation before they put on a production, which was “The Pupil” and “the Cage.” The TTW was later kicked out of the Little Carib Theatre, after differences with Beryl McBurnie, and moved to Bretton Hall. Alleyne said theatre was alive there, and there was a lot of social and intellectual connection with the audience.
Alleyne worked and toured with Derek Walcott. She also did radio plays with the
Did “Who the Cap Fits” a TV drama with Tony Hall. TV dramas are real training workshops and really stretch your capacity.
She welcomed the opportunity to work with other directors, including Helen Camps, Rawle Gibbons and Earl Warner, among others.
Her greatest challenge was Bozeman and Lena, a South African drama, which required her to carry herself into the South African world and the rhythm of the language was hard to get.
Alleyne said she was appreciative of the opportunities she got while working with Derek Walcott, including traveling to New York to do dramatic readings of the Odyssey; performing Death of a Salesman for the author, Arthur Miller, who was vacationing in St. Lucia; she toured Italy and Spain doing more readings of the Odyssey.
Alleyne played Dr. Cuffie in Westwood Park and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by National Drama Association of T&T. She co-authored one play, which won four Cacique awards.
Some of her latest work was with Pearl “Eintou” Springer, performing a Yoruba elder in a carnival play. She performed as Flossie in the Rose slip, and wondered, after seeing UTT students perform it recently, wondered how she learned all those lines.
“I rather like film, when you’re on stage, you have butterflies in your stomach, adrenaline is pumping and you have to get it right, but it’s better in film, there are more takes and more time to learn lines.” Had a role in Dream on Monkey Mountain, as well as Avril/Obeah, where she had to bite off a chicken head and work with a snake. Played Jobell in Amaria, portrayed a woman in a wheelchair in Happy/Sad. Her most recently released performance was in Sally’s Way, which won Best Family Film at the 2015 T&T Film Festival. She also shot a scene as Machel Montano’s grandmother in Bazodee.
Alleyne said being an actress, public servant, wife and mother required a lot of juggling and balancing each one to fit into the scheme of things. “It’s a lot of work but if you’re committed, you manage to fit each one in. I have no regrets.”
Alleyne said even though she didn’t have many large roles when working with Walcott, because he didn’t write many roles for women, even the small roles helped to build her integrity as an actress. Had to learn to do total theatre, singing, dancing, acting, but not enough of the type of dancing she wanted to do.
Didn’t have enough time to do role of Marie Laveau.
Lady of Guadeloupe Church
Want
Building skills of an actress – workshops, training, always something to learn, read about acting, devote lots of time to research a piece and get under a script before learning the lines, when learning lines, I visualize and study everything about the role, it takes lots of time and work.
There are a lot of brilliant actors and actresses in T&T but they are moving a little too fast.
Directors are different, some give more space to create than others.
Lena and Bozeman was most difficult and most enjoyable role. The rhythm of the lines was different. Had to look at situations to help build the role. It had vagrancy, racism, domestic abuse. There was a South African lecturer there who helped out.
Theatre has a place for everything
Theatre has a place for everything. It harnesses talent to create something special, and we need to showcase what we can do. TTW always opened its doors to everyone, and although finances and sponsorship have been a problem, people can come there to train, and it is used as a platform to continue the theatre.
There was one play where she was so convincing that an audience member came on stage and told her she was wicked. There’s a place for everyone in T&T theatre, it’s very rich and diverse. We need more variety in the types of theatre, the talent is there.
Acted in Freedom Morning as Ma Sandrin, very heavy and draining, let me know how much young and old have gone through, exposing injustice, that still goes on, very convincing. Eintou said she was over awed by Eunice coming into TTW and feels privileged to have worked with her, Eunice has honored her by being in two of her plays. .
I like trying new things, I  challenge myself but get very nervous as well. You’ve got to do it, no-one else can, buckle down and commit to hard work, punctuality, learn lines.
T&T theatre needs money, can do nothing without a budget. We weren’t paid, did it for the love of acting and building a craft.
Radio was always about the voice, now there are too many bright people, Black Theatre in Boston, plays and mime, never got a real grasp of mime, used my own voice, not Black American

don’t know who told me to work with Eintou Springer, lots of verse, difficult