The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) will host a series of free, face-to-face Brush Up Workshops across the island from Monday, January 16, 2023 through to Friday, February 17, 2023. The workshops will take the form of tutorials where interested persons will present their potential performances to industry experts who in turn will provide on the spot feedback.  The subject areas covered in this year’s Jamaica Festival of the Performing Arts programme are Dance, Deaf Dance, Drama, Music, Speech and Traditional Folk Forms. Parish workshop schedules will be posted on the JCDC website and social media pages.

Mr. Andrew Brodber, Director of Arts Development and Training at the JCDC encourages Jamaicans from across the island, not only students, to make use of the Brush Up Workshops. He said, “Students have always taken advantage of our programmes but I am reminding adults- aspirants, semiprofessionals and professionals, to come to the workshops and develop their talents and enhance their personal and professional growth.”

He emphasized that persons are not required to present finished work on the day of the workshops. “If you want to do a poem and you just have the script, you have not yet memorized it, come to us with that script we will help you perfect it.”

 

The Brush Up workshops will substitute for Parish Auditions which was usually the first stage of elimination for the programmes. After the Brush Up workshops, participants will be contacted to compete at the Parish Finals and based on positive results, compete at the National Finals in Kingston.

 

Persons interested in entering the National Festival of the Performing Arts for 2023 are encouraged to contact their nearest JCDC office or visit the JCDC website at www.jcdc.gov.jm  for entry forms and further details. Information is also available on the JCDC social media pages.