BY RICHARD JOHNSON

Observer senior reporter

johnsonr@jamaicaobserver.com

FEW theatre players had as busy a year as David Tulloch in 2013, and he shows no sign of slowing down.

His productions Clash and Jamaica Sweet are already on stages in the Corporate Area. Clash stars Keith ‘Shebada’ Ramsay and Garfield ‘Bad Boy Trevor’ Reid while Jamaica Sweet, a musical revue, has Dionne Silvera, Terri Salmon, and Michael ‘Stringbean’ Nicholson in its cast.

Both productions are playing at the Green Gables Theatre on Cargill Avenue in St Andrew.

Tulloch, who is the marketing manager at Montego Bay’s Whitter Group of Companies, forecasts another busy year.

Come May, he plans to stage the drama, For My Daughter, and has offers to direct three productions for other writers.

However, these are not cast in stone. All depends on the financial outlook of the country. Currently, there are eight productions in the Corporate Area, a number Tulloch feels is too much given the trying economic times.

“The industry is struggling. Everybody is eating out of the same pot… somebody is gonna get bitten. It simply does not make sense opening so many productions. You are shooting yourself in the foot,” he said. “It is going to be tricky… one has to be optimistic and realistic at the same time.”

Tulloch, who directed David Heron’s Foreplay a few years ago, has never been concerned about raising a few eyebrows.

“I never believe in limiting myself, not as a person, not as a writer. I believe we have a whole population to entertain and the various types of plays that I write and are available on various stages serve all facets of the

theatre-going demographic. Risqué brought out a whole new set of persons who would never have gone out to seen a play,” he told the Sunday Observer.

In 2013, the Montego Bay-based Tulloch produced, wrote, directed and acted in Paternal Instinct; wrote the ground-breaking erotic thriller Risqué; and capped the year by directing Trouble With The Johnsons.

Risqué — with its strong sexual content and frontal nudity — stunned conservatives. This did not surprise Tulloch.

“I knew that it could not be a Rated R scenario as that would be half-hearted, so I needed to create something that took it all the way there,” he said.

The reviews and response to Risqué sent Tulloch back to the drawing board to write a sequel. However, no release date has been set.

Risqué also spawned an alliance between Tulloch and RBT Productions which operates Green Gables Theatre. ‘Shebada’ and ‘Bad Boy Trevor’ are the company’s mainstays.

He said the opportunity to write for Shebada in Clash was not an opportunity to be missed.

“He is one of the actors who, once he is in a production, it does not need to rely on benefit nights in order to survive. Therefore, based on this success, it just had to happen. Furthermore, just being able to

have him in a production which is storyline-driven and has my name attached is a golden opportunity,” Tulloch said.