I was quite impressed with my grand nephew’s performance as Mordecai in his Sunday School play, Esther, at the Bethel Baptist Church last Sunday. At his age, I had just made my debut on stage in a community production in which I was cast as third foothill.

It was a play centred in a village where the Big Father Mountain sits absolutely still with his three foothills as his footstools for most of the action, while Madam Big River meanders across the stage dressed in flowing robes depicting her role.

I noticed that young Mordecai never faltered, he kept to his script, played his part well, and won the adulation of at least his family members who were in the cheering section.

It was a different scenario in my time. The climax to my play came when the villagers commited an unpardonable sin and Father Mountain orders Big River to rise and “destroy, destroy, destroy”.

The first production came to an abrupt end, however, as when Big River jumped up from her slumber to dance wildly across the stage in response to the Big Mountain’s command, my foot got entangled in her costume and the entire stage setting came tumbling down, sending the audience into peals of laughter.

You would have thought that incident would have brought an end to my acting career. But no. A few years later, at secondary school, Munro, I was cast as Witch number 3 on Macbeth’s panel of the three evil sisters who sent Macbeth down a path of treachery and villainy. As usual, no major part for me, so I spent my performance evenings morosely mixing up toad eye and bat wing cocktails and wondering when, if ever, my teachers would spot my acting talent,which I eventually found out was non-existent.

Still I was undaunted. Culture, traditions, plays, old time tea parties, Sunday School concerts, singing classes, evening meetings in the schoolroom, village eisteddfods was a background that I shared with many Jamaicans who were privileged to have teachers and Jamaica Social Welfare icons like Eddie Burke and Stella Gregory, and education ministry’s Louise Bennett visiting schools to inculcate a love and knowledge of Jamaican culture in our upbringing. This was not reserved for my generation alone, as Jamaica has a long history of a cultural mix of religion, norms, values, and lifestyle that define our people.

Our background of different races make us an incredible diverse society stemming from the plantation revelries, African folklore, European theatre, and outstanding talents pooled over the generations to make us an outstanding cultural icon on today’s international platforms.

As George Meikle, a Jamaican writer who has done deep research into Jamaican heritage and has published a book, In Praise of Jamaica, puts it: “Because of our passion and talent in music, art, food, sports and entertainment, our cultural icons, places of interest, and history, Jamaica’s unique culture has been transported across the globe.”

The feeling of achievement and satisfaction that Mordecai and the members of the young cast enjoyed as they took their curtain call last week is the same as experienced over the years by thousands of Jamaicans who have participated in stage shows, art exhibits, musical presentations, theatre, dance, and other mediums of expression.

Today’s audiences enjoy Jamaica Cultural Development Commission presentations, roots plays, jazz festivals, classic concerts, National Gallery offerings, fashion shows, dancehall gymnastics, and even Met Opera cinema, as a weekly diet of culture and Splash entertainment specials.

This was not always the case, as in earlier days there were few opportunities for public entertainment, especially in the rural villages. So people planned their own home meetings, and one of the most entertaining forms of such enjoyment was the tea meeting.

For those who do not know what a tea meeting was like, the late educator J J Mills provides a vivid and detailed account in his autobiography.

Formal invitations were formally circulated in the village by the hosts of the planned meeting and would include the price of admission — let us say for gentlemen, one shilling, ladies sixpence, children threepence. A coconut booth would be set up and chairs and benches set around the sides. Centre of attraction was the cake table, dressed up for the occasion with an elaborately decorated tablecloth, small plates, and a few hurricane lanterns borrowed for lighting.

The chairman or toastmaster was carefully chosen for his ‘rhyming prowess’ and had to be well respected and good at the King’s English.

Then there was the band; a fiddler, guitar player, tambourine knocker, and sometimes a bamboo fife player.

Guests dressed well — the gentlemen in full suits, shoes, socks, neckties or scarfs, and a hat. The ladies with hats and bonnets, and stockings and soft shoes that could endure dancing on tiptoes. For there was dancing on the cards, with the barbecue swept and cleared, and the musicians tinkering out the first notes for a jig, a polka, a mento piece, and, of course, a waltz and quadrille.

“Would you like to hear how ‘decent’ ladies and gentlemen danced in those days?” asks Mills. Hold on to your seats. The ladies made short, crisp steps on tiptoes. When they wheeled, the right hand gently kept the long skirt in order, so that it never ‘exposed’ them. They couldn’t move wildly or freely, but stepped delicately. And, as for the men, they used flat soles, stepped lightly, and when there was a change in direction or pattern, some leading man would draw his heel on the floor or ground and cry “Bar!” Ask your grandmother if you don’t believe this account.

The highlight of the tea meeting, however, was the cake auction, managed by the chairman or MC, who accepted bids, all offers placed in a saucer, and when the last bid came in no matter how much, the person claimed his slice amidst cheers from the gathering. The winner didn’t keep his slice of cake, but was required to make a pretty toast to the hostess, after which, with a polite bow, he would ask one of his favoured ladies in the gathering to accept his ‘token of respect’ and himself be awarded with one of the roses that adorned her bosom — amid loud cheers.

The modern era of Jamaican cultural expression is said to have started in 1955 with the grand all-island tercentenary celebrations commemorating 300 years of British colonial rule in Jamaica. Up to today, it is the most sustained period of non-stop cultural presentations, exhibitions, concerts, sports, and other celebratory activities that have ever taken place in one single year in Jamaica. It was a grand year for festival. More than 225,000 people came out to sing and dance at the all-island bandwagon travelling concerts. The National Arts and Crafts Jubilees involved thousands participating in poetry, dance, choral singing, folk culture, classical and popular music, speech, paintings, pottery and sculpture competitions.

The programme included royal visits from HRH Princess Alice on January 17, and HRH Princess Margaret on February 19, with State visits from President Paul Magloire of Haiti on February 14 and Puerto Rico’s Governor Muñoz Marina on June 8.

Major showpieces were the first all-island Denbigh Agricultural Show on June 8 and 9, the bandwagon concerts, the art and craft exhibitions, and an Industrial Fair at the Victoria Market, downtown Kingston, which ran from September to December. The year’s activities commenced with the staging of the pantomime, Anancy and the Magic Mirror, at Ward Theatre, followed by Nat King Cole’s sold-out performance at Carib Theatre on March 29, billed as “the first international celebrity celebration”, while Bim and Bam drew in thousands for Healing in the Balmyard at the Ambassador Theatre. The bandwagon concerts, produced by Robert Verity, included the Frats Quintet, Ivy Baxter dancers, Lloyd Hall, Easton Soutar, Mapletoft Poulle, the Shortwood College choir, and the inimitable Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams.

So, notwithstanding my misdirected efforts at acting, I have, and continue to enjoy, attending theatre presentations from coconut booth performances, circus shows, Stephen Hill’s popular concert artistes, stage shows, roadside concerts, to Coney Island, the iconic National Dance Theatre Company, and the Ward and Little Theatre pantomimes.

The Esther church play and the outstanding performances of all members of the cast were worth the journey from the country into Kingston, and just another reminder that the theatre tradition is alive and well among the younger generation of our society.

Lance Neita is a community and public relations writer and consultant. Send comments to the Observer or lanceneita@hotmail.com.