Popular stage actor Glen “Titus” Campbell is calling for more attention and greater investment to be made in the local theatre scene, just as with other areas of the arts and entertainment.

Campbell, who was a guest on the interview programme Odyssey with Yendi, Untold Journeys, hosted by Yendi Phillipps on her YouTube channel, said despite the successes of Jamaican theatre practitioners at home and abroad, the sector still fails to attract the desired attention.

“People come to see our plays and say, ‘How do you guys do it?’. With the little resources, little space and everything, this is First World. It’s bad that we have to keep comparing and saying it all the time but it is the truth. With what we have in Jamaica if we had the same skill set and drop us in New York or West End… dem couldn’t hol’ we,” Campbell told Phillipps.

“Up to the point and for the most part theatre has been self-sustaining. Anything we do commercially or otherwise, we do it out of our pockets. Other industries, other businesses get governmental support, get corporate support… we nah red eye nobody fi what dem get… it’s just that we could do so much more with a little help,” he continued.

Campbell, who is one of the most recognisable faces in local theatre at this time, strongly believes that the nonchalance with which his industry is seen stems from the fact that acting, and theatre in general, is still not being viewed as a profession and there is the belief that the return on investment not high enough.

“I was so happy when they introduced theatre arts as a subject in schools. I said [to myself] yes, we getting somewhere. Then I was a little deflated when I called some schools and said, ‘Just checking on your theatre arts programme … No. We don’t do that here’. Just how they said we don’t do ‘that’ here, me feel a way. The sad thing is that perhaps 50 per cent of society thinks that theatre and acting and people who do it, it’s ‘that’ thing. So until we can convince them, just like how it took a while before we could convince people that you can sing and make a living, or that you can play football or cricket or run, we’ve gotten somewhere in those departments, so we need to get them on board now for performance, for acting, for dance, visual arts, that people can be talented and created in these areas and do something that is beneficial to the country,” Campbell said.

The local theatre scene has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. In March 2020 Campbell was part of the cast of The Windscream Posse, a comedy written by Patrick Brown. As soon as the health crisis rose in Jamaica the production was one of the first to shutter its doors in keeping with the guidelines of the authorities.