For the love of Shakespeare

2026-03-29 - 00:35

For over a decade, members of Milwaz Productions have been engaged in experiential study of English Literature, with a strong focus on Shakespearean education – the realisation of a dream for founder Janeika Tudor-Baptiste. The company has engaged students and teachers through performances, adaptions and workshops, and has made use of every opportunity to gain international experience to strengthen its ability to achieve its mission of reigniting the passion for Shakespeare and literary arts in Caribbean classrooms. Tudor-Baptiste, a teacher at Bishop Anstey High School, Port-of-Spain, told WE that in 2024 her company, along with a number of secondary school students, went on tour and visited the world-renowned 16th-century birthplace of William Shakespeare, Stratford-Upon-Avon in London. They also boarded a ferry and enjoyed a fun time in Paris, France. This year, from July 9-26, a company of 25 members will travel to Europe to join a global community of scholars, educators, and theatre practitioners dedicated to advancing the study and performance of Shakespeare. “This time we’re heading to Verona, Italy, where the International Shakespeare Association is hosting its World Shakespeare Congress’ 50th anniversary...Because the London leg was so valuable to students last time, I decided first to return to Stratford-upon-Avon.” The group will also visit the Royal Shakespeare Centre, Shakespeare Club, and then head to Italy. She said while the group had enjoyed their time in Paris last year, this time around she wanted them to do something else that would actually have an influence on their craft. “And then I stumbled upon this, and of course, we got an invitation to come and we responded.” And to add value to the opportunity, the event is attached to a Shakespeare fringe festival, similar to the one Milwaz ususlly hosts in T&T in October. “Because we usually run a Shakespeare festival down here, it would have been good to see what their Verona fringe Shakespeare festival looks like in Italy.” She explained that the group will attend the conferences during the day and attend the festival shows on evenings. “So we thought that it would have been a good double opportunity for the team just to grow in our expertise. And of course, it will help to improve on our own Shakespeare Festival for the overall experience for the students.” Tudor-Bapiste said the group, which comprises mostly theatre and filmmaking university students, will also visit the University of London campus and some other university and school campuses, so that members can explore options for further studies. “And we are actually going to perform at two secondary schools as an opportunity for that cultural exchange...So we’re excited about that, the opportunity to perform over there and to get that reviews from a different culturally resonant group.” She said, although it will be a Shakespeare adaptation, the production they will be taking to the UK, Malvolio’s Masquerade, is heavily infused with T&T flavour. “Malvolio is the major character in Twelfth Night and it reimagines Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through the living tradition of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – a space where masks disrupt hierarchy, identity becomes fluid, and laughter holds both freedom and danger. Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night for a festive season defined by misrule and reversal. Carnival carries this same spirit, shaped by Caribbean histories of colonial control, resistance, and survival through performance. By placing the play inside Carnival, this production restores the work’s original radical energy while grounding it in a cultural form that understands spectacle as both celebration and critique.” Tudor-Baptiste explained, Carnival in the production is not decoration, but a dramaturgy with a narrative that is driven by music, movement, and masquerade. She said characters such as the Midnight Robber, Jamette, Dame Lorraine, and Pierrot Grenade embody traditional Carnival archetypes, allowing Shakespeare’s figures to speak through Caribbean bodies and rhythms. “The result is a world where identity is performed, authority is mocked, and desire moves faster than reason... At the centre stands Malvolio, reimagined as a Midnight Robber and Carnival marshal. His humiliation forces the audience to confront an uncomfortable question: When does laughter become cruelty? This production refuses to treat his downfall as harmless comedy, instead exposing how societies use joy to punish those who threaten the order.” She believes the reimagining of Shakespeare is vital because it frees his work from cultural ownership and returns it to its core purpose – speaking urgently to the world it inhabits. “Malvolio’s Masquerade affirms that Shakespeare survives not through preservation, but through transformation; where Caribbean performance traditions do not imitate the canon, but expand it.” Malvolio’s Masquerade, directed by Tudor-Baptiste, will be performed at the National Academy for the Performing Arts on May 19 and 20, and at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts on May 26 and 27 in order to raise funds for the tour. “Currently, we are also seeking sponsorship from the Ministry of Culture and Community Development and other corporate spaces and awaiting feedback. Apart from that, we also have a GoFundMe that we would have started so that people from anywhere in the world can contribute,” she said. About the group Milwaz was formed in 2015 and its repertoire includes productions such as A Raisin in the Sun, Love is the Gatsby Affair, Othello, Wajang Therapy: The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and ANANSI. The company has executed international educational tours, including visits to the American Shakespeare Centre and the Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK.