Greta Fowler’s determination leads to lasting legacy of theatre

Jamaica’s social problems worried Greta Fowler because of how tightly crime and ravaging poverty gripped the nation. Though perturbed, she was not hopeless.

Fowler believed theatre could diffuse the unrest in society and at the same time, expand the aspirations of a new generation.

Fowler co-founded the Little Theatre Movement (LTM) along with her husband, Henry Fowler in the 1940s. The establishment was birthed through passion and advocacy for social change.

Social intervention aside, her genuine love of theatre and the arts kept the Pantomime alive. Fowler appeared onstage in the 1950 Pantomime ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as the Red Queen and later directed ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘Anancy & the Magic Mirror’ and co-directed ‘Quashie Lady’. She wrote ‘Anancy and the Magic Mirror’, ‘Queenie’s Daughter’, ‘Bredda Buck’ and ‘Morgan’s Dream of Old Port Royal’.

The LTM officially launched in 1941. Fowler brought a group of friends together and staged the first Pantomime titled, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ with the aim of raising funds to provide a little theatre for Jamaica. Through tireless fundraising and determination, land was purchased from the Government on Tom Redcam Drive. On September 20, 1961, the Little Theatre was opened.

She further fostered the development of drama on the island when she founded the Jamaica Theatre School. The Jamaica Theatre School was opened on the grounds of the Little Theatre in 1972, but was later handed over to the Government and renamed the ‘School of Drama’. Eventually, the School of Drama was renamed the ‘Cultural Training Centre’, and is now the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. Today, the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts is known for keeping the rich tradition of the arts alive.

For her dedication to theatre, Fowler was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and the Jamaican government awarded her the Order of Distinction (Commander Class). In 1976, the Institute of Jamaica awarded the Gold Musgrave Medal to the Little Theatre Movement.

At 73, she died of a heart attack on November 30, 1978, in Paris, France where she had been living with her husband who was stationed there as Jamaica’s representative to UNESCO.

As a tribute to Mrs Greta Fowler, Michael Manley, the then Prime Minister of Jamaica said:

"The word ‘theatre’ in Jamaica has, for more than a generation, been synonymous with the Fowlers. And in the early days of the forties, Greta Bourke as she was then, wrought many a miracle, when plays were mounted without benefit of budgets, without recourse to training courses for potential actors and with no source of fees for those who may have made claim to being professional. But with enormous imagination, fantastic resourcefulness and total commitment to the theatre, the show always went on."

The pantomimes over the years have contributed to major social development. They’re effective because the messages are clothed in the guise of wit, humour and lively song and dance. By her sheer enthusiasm and determination, Greta Fowler laid the solid foundations of a vibrant theatre movement in Jamaica.

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