Annual lyme puts the fun into fund-raising

• Music/drama party supports Roy Hall Memorial Scholarship Fund

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Eloine Hall-Oakley laughs as she turns a phrase which neatly summarises the mutating function of the longstanding annual hambone gungo soup lyme at her Queensway, St Andrew, home.

"We were fun-raising; now we are fund-raising," Hall-Oakley said.

The man who initially raised the fun, broadcaster and thespian Roy Hall, is the person in whose name a scholarship has been established and which the lyme supports, in part. But there is another fund-raiser, as the cost of funding a final-year student at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts has gone up.

So, there is fund-raising purpose behind the music and drama fun-raising planned for the Take #-10 staging of Lyme and Fun on The Deck next week Thursday. Hall-Oakley said it will be a combination of music and drama, as there will be presentations by current and former students of Edna Manley, with special appearances by Oliver Samuels, Fae Ellington and Marjorie Whylie.

Hall-Oakley said that Roy Hall ran the hambone gungo soup lyme for over 20 years before he died in 1998. "After his death, we decoded to carry on the tradition," she said. More than that, they eventually decided that they had to do something lasting to mark his involvement in drama and his generosity of spirit. "It was his brother who suggested we do something in the arts. He (Roy) was a serious theatre man," Hall-Oakley said.

Hall was also multifaceted, as he played with the band 'Blue Notes' in England after World War II. Back in Jamaica, on radio, he was involved in Teenage Dance Party and Jamaica Bandstand and as an actor, was a member of Jamaica Playhouse. He played Dr Gordon in the film 'Passion and Paradise' with Rod Steiger.

Hall-Oakley said when the Roy Hall Memorial Scholarship was started in 2001 $30,000 was required for a final-year drama student at the Edna Manley College. Now it is over $90,000.

Among the recipients over the years have been Monique Ceasar (2001), Cassandra Henry (2003), Carl Samuels (2004), Troy Chambers (2006) and Mervin Spence (2008). Jodi-Ann Robinson is this year's recipient. In addition, in two years, students have been given financial assistance, in addition to the scholarships awarded in that year. Samuels and Chambers are heavily involved in staging Take # 10, and Hall-Oakley said that the person who runs The Deck has also given full support.

very receptive

The Gleaner's 2011 scholarship listings, published earlier this month, outlines the requirements for the Roy Hall Memorial Scholarship. The student should be pursuing a diploma or bachelor's degree and have a minimum GPA of 3.0 or a B average. The funds go directly to the school.

Hall-Oakley said the college was very receptive to the idea of the scholarship.

Roy Hall will also be onstage, of sorts, next Thursday, as a DVD compilation of recordings of his work will be shown. There is no charge to attend the fund-raiser, but donations will be accepted and persons can also sign pledge forms. The money raised will be added to donations made at the hambone gungo soup affair.

Hall-Oakley intends for the fun-raising and fund-raising to be put on for a long time, certainly "as long as I can. After I die, there are younger people in the group who will carry it on and my sons are already involved. It is not something that we want to just stop. It is something that we want to continue as long as possible".