LBT cleaner showcasing play

SHE'S a hard-working mother as well as being a performer and writer.

It is not an easy combination but Angie Smith continues to battle to provide for herself and her son and also to get her work seen.

It's why she's currently preparing not one show but two.

Even the always bubbly Angie is in a high state of excitement.

She's been invited to stage two performances of one of her plays at The Drum, a theatre in the Aston area of Birmingham.

That's fast looming but before Angie can take her cast of nine to showcase her play in Birmingham, she has to raise the money to get them there.

Angie is doing it the only way she knows. By putting on a show.

Production number one will be at St Patrick's Centre in New north Road, Huddersfield on March 17.

It is being publicised as a mother's day celebration (that's the Caribbean and American version of Mother's Day, not the date celebrated here) and will feature film, comedy, story-telling and Caribbean food.

And guess who is doing the stand-up comedy turn. None other than Angie.

The idea is to bring together some of her many friends to stage this entertaining evening out while raising funds to help Angie's team head for Birmingham in April.

The St Patrick's event will feature story-teller Lelieth Gayle, who also plays the mother, the central character in Angie's play, Silent River which is heading to the Midlands in spring.

There will be a Caribbean supper, Angie's stand-up comedy and an American comedy film, Madea's Family Reunion directed by and featuring Tyler Perry.

If all goes well, money raised by the Huddersfield event will help fund two trips to Birmingham.

Angie is due first at the Drum on March 8 when she and three of her cast will take part in an open day to promote the theatre and the work that it is programming. It's a chance for her to literally drum up support for the big dates of the spring, those two performances on April 18 and 19.

Silent River, the play that is heading to the Midlands, was written by Angie and seen at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield last autumn as part of Black History month.

"It is a tragi-comedy. It is about a mother and her two wayward daughters. One of them is falling for a married man and is taking his money which she wants to use to send her sister to England. "

It has been a tough road so far to get Silent River on stage. Before Angie moved to her present home in Birchencliffe, she and her cast had been rehearsing at her home in Paddock.

Money from Angie's job as a cleaner has to cover expenses on the show.

"I don't get funded or sponsorship. People have been very supportive but if we put on a show, hopefully we'll raise some money to help us go to The Drum.

"I'm determined to go to Birmingham with my cast. It is a big step for me. The cast are all excited but it is big step for them too, " said Angie.

And what of the future?

"I want to see the day when I can take a play back to Jamaica. It is my dream to take one of my plays back to where I grew up and it will come true one day."

In the meantime, Angie and her cast need your support on March 17 for a Mother's Day celebration which could help to make this particular mother very happy.

For ticket details, call 07905485941.