Playwright Angie Smith could have walked from the pages of one of her own theatrical scripts.
From a lively family of seven children, she was born in Huddersfield, to parents from the Windrush Generation, but raised in Jamaica.
When she returned to Yorkshire as a young woman 20 years ago she brought the sunshine of the West Indies with her, writing plays mostly set on the Caribbean island.
In order to pay the bills and get the time to write and study drama, Angie supported herself as a cleaner, ending up with a job in housekeeping at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, where her literary talent was discovered and given the opportunity to flourish. (She now works at the University of Huddersfield but has kept strong ties with the theatre). She explained: “I went to the theatre asking to put on a play and found myself on the housekeeping team.”
Angie went on to launch her own theatre group, Jamrock Productions, and for the past 12 years has been entertaining audiences at the LBT with stories of squabbling families, difficult neighbours, motherhood, everyday situations and single parenting – all told with her trademark humour. She writes about what she knows and has produced a total of 16 plays, as well as sketches and material for other groups. Her first, Mamma’s One Daughter, was back in 2001 and she has another in the pipeline for the autumn. Until last year Angie performed in every single show.
While she’s no longer acting, on Saturday, June 2, she will be centre stage in a live show tracing her own story; from her childhood in Jamaica to her time working at the LBT. It’s a journey that crosses continents and personal difficulties. There will, she says, be a few revelations for the audience, but the show is intended to be a thank you for all those who have helped and supported her.
Angie, now 53, laughs a lot in real life and enjoys making other people laugh. She admits her plays have a Caribbean sense of humour and audiences tend to come from the West Indian community, but she believes ‘English people’, have learned to appreciate them too. She explains: “Several of my plays have had a mixed audience and I’ve had English people come up to me and say they’d like to have a part in one of my plays, so now I’m writing parts for them. My next play, The People’s Favourite Shop, will be in September and will be the first one not based in Jamaica; it will be set in Huddersfield.”
Life has not been particularly easy for Angie, who gave up the chance to study at drama school in Jamaica to help her mother nurse her dying father. She has a son, who was raised by his father back in Jamaica and then by Angie in Huddersfield. “When I first came here,” she says, “I got three cleaning jobs so that I could enrol for a diploma in drama at the technical college. In primary school I realised I had a natural ability to write plays. I’d been asked to write plays for the school to perform at the end of term and I was offered a scholarship to the only drama school in Jamaica. But my father took ill so I stayed at home to help my mum.”
Her parents, Glennis and Enid Whiteley, were part of the wave of migrants from the Caribbean who came to Britain to work. But they missed their families - and the sunshine - and returned to their homeland when Angie was just two-years-old . Coming from such a large family means that she has an extensive network of cousins, aunts and uncles in both Jamaica and the UK, including two grand-daughters and a brother – all of whom have provided her with material for plays. As she says: “Every experience is useful for a writer.”
And she’s certainly had some unusual life experiences. A few years ago, for example, Angie was asked to ‘interpret’ for Jamaican immigrants, who were appearing in Leeds and Sheffield Crown Courts. “Their Jamaican patois was so ‘bad’ that no-one could understand them,” she says. Spending time in the court environment was a real eye-opener, but she gets most of her ideas from everyday life and bustling Caribbean communities, both here and in Jamaica.
When she’s not working or writing, Angie is at the theatre. She explained: “I just live here (the LBT). I love seeing plays, musicals, stand-up comedians, everything. You have to have this passion for the theatre.”
In recent years Angie’s life has been blighted by a hip problem, which necessitated a replacement operation at a critical point before her last production. But, like the trooper she is, she didn’t allow major surgery to get in the way of her theatre commitments. “I came out of hospital two weeks before the show and was on stage with two sticks,” she says. But, with mobility still a problem, she has decided to bow out of live performance.
Her biographical show will take the form of readings, recordings from shows, live performances of song, dance and poetry, and a sketch that she wrote for a mother’s day tribute. It’s a variety evening that reflects Angie’s amazing personality.
Tickets for My Work, My Journey with Jamrock are £7 from thelbt.org.uk or 01484 430528.
