Versatile and long-serving Stage Manager, Ansford Patrick is a ‘Special Person’

Jan 05, 2020 News, Special Person

“Today I live and dream designing sets for theatrical work…people can just come with an idea in their head; they don’t even have to know the measurement, they just have to tell me what they are thinking, and I am able to sketch it out and show them exactly what they want. And I build just what they are thinking about.”

By Sharmain Grainger

While there are some among us who have clearly mapped out lives from the day they are born, there are others who must crisscross sometimes unconventional paths, in order to find what has been destined for them. It isn’t always an easy task, but for some, it is very fulfilling when they would’ve put in the hard work and are able to say much like Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way”.
Ansford Patrick can certainly say he did it his way, after years of unprecedented efforts laced with challenges and triumphs to get to the point of true fulfillment.

Ansford Patrick is a ‘Special Person’

But what has he achieved?
Today, Patrick proudly holds the position of Stage Manager of the National Cultural Centre, but he is so much more. Not merely is he a dedicated father, husband, brother, uncle, friend and confidante to many, but along the journey of life, he learnt some skills that have positioned him to be especially versatile and worthy to be named our first ‘Special Person’ of 2020.
FORMATIVE YEARS
On Tuesday January 9th, 1968, a couple, Victor Sutherland and Shirley Patrick [now both deceased – 1992 and 2013 respectively], welcomed a son into the world who they named Ansford Moses Patrick. He would turn out to be smacked in the middle of the nine children they procreated together.

With his supportive family

Patrick recalled spending his early days in the mining town of Linden. His parents had originally hailed from Uitvlugt on the West Coast of Demerara, and travelled to Linden in hopes of making a life for themselves there. But his parents’ union would not last, which saw Patrick, at the age of nine and in the company of eight siblings, relocating to Stewartville on the West Coast of Demerara, in 1977, to start over, with their mother as the sole breadwinner.
He has some vivid memories of those days. “I remember going to the [Uitvlugt] Estate, my mother used to work there…she used to help plant sweet potato and this peas they used to call ‘black dhal’ and stuff like that, and she used to work at the [Estate] canteen making things to sell.” Since his mother was a single parent, Patrick recalled that his older siblings would take care of the younger ones.

A house being constructed by Ansford Patrick

Reflecting on his schooling days, Patrick spoke of starting out at Mackenzie Primary before the move to Stewartville, where he got enrolled at Uitvlugt Primary and later got a place at the Uitvlugt Community High School. Back then, he had a passion for sports – cricket, but mostly football. But an injury during a football game relegated him to a mere spectator.
Even as a young boy, he had a career plan mapped out in his head. He wanted to work, like his father, at the Bauxite Company in Linden. “When we were in Linden, I used to go to the Bauxite Company to take food for my father; he used to work in the ‘Rushing and Crushing’ Section and he was a cobbler too,” Patrick recalled. But the move from Linden foiled the possibility of him following in his father’s footsteps.
Patrick started to look at other male figures in his life, this time two maternal uncles, whom he recalled, were extremely good welders. “I decided I wanted to do welding…my two uncles, they used to get calls to go and work overseas. I remember they got calls to even go to the US to do some work on the Brooklyn Bridge,” Patrick recounted.

Props constructed for a Christmas play

When he graduated from school in 1983, Patrick was still caressing the idea of being like his uncles. Moreover, he was allowed to commence technical training at the Guyana Industrial Training Centre. But as fate would have it, training to become a welder was not the destined path for Patrick. This was in light of the fact that he was required to take a medical ahead of training, which revealed that he was unfit for a welding career.
“When I did a medical, they found that my right eye is bad, they said I have a lazy eye. To this day, it is bad; the right eye is pulling a lot on the left…I had a few eye surgeries; I had the first one in 1985. I even had like a cyst growing in it…I had to start wearing glasses, but I couldn’t do welding even with that,” he divulged.
EMBRACING DESTINY
But this did not obstruct Patrick’s focus. Instead, he diverted his attention to another career path. This time around, it was carpentry and joinery, and in this area he became very versed. “I love it,” said Patrick, of the skills he was able to hone in this regard. “This is how I was able to really make my livelihood actually,” he confessed.
During his preparation for the world of carpentry and joinery, Patrick said that he was exposed to a great deal of practical work that had to be completed with precision. Among those he recalls are repairing the fence at the Carnegie School of Home Economics; helping to restore the Lodge Nursery School, which was condemned at the time; the Enterprise School too, which was in need of repairs, and quite a few other educational institutions.

Elegantly prepared by Ansford Patrick

“I even helped to build furniture for President’s College when it was opening in 1985. It was done through a collaboration between GTI [Government Technical Institute] and GITC. We even did work at the home of a Minister of Education,” Patrick remembered.
He would later come to embrace the fact that the carpentry and joinery skills he was able to develop, were in fact in preparation for yet another job. Yes, he was able to construct several homes and many projects independently, through a company he established called Ansford Patrick and Sons Construction Firm Plus, but he had no idea that he could have utilised these skills in an even more artistic way at the National Cultural Centre.
Reminiscing on his entry into that arena, Patrick recalled it all started after he became the foster son of a woman by the name Enora Andries. This all came about because the woman, who was well-known to his mother, had two daughters and no sons, and took a liking to him and decided she wanted to raise him.

Some more of Patrick’s creations

It certainly helped to ease the burden of his biological mother, who was caring for him and eight other children. But this was all part of his destined journey, Patrick believes, as it allowed him to embrace a passion he didn’t even know he had. At the time, he was considering taking up employment in the Police Force’s workshop, but didn’t quite like the idea of having to patrol, which would have been inevitable.
“I just wanted to be in the workshop…I still was going to carry in my recommendation there, but then I heard the Cultural Centre had a vacancy…this was through my foster mother. Her brother-in-law was the Lighting Supervisor at the Cultural Centre. I came and brought my recommendation instead to Ms Daphne Rogers, who was in charge then, and my first job was as a Stage Hand…to help out on stage,” Patrick recalled.
BUILDING A LEGACY
He started working at the Cultural Centre on May 17, 1986, and within a six-year span was elevated to the position of Stage Manager, after former Stage Manager, Bobby Vieira, left. Patrick is in fact recognised as the longest serving Stage Manager, with the added credit of being the lone staffer to produce a show at the National Cultural Centre. The show he produced is called ‘Anybody See Brenda’, a play which was written by Dr. Paloma Mohamed. In fact, he has since established his own Production Company called C and Triple S Performing Arts.
This certainly came naturally to him, because as he remembers it, “before I came to the Cultural Centre, I used to take part in plays in Church, and so when I came here, besides doing that, I got an opportunity to build props and those kinds of stuff and I enjoyed this, because I found I really loved the arts, I loved the theatrical work.”
Backed by his carpentry and joinery skills, he was able to create some astounding sets for various events put on at the Cultural Centre over the years, ranging from the annual ‘Flame and the Ribbon’ productions to Old Year’s Night church services. “The next best thing to my life, my family, and serving God, is the work I am able to do at the Cultural Centre,” said Patrick, who is a member of the Christian Mission Church.
“Today I live and dream designing sets for theatrical work…people can just come with an idea in their head; they don’t even have to know the measurement, they just have to tell me what they are thinking, and I am able to sketch it out and show them exactly what they want. And I build just what they are thinking about,” said Patrick amidst a quiet chuckle.
His outstanding talent has resulted in him being tasked with building the majority of the props for most of the shows held at the Cultural Centre.
“I have built props for Oliver Samuels and Shabada from Jamaica…they send down their dimensions and they know that I can do exactly what they want. I even went to Canada with Gem Madhoo for a play called ‘Half Pass late’, and I was the one who build the set for that show,” said Patrick, who over the years became versed, not only in creating the set, but ensuring that lights and sound for the sets are just right.
These acquired talents also saw him being the ‘go to’ person when international artistes, the likes of R. Kelly and Neyo, were brought to this part of South America to headline shows.
“I love what I do so much,” said Patrick, as he recalled a period of his life when he decided to migrate, but did not hesitate to return when his expertise was sought after. “I went away for like a year and two months to Canada…I was called back by a couple of people well, PS Keith Booker, Bobby Vieira… and they said ‘they need you back in Guyana’,” Patrick recalled.
His return was just in time for Guyana’s hosting of Carifesta in 2008. He was given the prestigious task of being Technical Advisor to Dr. Paloma Mohamed for that Carifesta, and was also the lecturer for the Set Construction Class of students who were tasked with building sets for the event. “I had to detail people to be across the country for all the Carifesta activities,” said Patrick with pride.
FAMILY LIFE
But life would have had no meaning without the support of his loving wife of 27 years, Connie, and his four children 26-year-old Cidell, 23-year-old Shaquille, 20-year-old Shamaul, and 16-year-old Shaquana, Patrick intimated. “We live together at Stewartville and we try to vacation together overseas just to enjoy our family time.”
His years of finding his path in life have taught him and his wife many lessons which they have imparted to their children and just about any young person who will listen.
“We tell them try to be the head and not the tail, lead and not to follow, be honest, courageous and the sky could be the limit. In everything too, we have to trust God and put Him first and foremost, because many times we may want to look to man, but man can’t solve our problems…when you tell your problems to God, He has all of the solutions.”
In fact, Patrick said that he has come to accept the reality that “It is in God we live and move and have our being; that is why I often remind my children during devotions we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, and without Him we are nothing; just like a vapour.”