Imagine over 250 children pouring onto this stage from the wings and the trapdoor beneath. Imagine them singing their hearts out in their finale, the signature song of We Are People Too composed by Dayton Wharton and you will have some idea of what the show We are People Too during the 1970s and ’80s was like. For ten years this show would go on, with over two and a half thousand young people from all over Bermuda participating – not only as performers but also as budding set designers, sound technicians, script writers and composers. For many participants We Are People Too was a lifeline, a worthwhile project to do in the long summer vacation, a project to make them feel worthwhile. That was what the show was all about for its founders the late Earl Furbert and his wife Carol-Ann Furbert. As Carol-Ann says, “It became a labour of love for my family and for volunteers from the whole community to bring out the best in people.”
According to Carol-Ann’s sister-in-law, Gilda Furbert, who stage managed many of the shows, “Ernie was a self-made entrepreneur in many ways who worked with young people at the Hamilton Workman’s Club, especially during the Easter period when they would make Bermuda kites for Good Friday. He had a dream of doing what he used to do – importing and producing mainly musical shows at the Rosebank Theatre. But above all, he wanted to give back to the community.” Once We are People Too was formed, he took care of the business side, bringing artists and directors in from abroad and arranging their accommodation, organising the advertising, programmes and tickets, creating T-shirts for sale to help with expenses, and advising the participants when they needed help or encouragement. As Gilda explains, “Earl was young at heart and related to young people. There was never a time when he couldn’t reach out to them.”
Carol-Ann’s interest in drama went back to her schooldays at Prospect Secondary School for Girls which she and Gilda attended. Carol-Ann remembers being very shy growing up at Prospect but she was to become deeply influenced by her Drama teacher and mentor Carol Hill who was well- known for directing brilliant shows both for the school and for local drama societies. Eventually, Carol-Ann went to Drama College in England and on her return to Bermuda also became a teacher specialising in theatre. In 1972 she and Earl married and by 1977 Carol-Ann was a teacher at Warwick Secondary School, and so a colleague of her former teacher, Shirley Pearman, who is also receiving an award this evening. Carol-Ann, in charge of the artistic direction for We Are People Too, produced all the shows. Teachers who have produced plays or musicals in school in addition to their teaching duties know very well all the work countless rehearsals entails. In her role as teacher at Warwick Secondary, Carol-Ann carried out that work, only to begin again conducting meetings and rehearsals for We Are People Too throughout her summer vacation. Her commitment, then, is all the more impressive. But she saw the theatre as a way for vulnerable young people to build the self-esteem they must have to become adults able to fulfil their potential. “It was a wonderful experience,” she says, “for young people who didn’t know they had it in them to become a different character. Something grew inside them and they discovered that the outer experience of living in this country doesn’t have to define you.”
Participants weren’t only from Warwick Secondary. “Whatever your school, wherever you came from, you could be here together and create together. And the input from the young people drove the production.” Early on, participants would attend meetings and focus on improvisation, creating scenes taken from life as they experienced it. Sometimes those improvisations made it to the show and were included in the fabric of the scripts. “One of our aims,” Carol-Ann explains, “was to make people look at the real side of Bermuda.”
The first show held in 1977 at the old Ruth Seaton Hall was a revue offering music, dance and singing and had the title, “Unity Presents We are People Too.” It was a benefit performance with profits going to funds for students who wanted further education abroad. It sold out on the first night. “That was our goal,” says Carol Ann. She knew word of mouth would guarantee the seats would be booked out for the rest of the run.
Shows presented by We Are People Too became more and more ambitious – The Bayou Legend was one and in 1983 perhaps the most ambitious, The Wiz, a new look at The Wizard of Oz from an African-American point of view. The Wiz involved bringing into Bermuda two well-known professional overseas directors, Marsha Jackson and Tom Jones, from a theatre in Atlanta and organising a full orchestra by inviting musicians from different local groups.
“The kids never left us, they grew with us,” says Carol-Ann. She remembers how Bermudians living abroad would organise their vacation times to come back and see the productions.
Many of the participants, including Danjou Anderson and Patricia Pogson Nisbett, have continued in some aspect of the entertainment world both here and abroad and would surely say to us this evening that thanks to Carol-Ann and Earl, “We are People Too.”
