The Little Theatre, a big dream realised

On Tom Redcam Avenue in Kingston stands a modest building that, for more than 80 years, has been a heavyweight in Jamaica’s cultural life. The Little Theatre is more than a stage, it is proof of what a small, determined idea can grow into when nurtured with faith and persistence.

The story begins in 1941, when Henry Fowler and Greta Fowler founded the Little Theatre Movement (LTM) with a simple but ambitious mission: to foster the development of drama in Jamaica and, in time, to build a permanent home for it. That very year, with no theatre of their own, they staged their first production, Jack and the Beanstalk, launching a tradition that would come to be known as the National Pantomime. For two decades, the LTM’s productions moved between borrowed stages - the Ward Theatre, the Rainbow Theatre at Half-Way Tree - carried forward on little more than volunteer spirit and a belief that Jamaica deserved a theatrical voice of its own.

That belief bore fruit in 1961 when the Little Theatre officially opened its doors, designed by Gilbert Pratley in collaboration with Sir Noël Coward. Its guiding slogan, ‘Drama the art where all arts meet’,”became a lasting reminder of the theatre’s purpose: a meeting ground for music, dance, comedy, and storytelling all at once. It was on this stage that giants of Jamaican culture including Louise Bennett-Coverley, affectionately known as Miss Lou, and her celebrated partner Ranny Williams, ‘Maas Ran’, brought Jamaican language and humour to life, transforming pantomime from a borrowed English custom into something unmistakably, joyfully Jamaican.

Today, the Little Theatre continues to open its doors to community groups, students, and professional troupes alike, sustaining itself not through government funding but through ticket sales, rentals, and the enduring goodwill of a public that keeps coming back, year after year, for the annual pantomime and much more.

What began as an idea with no funds, no building, and, as its founders once admitted, “an indifferent public”, grew one small step at a time into one of the great cultural institutions of the Caribbean.

Start something today, no matter how small. The idea and the action are the driving force for the first step of success.

Contributed by Dr Lorenzo Gordon, a diabetologist, internal medicine consultant, biochemist, and a history and heritage enthusiast. Send feedback to inspiring876@gmail.com.