Tributes flow after acclaimed Caribbean actor passes

Famed and highly-regarded regional actor Clairmonte Taitt has died at age 88.

Taitt, who was born in Guyana to a Barbadian father and Guyanese mother, was described by many as a Caribbean gem. His career in drama spanned 60 years, the majority of which were spent on the stage in Barbados. During that time he took on many roles including director, vocalist, violinist and broadcaster.

Tributes flowed throughout the day from all walks of life with many taking to social media to share fond memories.

In paying tribute to Taitt, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said the talented artist made a “quiet but outstanding contribution to life in Barbados”.

‘Today, as I pause to pay tribute to Clairmonte Taitt at his passing, I cannot help but reflect on his quiet but outstanding contribution to life in Barbados — to the performing arts and to broadcasting — and to bridging the waters between us and Guyana, where he was born.”

She continued: “Clairmonte established an unbreakable bond with Barbados well over a half-century ago, visiting with some frequency to take part in theatre productions, and in the process building a life-long relationship with the legendary Earl Warner and eventually settling here.

“Clairmonte’s life can serve as an inspiration for Caribbean people today, but only if we are able to throw away that impaired vision that too often compels us to view the Caribbean Sea as an obstacle rather than a pathway to endless promise and possibilities,” Mottley said.

Taitt worked with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Guyana as a prize-winning tenor and choirmaster, as a BBC-trained broadcaster with Radio Demerara and Radio St Lucia as programme director, as well as the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation as announcer/producer.

In 1997, Taitt was one of the first recipients of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) highest and most coveted award, the Governor General Award of Excellence in Drama and Speech for his performance of Flambeau, an excerpt from the Earl Warner play ManTalk.

He went on to train teachers and students through the NCF’s theatre arts programmes, facilitated from 1998 to 2013. He coordinated and was lead instructor in the TAPPWORK programme – the NCF’s Theatre Arts Play Production Workshop. He was also a NIFCA Drama and Speech judge and chief judge for several years.

In remembering Taitt, Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation Carol Roberts-Reifer said the foundation was saddened by the news.  She pointed out that Clairmonte had given yeomen service to the NCF.

On a personal note, the CEO credited Taitt for helping in the early years of her career development.

“I first met Clairmonte Taitt as a trainee radio announcer 40 years ago in 1981. His guidance, training in broadcasting and practical life lessons were invaluable in helping to shape my career in radio and television. Clairmonte was generous to a fault and possessed a sense of humour and rapier wit that never failed to induce side-splitting laughter,” the CEO said.

Taitt performed in an NCF theatre production for CARIFESTA 2000 in St Kitts. The production was a dramatisation of Timothy Callender’s How Music Came to the Aichan People.

In Barbados, for well over three decades Taitt worked extensively with Earl Warner, acting in several outstanding plays. In 2014, he received the Earl Warner Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

On the night award was conferred, Taitt was honoured through a display of photographs depicting his life from the 1930s in what was then British Guiana to his Shakespearean roles in the 1950s right up to March 2000, when he played a leading role in Animal Farm with the Cave Hill Theatre Workshop.

In addition to the arts his other love was sport. Taitt, along with his brothers Laurene Corsbie and Stanley Greaves formed Guyana’s oldest and most successful basketball club, Ravens. Taitt was also head coach of the first baskeball team to represent Guyana overseas in Suriname in 1957.
(PR/BT)