Ian Valz
(Guyana, 1957) is one of St.Martin's leading playwrights and theater directors. He is the author of Masquerade (1988), Separate Status> (2000), Peacock Dance I (2001), Peacock Dance II (2002), and Breaking All The Rules (2003) - all well-received plays. House of Nehesi Publishers published Valz's first book, Masquerade, containing his first three-act play of the same name, in 1988. Masquerade was short listed for Guyana's Literary Prize (1990) and beat out most of the candidates to be placed runner-up to the winning playwright Dr. Michael Gilkes. Shortly thereafter, and with good reviews in St. Martin, Guyana, Barbados and in The Caribbean Writer, director Ron Robinson set out from Guyana with a band of thespians from the international theater (TTI) and took Masquerade across the Caribbean Sea to Barbados, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Valz's plays have also been performed in St. Lucia, Trinidad and Jamaica. He regularly gives theater workshops and lectures in St. Martin and Guyana, where he was born in 1957. St. Martin has been Valz's home since 1984, and he was featured in the book St. Martin Massive! A Snapshot of Popular Artists (2000), as one of the nation's top 20 artists at the turn of the century.
WIN/House of Nehesi 2003
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Archive available for: Ian Valz
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Crossing the Seas - Sint Maarten
With: Changa Hickinson, Cynthia Mc Leod, Denise Jannah, Frank Martinus Arion, Ian Valz, Joy Reiph-Arnell, Lyzanne Charles, Nelleke Noordervliet, Rayda Jacobs, Sitok Srengenge
An evening with readings by writers and poets from South Africa, Suriname, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. With a performance by the Surinamese jazz-singer Denise Jannah, accompanied by Anastacia Larmonie. Jannah sang poems from Suiname, the Antilles and South Africa. The programme was presented by Joy Reiph-Arnell.
