The Shining Light

Nadia Roxburgh, Theatre Technician at Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, recounts how the institution has nurtured her professional goals.

Light guides, changes hues, expressions and as Paul Lynde sums up, gives life and warmth to a stage performance. Nadia
Roxburgh is a person who spreads this warmth both from her personality and her work, and lights up the stage... literally.

It was her dream to do something creative, from an early age, "I was involved in all the activities in school, I also used to play the steel pan", Nadia said.

The plans did not work out as she planned, "I applied to Edna Manley to do Drama, but did not get through. "I then joined UWI to pursue a BA in History", she recalled. Coming to the University of the West Indies proved to be a blessing in disguise for this talented girl; she and her friends used to hang around Philip Sherlock Theatre, and it is where the journey began.

Nadia started to volunteer and assist in productions, which nurtured her love for theatre and was a stepping stone to the
future. "I started to help out my friends at the theatre, this is where I learnt the strings of the profession", Nadia recounted, "I
learnt the practical stuff, it was like gold".

During the course of her first degree, she got an opportunity to go to University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji as a part of UWI's student exchange programme.

"I always wanted to explore the world, when the opportunity to go to Fiji came I grabbed it", an ecstatic Nadia said. Nadia’s stay in this Pacific Ocean island nation, though a part of her undergraduate major in History, also exposed her to varied nuances of culture, colours and sounds; it also gave a different insight into the confluence of these aspects into the creative arts.

“I fell in love with Fiji, it was a rewarding experience for me", she recounted. "It is a second home to me."

After completing her graduation, Nadia taught History at Queen’s School, before joining Philip Sherlock Centre for the
Creative Arts as a Theatre Technician in 2001. She decided to pursue her Masters in Theatre Practices, from Rose Bruford
College, Kent, University of Manchester; this is where her experience at Philip Sherlock played a critical role.

"The university is very practical there,"’ she said. "Whatever we learnt was through trial and error; one has to be creative to
get work done, and work around the roadblocks."

Nadia returned to Jamaica, armed with a Distinction. She said that in the UK she learnt the best practices in theatre, which she wants to emulate here. "The theatre practices are different; there is involvement of all the departments from the
beginning, which is sometimes not practised here.”

She said that involvement of the technical team helps to understand the script, scenes and the situation and work accordingly. "’To achieve the best effects we need time and also our creative inputs.”’ Nadia, who is also an avid reader, said ’it is hard to achieve optimum results at the last moment.

But she is able to overcome the challenges, thanks to the expertise that she has gained at work. "Working at Philip Sherlock has taught me a lot, as we have limited resources; we have to make the best use of it,’” she said.

Nadia is excited and passionate about her work, and wants more girls to get into this field. "I would like more girls in the Caribbean to take up lighting as a profession. Most of them don't know about it,’” she said.

She further said that she would like to encourage lighting as a part of technical arts, which according to her is like getting
a transferable skill. "The possibilities are across many industries; you can be a set designer, interior designer, costume
designer, fashion designer. You also have the option of going into event and production management, even floor management for TV shows. As a lighting professional you have the capability of taking the event or the show a notch up," Nadia explained.

Nadia, as a responsible youth, wants to share her skills and reach out to the youth in depressed communities. This creative expression, she said, would help to wean them away from crime. "That is my next big project. i have a passion for that."

“As a Jamaican,” she said "I feel there is a lot we can do and achieve, I personally would like to travel, but come back to
Jamaica. Going away is about learning and bringing it back.”