Sandy Macintyre is a multi-media performance artist who uses a variety of media to sculpt his ideas. Sandy has worn many hats in many capacities for many years. This modern day Renaissance man is at once a poet, storyteller, visual artist, composer, maskmaker, essayist, actor, playwright, filmmaker and a professional Visual Arts, Drama, History and English Language teacher. This self described 'edutainer' first gained early recognition in his native Trinbago as a talented visual artist, receiving numerous awards for his work. His dramatic arts experience goes back to his early childhood, when he became actively involved in Children's Carnival presentations from the age of five onwards. After coming to Canada in 1985 he attended York University, graduating from the Masters Programme in Social and Political Thought (SPT) in 1991.
During the time he was at York University he became involved in producing several theatrical productions, and later graduated to working with various community and professional theatre groups in Toronto such as Theatre of Exile, Theatre in the Rough, Tarragon Theatre, West Indian Theatre, Equity Showcase Theatre, Luther Hansraj Productions, Naked Mask Theatre, and We Are One Theatre. Sandy has honed his theatrical talents over the years and has now appeared in over thirty four stage productions. His most recent performances included a featured role in the latest version of 'Up on Eglinton', La Petite Musicale Folk Choir's presentation of the Trinbagonian Opera 'Natrinty', in which Toronto audiences will not soon forget his performance as 'Papa Pamponette' and with Bread and Puppet Theatre of Vermont in their presentation of 'Insurrection Mass with Funeral Marches for Really Rotten Ideas'.
Sandy has a deep commitment to social justice and building community capacity. To this end, he has successfully combined his performance skills and diverse talents with an extensive knowledge of historical, political, social and cultural issues to create unique and valuable popular education tools that combine creative expression, critical thinking, literacy and positive pro-action. In the process he has created an exciting new genre of lively developmental workshops that are a rich source of creative and practical ideas. Highly regarded for his work in the field of Arts-in-Education he has served as a drama specialist at both the elementary and secondary level. Sandy's skills and experience as a workshop facilitator and animator have allowed him to travel across Canada and the United States working extensively with young people in theatre-in-education and with community professionals in a wide range of drama applications. He has also worked with various NGO's (Non Government Organizations) and international development organizations utilizing popular theatre and visual arts as an educational tool to facilitate anti-racist action and promote democratic organizational change. Sandy has recently added working as an on-camera acting coach and tutor to child actors on film sets to his credits.
Sandy passionately believes that, beyond their usefulness to community development and education, the expressive arts are tools for healing. He feels that each person has a tremendous capacity to be creative and that exploring this potential can help reconnect us with our true selves and tap into our own inner wisdom. His desire to explore the healing and transformational potential of artistic expression in its many forms inevitably brought him to poetry and storytelling. Sandy skilfully blends improvisation, theatrical presentation, and the spoken word with musical arrangements. Drawing on the centuries old African griot traditions he transforms into different characters, as much through gesture as through voice - sometimes through song and dance - and each and every time his listeners soon feel like they are part of the poem or story.
Affectionately known as 'Hannibal' by his friends and peers, he is a founding member of the POOR POETS, a group of poets of Caribbean background living in Canada that have advocated by means of their poetry for a unified Caribbean voice, collective analysis of international development and uncovering of the connections between various forms of discrimination in Canadian society. Sandy has performed as a spoken word artist in Toronto, Trinidad, New York, Los Angeles, Havana and Mexico City. This dynamic and engaging performer is the soul and inspiration behind the AHANAIE EDUCATIONAL PROJECT. It is by virtue of his drive and vision and in great measure stubbornness that the AHANAIE World Music Collective came into existence and has borne fruit. Currently, he is devoting much of his time and energy toward producing AHANAIE's first CD of musical poems entitled 'AHANAIE: Weapon of Mass Construction', which should be released at the end of 2004. The release of the CD will be followed by a book of poems and there are also plans in the works to produce a narrative film that can be concisely described as a Caribbean Carnivalesque magical realist parable (for more information on the film project go to the Golokwati SuSu page).
Beyond the immediate goals of the AHANAIE EDUCATIONAL PROJECT Sandy's interest lies in channelling his talents towards developing a performance-based poetry theatre with spectacular props and audio/visual displays. This effort is geared towards recognizing and reviving poetry and by extension storytelling as a live communal event, drawing on whatever myths, traditions, or rituals might still have purchase on the popular imagination.
Sandy pursues his creative endeavours with a determined energy and relentless optimism. He is extremely reluctant to apply labels or limiting categorizations to his work. He feels that this is inimical to the whole spirit of artistic creation, which must always be open to new interpretations and involves giving form to the unconscious - a process of always moving from the inner to the outer. Among his mentors he pays tribute to Edna Richardson who early on recognized and encouraged his artistic potential. Musically Andre Tanker, the Boothman brothers, Winston Bailey (aka 'The Shadow') and Bob Marley have all been major influences. At the level of creative writing he has fond memories of going to hear 'Malik the Mad Poet' as a boy and later being mesmerised by Paul Keens Douglas' theatrical storytelling style. Anthony Mark Jones, Gloria Moolchan and Aldwin Harris all nurtured within him an ability to see and embrace the connectedness of all things in our universe and for this he is eternally grateful. Although Sandy has accomplished success in many areas, he has a burning desire to succeed in areas not yet explored. There will always be mountains to conquer and oceans to traverse in this journey we call life. Art reflects life and life reflects art - there can be no brave new world - no revolution without passion - vivir por la passion.
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