A trained dancer, former Miss Jamaica World, Miss Jamaica Universe and 1st runner-up in the 2010 Miss Universe final, Yendi Phillipps knows balance. She hosts the popular morning show Smile Jamaica, is an ambassador for prominent brands including Digicel, manages her eponymous non-profit foundation and most recently, became a mother.
This summer, Yendi will add yet another role, making her theatre debut in Taboo. It’s the latest in a string of creative endeavours including modelling in South Africa, walking the runway, dancing with the National Dance Theatre Company, and filming Pepsi’s International “Refresh” campaign. Yendi has a BFA in Dance and a master’s degree from the University of Brockport.
Rodney is a veteran of stage, TV and film. He was a lead actor in the film Glory to Gloriana, and a supporting actor in Ghett’a Life. He had a recurring role in the TV series Royal Palm Estate. Rodney has also been seen on stage in Where is My Father and 4 Play, for which he won the Actor Boy award for Best Supporting Actor.
Rodney is currently the host of the TV talk show JNVIBE. He has worked as a news reporter for KLAS FM 89, RJR and the Gleaner, and was the host of the popular Fame 95 radio show Uncensored.
Lisa Williams had her first major acting role in the film Ghett’a Life. She followed with major roles on stage in Not About Eve, Where is my Father?, and can currently be seen in Paternal Instinct.
She has been nominated for the Prime Minister Youth Award, and has appeared in ads for prominent brands, including Digicel and the Jamaica Tourist Board. She is set to appear in the upcoming TV sitcom Real Friends. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, and dreams of opening her own performing arts company.
Keiran started Backstory. He is the playwright behind Last Call , Mr & Mrs Blacke and Taboo.
Trained in New York as a screenwriter, he interned as a script reader on the Warner Bros lot in Los Angeles before returning to Jamaica.
Keiran has a full-length screenplay, Pryce of Success, and used to write film and theatre criticism for The Gleaner.
He has been seen onstage in Cindy, After Dinner, I Take This Man, White Witch and Mr & Mrs Blacke.
Keiran started Backstory. He is the playwright behind Last Call and Mr & Mrs Blacke.
Trained in New York as a screenwriter, he interned as a script reader on the Warner Bros lot in Los Angeles before returning to Jamaica.
Keiran has a full-length screenplay, Pryce of Success, and used to write film and theatre criticism for The Gleaner.
He has been seen onstage in Cindy, After Dinner, I Take This Man, White Witch and Mr & Mrs Blacke.
KINGSTON, 1 Jun 2013.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Backstory is proud to announce their 2013 production, Taboo. This smart, funny, sexy show features Rodney Campbell, Lisa Williams (Ghett’a Life), Keiran King and two-time beauty queen Yendi Phillipps in her debut stage performance. With a fresh, whip-sharp script by Keiran King (Last Call, Mr & Mrs Blacke), crafted for the stage by veteran director Eugene Williams (Ruined), Taboo is the show you know you shouldn’t see, and won’t forget. (more…)
Raisha started directing and producing with UWI Panoridim Steel Orchestra, a steel band that stages music shows with a dramatic spin. She has since led the production of five of their major concert seasons, and was responsible for the artistic direction and finance of the orchestra for a combined six years.
In 2011, she expanded to producing theatrical plays. She is the co-owner of Backstory, producer of Last Call and Mr & Mrs Blacke.
Eugene Williams is the longtime Director of the School of Drama at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.
Over the past 30 years, he has staged such local and foreign classics as The Cherry Orchard, Waiting for Godot, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Black Jacobins, Playboy of The West Indies and An Echo in The Bone. Leonie Forbes, Charles Hyatt, Trevor Rhone, Lloyd Reckord and countless Jamaican actors have come under his direction.
Williams is a Ford Foundation and Fulbright scholar, with master’s degrees from Brooklyn College and New York University. He has received the silver Musgrave Medal for Drama Education.