Errol Gaston Hill (5 August 1921 – 16 September 2003) was a

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

-born playwright, actor and theatre historian, "one of the leading pioneers in the West Indies theatre".Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to West Indian Literature'', Collins, 1979, p. 57. Beginning as early as the 1940s, he was the leading voice for the development of a national theatre in the West Indies. He was the first

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

d faculty member of African descent at

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in the

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, joining the drama department there in 1968.

Career

Hill was an actor and announcer with the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in London, and subsequently went to teach at the

University of West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

, in Kingston, Jamaica, and Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, as creative arts tutor (1953–58 and 1962–65). Between 1958 and 1966 he was also working as a playwright. He was a teaching fellow at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 19 ...

, Ibadan, Nigeria (1965–67), and then an associate professor of drama at Richmond College of the City University of New York, 1967–68. He was a professor at Dartmouth College in

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, from 1968 to 1989. After 1972 he devoted himself to scholarship and writing. His early work focused on creating a body of plays uniquely suited for audiences and actors in the West Indies. His later published work brought to light the many accomplishments and trials of black stage actors. Hill's works include the play ''Man Better Man'' (1964) and the non-fiction books ''The Trinidad Carnival'' (1972), ''The Theater of Black Americans'' (1980), and the ''Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre'' (1994)."Errol Hill"
''

The Literary Encyclopedia ''The Literary Encyclopedia'' is an online reference work first published in October 2000. It was founded as an innovative project designed to bring the benefits of information technology to what at the time was still a largely conservative li ...

''. 26 August 2004. Retrieved on 7 March 2008. He also wrote some poetry, published in anthologies and regional literary journals.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Ping-Pong'' and ''Broken Melody'' (1958). UWI Extra-Mural Department, Mona. * ''Man Better Man'' in J. Gassner (ed.), ''The Yale School of Drama Presents'' (1954), New York: Dutton. * ''Wey-Wey: Strictly Matrimony: The Square Peg'' (1966). UWI Extra-Mural Department, St Augustine. * ''Trinidad Carnival'' (1972). University of Texas Press. * ''A Time and a Season – Eight Caribbean Plays'', ed. (1976). Carifesta and UWI Extra-Mural Department, Mona. * ''The Theater of Black Americans'' (1980), Prentice-Hall. *'' The Jamaican Stage, 1655–1900'' (1992), University of Massachusetts Press. * ''Cambridge Guide to African and Caribbean Theatre'', ed. (1994) * ''A History of African American Theatre'', ed. with James V. Hatch (2003), Cambridge University Press. . * ''Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors'' (April 1986), University of Massachusetts Press.

Notes

External links

The Papers of Errol Hill
at Dartmouth College Library. Dartmouth College faculty 1921 births 2003 deaths 20th-century male writers Trinidad and Tobago dramatists and playwrights 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category by: Trinidad and Tobago male writers Trinidad and Tobago expatriates in the United States Trinidad and Tobago expatriates in Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago expatriates in the United Kingdom {{Trinidad-bio-stub