– High rental costs continue to chase away producers…The hike in rental costs for use of the National Cultural Centre (NCC) is literally chasing Producers away. This is according to Godfrey Naughton, the Director of the National Cultural Centre.The Director did not miss the opportunity to highlight this issue at the National Drama Festival Awards which was held yesterday at the NCC, during which he also challenged Culture Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony who was present at the event, to take serious action as it relates to developing the centre.Naughton told Kaieteur News,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, “We only had four major productions for the year, and that cannot sustain the Cultural Centre. The light bill is extremely high and we are unable to pay it with just that. “We are up to our neck with expenses and we continue to plead with the Minister (Dr. Frank Anthony) to help us with subsidies as other companies are assisted. We are currently unable to bring in the money needed to maintain the site and that is mainly because the high cost to rent the centre is chasing people away,Cheap Jerseys China, especially Producers of plays because they would have to pay 20 percent tax on even the tickets.”He continued, “A production usually grosses at about $2M and out of that, the Producer would have to pay $350, 000 to $400, 000 in taxes.? The hike of the prices came under the Minister (Dr. Anthony). At first the cost to rent the Centre was $25,000 then he moved it to $40,000 and then to $80,Jerseys From China,000 per night. So if a play is on for three nights then the Producer would have to pay for rental, which would amount to $240,Wholesale Jerseys China,000 and tax on the tickets as well. Now, if the producer does not rake in the amount of people to cover his expenses then he would be operating at a loss. We are not making it easy on our Producers and this is having serious domino effects. When we chase the Producers with the high cost of rental, we reduce the amount of revenue the NCC brings in thereby diminishing the amount of stage plays we have that celebrate culture. We are not encouraging our Producers, we are only chasing them away and this is sad.”During his presentation to the audience of the NCC yesterday, Naughton said that while he lauds the students and other participants for their hard work and encouraged them to pursue their studies in drama, more needs to be done to improve the platform on which they exhibit their talents.In a subsequent interview with this publication,Cheap Jerseys, he revealed that for over two years the processors, which produces lighting at the events and during most of their plays were down and the Festival was relying on only one processor, which unfortunately stopped working during one of the plays.Naughton explained that the Minister was told from the time the first two broke down some three years ago but the Ministry of Culture did not respond in any way to this situation.However, during his presentation yesterday, Dr. Anthony revealed that he will be putting in place a new state-of-the-art lighting system at the National Cultural Centre.The Director then suggested that the old ones be fixed and donated to other theatres.Meanwhile, the winners of the major categories for the Drama Festival received monetary prizes at the event.? For the Best Production in the Open Full Length Play Category, copping the $1M dollar prize was “Watch De Ride 2- Justice,” whilst “Anybody see Brenda” won the second prize of $400,000 and “When Chocolate melts” won $200,Discount NFL Jerseys,000 as it got third place.As for the Open Short play category, earning the first place prize of $400,000 was the play, “Before her parting” written by Mosa Telford. Coming in second was “Mommy” written by Sonia Yarde followed by “Fare picker.”

By Latoya GilesSeveral lawyers within the judiciary are complaining about the slothfulness of the process and the concomitant length of time for evidence to be completed in matters, especially in criminal trials.Speaking with Kaieteur News, some of the lawyers expressed disgust that for years complaints have been made by them to various agencies and persons in authority have made efforts to have the change effected in this area,NFL Jerseys From China, but to no avail.One defense attorney, who has been practicing in that capacity for more than fifteen years,Cheap Soccer Jerseys, said he still remains optimistic that something will be done “very soon” and he will still be “around” to see that change occur.One of the main grouses for criminal law attorneys is the fact that the Trial Judge has the onerous task of taking notes of everything that is said during the trial. This involves writing the questions posited to a witness and the resulting answers. Kaieteur News was told that it is time consuming and the Trial Judge,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, in an effort to record as accurately as possible,Cheap Jerseys Outlet, would often ask many times for the question to be repeated as asked by Counsel.By the end of that process of getting the question rightly recorded, the initial answer given by the witness, when asked to repeat, is almost invariably shortened and sometimes very important evidence is lost. The Jury hears the initial response but the Trial Judge’s record is the “official record.”For years now lawyers were hearing about the Justice Improvement Project (J.I.P) but the question on most minds is when basic problems would be addressed.? “How much will it cost to have stenographers in court to take down what is said and then the Judge will be able to do what he is supposed to do – listen to the evidence, apply the law and most importantly,Authentic NFL Jerseys Cheap, assess the demeanor of the witnesses as they give their evidence….all of this is now lost when the Judge has to be caught up with paying careful attention to what he/s she is recording.”These sentiments are repeated on a daily basis by attorneys on the corridors of the high court. Some expressed the view that the time it takes for a relatively short criminal trial to conclude, at least two other cases could have been completed if proper facilities for the functioning of the courts were in place.Another problem which is faced by judges and lawyers at hearings is the poor acoustics of the courtrooms with their cathedral-like ceilings, French wooden windows and high arches with meshes on them.These do not effectively block out the cacophony of sounds emanating from the din of traffic on Avenue of the Republic, South Road and Charlotte Streets. Witnesses are constantly being told to speak up and to repeat what they had already said two or three times.“We understand that the architecture of the High Court needs to be preserved but the insides of the courtroom can be sealed up and air conditioned plus microphones can be installed or do we need highly paid foreigners to come here and point that out for us? Then they put in written recommendations to that effect and those papers gather dust on someone’s desk. How many recommendations have we had? How many have been implemented?” asked one senior attorney.Another said that even though the area around the High Court has been designated a silent zone,Cheap NFL Jerseys, horns still blare incessantly. “No one has any regard for law and order in this country. I wonder when we will actually be able to practice in a court which functions properly and effectively and with celerity.”