Beverly Smith Lopez

BEVERLEY SMITH LOPEZ – our Miss Bev – was a female comedienne extraordinaire who made her international acting debut with the Square Peg Players at Carifesta 1976 in Jamaica performing her hit monologue – BELIZEAN GOSSIP.

At the tender age of 19, she became internationally known as Belize’s “First lady of Comedy”, a title she would keep as she went on to represent Belize at many other International Festivals including Carifesta 1979 in Cuba, Carifesta 1981 in Barbados and Commonwealth Festivals in Edmonton, Canada and Edinburgh, Scotland.

During the heydays of the Square Peg players in the late 1970s, Bev was one of the most popular comediennes Belize had ever seen. She was witty, sharp and used Belizean Creole in such a way that her work appealed to theatre enthusiasts from the ordinary rank and file Belizeans.  Whenever she and the other members of the Square Peg Players performed (Ray Gongora, Diane Haylock, Hipolito Bautista to name a few), the Bliss Institute with its seating capacity of 350 – 400 was always packed to standing room only.  Back then the Bliss was a dynamic place, culture was alive and kicking and according to local patrons there was always something going on at the Bliss.

Other things were also happening in culture. The annual Festival of Arts was a tremendous event looked forward to by both children and adults who wished to show off their skill with dance, drama, arts and craft and music. But several things happened in the 1980s that caused a lapse in the preservation and encouragement of Belizean culture. Belize became independent and the pressing concerns of a new nation focused its resources more on poverty alleviation and housing than supporting the arts. It seems that we as a people never fully realized the importance of culture to development and it was for a long time mistakenly perceived as only an extracurricular activity to be done when there was spare time or money.  The advent of television in Belize in the early 80s, a novelty that allowed one to stay home and be entertained, also had an adverse effect on theatre audiences and many stage performers soon found themselves playing to almost empty houses. Adult groups no longer signed up for the Festival of Arts and eventually even the children section dwindled away. With no resources being allocated to encourage growth, discouragement set in and many local entertainers migrated to the states to live or study while a few others like Beverly Smith remained behind to try and revive the Arts in Belize in the best way they could.

As the 80s progressed, Bev became the third Executive Secretary of the National Arts Council where it became obvious to her that only through further education that would allow her to navigate cultural administration could she make a notable difference in preserving Belize’s rapidly extinct cultural practices. A scholarship to Santa Clar University in Northern California came through and Miss Bev graduated in 1991 with a Bachelors degree in Theatre. That same year that she received the acclaimed Charles Lampkins award for outstanding stage performance. School sources report that her senior acting recital was one of the most powerful recitals that university had ever seen and a whole world of opportunity lay in front of her.   But Beverley returned to her beloved Belize instead.

She returned to take up the position of Belize’s first National Drama Coordinator, running drama programs all over the country, from school-rooms to jail cells and doing it with an endless supply of energy, power and vigor.  Beverley, you see, was a nationalist and a woman determined to preserve Belizean culture through the performing arts.  The creation of her position as National Drama Coordinator was a turning point for arts in Belize as it opened up the possibility for other National Coordinators. It was her active lobbying that resulted in the appointments of the first National Music and Dance coordinators soon after.

The stage was her passion and her two main goals as National Drama Coordinator were:
1. to revive the National Festival of Arts, even if only the Children’s
section  and
2. to bring back the social theatre of the 70s to Belize.

The children are our future and so Miss Bev concentrated on implementing the Children’s Festival of Arts in the early 1990s working closely with the Curriculum Development Unit to get the arts in the schools and to encourage schools to participate yearly.  She was successful in her efforts and now that the Children’s Festival of Arts has been firmly established again, those very same children are now attempting to persuade their secondary schools and teenage friends to continue the performances. It will only be a matter of time, just as predicted, before the  revived adult Festival of Arts comes on scene.

Her second goal to revive social theatre was also achieved.  The National Theatre Company was formed under the directorship of Diane Haylock, herself a former Square Peg player. Since social commentaries through entertainment is the best way to any point across to the Belizean public, Miss Bev chose two very specific stage plays for her directorial debut. “Daag and Iguana” by comedienne Gladys Stuart and “When my Father comes home” by actress Shirly Warde’s. To her, these two plays highlighted social changes in the very fabric of Belizean society that were going seemingly unnoticed and unheeded.

“These two plays brings to light our departure from the patriarchal and extended family lifestyles and now into a matriarchal society. In them, our attention is drawn to the gradual destruction of our youths as we teach them to easily exchange their good moral values for materialistic gains. We try so hard to give what we did not have (materially) that we forget to give them what we had – love.” Her work to educate the Belizean audiences continued with the critically acclaimed play about AIDS, “One of our Sons are Missing” that both shocked and entertained Belizean audiences just waking up to the fact that AIDS was a crisis occurring in our midst.

As Bev worked for social change in Belize through the Arts, her thoughts and attitude towards arts and culture began to change. Instead of merely pleasing the audience, she began to look for ways to ensure that culture and art would survive for years to come in Belize.  Her appointment as Director of Culture in 1994 allowed her to wholeheartedly embrace the heavy responsibility of teaching a new generation of Belizeans to appreciate local arts and culture.  As cultural administration took up more and more of her time, Miss Bev reluctantly allowed her beloved stage personas of Sarah and Dudu Daalin to fade into the background.

Her constant goal and dream was to see the Bliss Institute refurbished. As she struggled personally with an ongoing heart condition that worsened over time, she struggled to be heard in the Ministry of Culture. She often lamented that Belizean Artists had no real place to rehearse and perform and repeated to everyone who wanted to hear – and even those who didn’t – that it was her dream was to see a National Arts and Performing Center become a reality.  The move over two years ago to 27 Regent Street signaled to her and all others that the Bliss would finally be renovated but sadly, that dream was not fulfilled in her lifetime.

At the time of her passing Miss Bev had became much more than just a Belizean comedienne. Beverley Smith Lopez was a mother, a wife, a friend, a cultural revolutionary, a patriot and a highly respected Caribbean educator and dramatist – not only in Belize, but in the region and internationally.

To Beverley Smith Lopez – Forever Yours in Art and Culture.