Ellen O’Malley Camps BA, MA, (Helen Camps) is a Theatre Practitioner (actor, producer/director, writer), with a background in teaching (Teacher’s Training College, Dublin) and theology (University of Dublin). She is a Human Enrichment Facilitator, Counsellor (Psychosynthesis & Education Trust, London) and Mediator (UWI. St. Augustine).
She is a recent director (Projects) for the Network of NGOs of Trinidad & Tobago for the Advancement of Women and part-time lecturer at the Creative Arts & Festival Centre UWI, St. Augustine.
She has worked regionally and internationally as a teacher/director/trainer/facilitator in both the public and private sectors.
She has been in the theatre since 1967 when she joined Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theatre Workshop and worked as an actor, adapter (Stage, T.V, Radio), script/continuity & costumes (Film)
The Seventies
She co-founded (with Cynthia Alleyne) the Trinidad & Tobago Housewives Association (H.A.T.T).
She set up a production company (All Theatre Productions) and helped rebuild and establish the Little Carib as a theatre space with a technical and administrative infrastructure.
The Eighties
She inaugurated the experimental Trinidad Tent Theatre Company, which attempted to create a style and theatrical form suited to the resources and the realities of the Caribbean. In Ireland she co-founded the Irish Goodwill & Right Relationship Centre.
She led the participants at the World Conference on New Psychologies & Psychotherapies (Findhorn, Scotland) in an exploration of national symbols, celebrations and rituals – the aim – to make conscious the possibilities for re-visioning, for personal development and transformation inherent in ritual, theatre and performance art.
In 2000 she founded and became first artistic director of St. Lucia’s Téyat Toutafé and in 2004 she co-founded and became artistic director of Trinidad’s Brown Cotton Tent Theatre Ensemble.
Both St. Lucia’s Téyat Toutafé and Trinidad’s Brown Cotton Tent Theatre Ensemble worked and trained out of a tent with aims and objectives akin to the Trinidad Tent Theatre Company.
All her work is geared towards the development of a more creative and expressive mode of being and for better inter-personal relationships – right relationship through best communication practices.
Towards this end she established EMERJ Associates a company working out of a restorative justice philosophy dedicated to human enrichment, empowerment and transformation.
In June 2011 EMERJ Associates and Brown Cotton Tent Theatre Ensemble merged to become Brown Cotton Outreach (incorporated as a not-for-profit NGO).
General Work Experience
2010 Europe
| Consultant/Director | Leadership & Team Building Skills, Mediation, Personal Empowerment | Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey Azerbaijan, Romania, Armenia, Italy Macedonia, Spain, Greece, Ireland |
2009-2016 Trinidad
| Consultant/Trainer | Leadership & Team Building Skills, Mediation, Personal Empowerment | Infotech Caribbean |
1990 – 1998 Ireland, England, St. Lucia
| Consultant/Trainer | Leadership, Team Building Skills Personal Empowerment, Mediation | Government & Private Sector (St. Lucia) |
| Consultant/Trainer | Exiles Professional Theatre Training | University College Cork (Ireland) |
| Counsellor | Private Practice | Dublin (Ireland) |
| Counsellor | Growth and Development Seminars | Eckhart House, Dublin (Ireland) |
| Counsellor | Psychosynthesis and Education Trust | London (England) |
| Consultant/Trainer | Openings | Bath (England) |
1979 – 2005 Trinidad, St. Lucia, England, Ireland
| Consultant/Trainer | Maximum Security Prison | Arouca, Trinidad |
| Consultant/Trainer | Export Centres (Min. Comm. Dev.) | San Juan, Trinidad |
| Consultant/Trainer | Network of NGOs | Trinidad |
| Counsellor | Aids Support Group | Trinidad |
| Consultant/Trainer | Theatre/Carnival In Education | Ministry of Education & Culture (Trinidad) |
| Consultant/Trainer | Mastery Classes | The Lighthouse Theatre (St. Lucia) |
| Counsellor | Psychodrama | Golden Hope Mental Hospital (St. Lucia) |
| Counsellor | Alcohol/ Drug Rehabilitation | Turning Point (St. Lucia) |
| Counsellor | Staff Training | Masaade Boys Industrial School (St. Lucia) |
| Consultant/Trainer | Multi-Ethnic School Project | London Arts Council (England) |
| Consultant/Trainer | Teacher Training Project | The Commonwealth Institute (England) |
| Counsellor | Personal Development Project | Carlow County Council (Ireland) |
1959 – 1963 Ireland
| Teacher | Primary Level | Castleknock Boys Primary School Dominican Girls Primary School |
Social/Community Work Trinidad, Ireland, St Lucia
| 2010-2020 | Director | MSP BCO Film/Theatre Programme |
| 2009 | Director | Maximum Security Prison Lifer Prisoners (Women & Men) |
| 2004 | Founder/Artistic Director | Brown Cotton Theatre Ensemble (Trinidad) |
| 2003 | Consultant/Trainer | Maximum Security Prison (Trinidad) |
| 2000 | Founder/Artistic Director | Téyat Toutafé (St. Lucia) |
| 1996-2002 | Consultant/Trainer | Groswell Centre, Ciceron & Sickle Cell groups (St. Lucia) |
| 1988 | Co-founder | Irish Centre for the Development of Goodwill & Right Relationship (Ireland) |
| 1982 | Founder | The Trinidad and Tobago Tent Theatre (Trinidad) |
| 1979-82 | Manager | Little Carib Theatre (rebuilding & establishment as a professional theatre space with an appropriate technical & administrative infrastructure) – Trinidad |
| 1975 | Facilitator | Pastoral work for the rehabilitation of ex-convicts (Trinidad) |
| 1974 | Founder | Trinidad All Theatre Productions (Trinidad) |
| 1970 | Co-founder | Trinidad and Tobago Housewives Association (a women’s forum and pressure group) – Trinidad |
Theatre Work Experience
Stage Actor Trinidad
| Step-child, Step-child | Oliver Jackman |
| The Maids | Jean Genet |
| Gloo Joo | Michael Hastings |
| Like them that Dream | Edgar White |
| Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? | Edward Albee |
| A Nancy Story | Elliot Bastien |
| The Sea Gull | Anton Chekov |
| The Joker of Seville | Derek Walcott |
| In a Fine Castle | Derek Walcott |
| Dream on Monkey Mountain | Derek Walcott |
| O Babylon | Derek Walcott |
| The Charlatan | Derek Walcott |
| Ti Jean and his Brothers | Derek Walcott |
| Statements after an arrest under the Immorality Act | Athol Fugard |
Film Actor Trinidad
| Dream on Monkey Mountain (Script, Continuity, Costumes) | N. B. C |
| Bim | Sharc Productions |
Television Actor Trinidad
| Rounders (Children’s Programme co-presenter) | Anthony Hall, Camps |
| The Bore | Anton Chekov |
| Lonely Londoners | Samuel Selvon |
Stage Producer/Director Trinidad
| Street Theatre: Commess & Conflict | Camps, Martin & Lee-Sing |
| La Chunga | Mario Vargas Llosa |
| Pantomime | Derek Walcott |
| Freedom of the City | Brian Friel |
| Winners | Brian Friel |
| Equus | Peter Shaffer |
| Bent | Martin Sherman |
| The Maids | Jean Genet |
| Visioneer | Malik |
| Sr. Ignatius tells it all | Christopher Durang |
| Sizwe Banzi is Dead | Athol Fugard |
| Mas in Yuh Mas | Paul Keens Douglas, F. Edinborough |
| King Jab Jab | Felix Edinborough, Camps |
| Go to Hell | Felix Edinborough, Camps |
| J’ouvert | Felix Edinborough, Camps |
| Cinderama | Felix Edinborough, Camps |
| Making New Waves | Roger Israel, Camps |
| Rampanalgas Sunrise | Roger Israel, Camps |
| An Actor’s Nightmare | Christopher Durang |
Stage Producer Trinidad
| Desiree | Norman DePalm |
| Remembrance | Derek Walcott |
| Poets | Derek Walcott, Mark Strahan, Joseph Brodsky |
T.V/Radio Adaptor Trinidad
| Ti Jean and his Brothers | Derek Walcott, Andre Tanker |
| As Time Goes By | Mustafa Mathura |
| The Harrowing of Benjy | Roderick Walcott |
| Malcachon | Derek Walcott |
Tours
| 1982 | J’ouvert | France, London, Berlin, Milan, Rome |
| 1985 | J’ouvert | St. Thomas, St. Croix |
| 1986 | J’ouvert to Last Lap | London (Royal Festival Hall, Royal Court) |
| 2000 | Troumassay & Mary Could Dance | Dublin Theatre Festival |
2001/2/3 | Troumassay | Theatre of Resistance Festival (Guadalupe) |
Stage: Producer/Director/Facilitator St. Lucia
| Hewanorra Story | Adrian Augier, Gene Lawrence |
| Mary Could Dance | Richard Ragoobarsing |
| La Chunga | Mario Vargas Llosa |
| Papa Diable: The Devil at Christmas | Roderick Walcott |
| Ti Jean & His Brothers | Derek Walcott, Andre Tanker |
| Inner Theatre Workshops & Master Classes | Ellen O’Malley Camps |
| Troumassay | Adrian Augier, Gene Lawrence |
| Bent | Martin Sherman |
| Mammyshow/Pappyshow; Who has de Plan? | Téyat Toutafé |
| Mammyshow/Pappyshow- Wha’ happen to de Plan? | Téyat Toutafé |
| For Coloured Girls… | N. Shange |
| Donkey Time | Beverley Gravinsky |
| Rampanalgas Sunrise | Roger Israel, Ellen O’Malley Camps |
| Our Man For All Seasons | Gene Lawrence: |
| Couplets: Winners & Losers | Brian Friel, Beverley Gravinsky |
HONOURS/AWARDS Trinidad and Tobago
| 2019 | Mentorship By Masters: Trinidad and Tobago Government Ministry of Culture | Theatre Cultural Icon |
| 2000 | Cacique | Theatre Vanguard Award |
| 1986 | Major Contribution And Service | National Arts Foundation |
| 1982 | Individual Of The Year | Express Newspapers Award |
Let’s build something together.
Ellen O'Malley Camps 