When a tiatr director is invited to perform in London, the one person contacted without fail, is Gregorio Joao Mateus Carvalho, popularly known to all, as Greg. This gentleman provides the light effects to all tiatrs staged in London, whether the troupe comes from Goa or the tiatr fraternity in London decides to stage a show. Recently he has even been invited to USA and the Gulf, to lend his light effects.
Greg was born in Maddel, Margao. When he just 6-months-old, his parents migrated to Kenya, Africa. After completing his education, he began teaching and subsequently was appointed as headmaster of a school there. Later he joined an audit firm as manager. In 1987 he left Kenya, to get married and settle in the United Kingdom. At present he works as a chief accountant of a finance company.
Konkani tiatr has been his passion from a young age. He loved singing and has won several awards and performed for the Kenyan television in 1976 and later in 1986. His interest in tiatr was fueled when stalwarts like the late M Boyer and C Alvares presented their shows in Kenya. Later in London, he was invited to perform in most shows until 1994, when the last tiatr was staged – ‘Khoro Mog’ by Larryboy. There weren’t any shows performed for the next six years due to lack of finance and busy schedules.
So, Greg and likeminded individuals formed ‘The Goan Cultural Society, UK’ and were registered for ‘performing arts’. The main objective was to encourage potential writers and directors, to stage their work. A committee was formed and this included Camilo Carvalho, Rosy D’Silva, Larry de Souza, Bella Fernandes and Ida De Souza. They promoted Goan heritage of arts, drama and music, to keep it alive for the future generation of Goans in UK.
The group produced and staged 14 tiatrs since November 2000. Greg managed the group and performed for the shows as well. He looked after the songs and the lighting effects. The music was handled by Chillyboy. Two shows were also staged in Canada and Germany. When tiatrs from Goa began to be staged in London, the audience for the shows from London began to dwindle. So in 2014 the Society decided to stop staging the shows. But the passion continued and Greg invested in good lighting equipment to provide light effects for the visiting troupes. In recent years he has provided light effects to most of the shows including those staged by Goan tiatrists who have migrated to UK.
Greg uses his personal leave to pursue lighting up tiatr stages as he considers it a hobby. He has always wanted to contribute to the Konkani language and tiatr. He has been invited to USA with some groups and is booked till 2019. Unfortunately, only a few have mentioned about this helpful, soft spoken individual, who contributes to the tiatr scene in the UK. His wife Lourdes also supports Konkani drama, by producing video clips of tiatr or teasers for the show in London.
Fortunately, it was because Anil Pednekar requested me to meet Greg during his short holiday in Goa that I landed up knowing so much about the man. Greg says: “The learning process is still on and I want to further improve on the light effects.”
Greg, your contribution is acknowledged and we wish you all the best!