ERROL  GASTON  HILL
DATE OF BIRTH: August 5, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England (Diploma in Dramatic Art, 1951)
  • Yale University, Connecticut, USA (B.A., 1962; Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting, 1962; Doctor of Fine Arts in Theatre History, 1966)
    • CAREER:                                Hill's exposure to drama began in the mid-1940s when he and Errol John were among the founding members of the Whitehall Players, a local theatre group. A Carnival and steelband enthusiast, Hill was one of the first Trinidadians to air steelband music on the radio when he brought Ellie Mannette to play his tenor pan on Radio Trinidad's "Voice of Youth" program. In 1949, he received a British Council scholarship and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for two years. He then became an actor and anouncer with the BBC and, in 1952, was the stage director for the Arts Council tour of the provinces of Wales and the North of England. He returned to the West Indies in 1953 and became a tutor in Drama and Radio at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica until 1958, when he left for the USA to further his studies after receiving a 2-year Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship; he later received a fellowship from the Theatre Guild of America in 1961. Upon graduating from Yale, he tutored in Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies from 1962 to 1965. During this period, he wrote and directed Dimanche Gras Carnival shows for the Government of Trinidad & Tobago in 1963 and 1964. He was the first tenured, African-American professor at Darthmouth College, New Hampshire, USA, where he taught drama and oratory from 1968 until his retirement in 1989. During his 50-year stage career, Hill produced and directed more than 120 plays and pageants in England, Nigeria, the USA, and the West Indies. His published works include:
    • BOOKS
    • The Trinidad Carnival, Mandate for A National Theatre (1972)
    • Why Pretend? A Conversation About the Performing Arts (1973, with Peter Greer)
    • Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors (1984)
    • The Jamaican Stage 1655-1900: Profile of a Colonial Theatre (1992)
    • The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre (co-author, 1993)
    • A History of African American Theatre (with James V. Hatch, 2003)

    • PLAYS
    • Man Better Man (1964)
    • Dance Bongo (1966)
    • Strictly Matrimony (1971)
    AWARDS:
    • 1973 - Trinidad & Tobago Humming Bird Medal Gold (for Drama)
    • 1996 - Robert Lewis Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Research (Kent State University, Ohio, USA)
    DIED: September 15, 2003, in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, after a long battle with colon cancer.