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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Arts & Culture
A Well-Deserved Honour Freeport, Grand Bahama - On Saturday, September 15, at the annual Freeport Players’ Guild President’s Cocktail Party which opens the theatre season Liselle Harris-Russell was conferred with Lifetime Membership. This prestigious honour places her in the company of such luminaries as Sir Jack Hayward and Gloria McGlone. It is a well-deserved honour. Liselle Harris-Russell began her tenure at the Regency Theatre as a child while dancing for Lois Seiler. She performed many times on the stage in Pantomines and Christmas shows. After completing her high school education abroad, she returned to the theatre, this time as an actor. She performed as an actor in many productions, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat, The Wiz, Grease, Camelot, Long Time Since Yesterday, and For Colored Girls who have considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enough, Staff Room Gossip, The Woman from Nassau and so many more. Now a seasoned veteran of the theatre she turned her hand to directing. Her preference is musical with a large cast. She directed some of the most successful shows ever presented at the Regency including the original Annie, which she also revived twenty years later, Alice in Wonderland, Pippa, the revival of Grease, Christmas shows and is now in production with Sister Act the Musical.
Liselle’s love for the theatre is well-known. She has led the FPG as President three times. When she realized that due to dwindling numbers and the advanced age of most of our members that there was a certain age void she founded the YARD Group, the Young Adult Regency Drama group for persons aged eighteen to thirty-four. This group has prospered and brought life back into the theatre. Ever proud of her culture, she opened the theatre to a wealth of Bahamian talent, encouraging local playwrights to consider the theatre their home too. Liselle led the FPG through three devastating hurricanes and a robbery in which most of the sound equipment was stolen. Still she persevered and encouraged her group of volunteers to work hard to keep theatre ‘alive’ in Grand Bahama. Her latest venture with the FPG Executive Board is the replacement of the old air-condition units which were installed during the building of the Regency almost fifty years ago. A telethon,(the first of its kind in GB) was held during the summer to raise funds and proved to be very successful as the GB community rallied to save the theatre. Liselle is known for her outstanding organizational abilities, her diligence, and dedication, as well as for her talents as an actor, singer and director. The Freeport Players’ Guild unanimously voted to award her with this award after twenty-five years of service to the theatre and to the Grand Bahama community at large. Contact Sue McCrea for further information 442-6561 mccreasue@gmail.com Liselle Harris-Russell is available for interviews about the Regency Theatre 439-2602 bahamaislandwedding@gmail.com
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