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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Grand Bahama
GRAND BAHAMA, Bahamas – One thing’s for certain, if you didn’t catch The Holy Hook Up when it landed on stage as a teaser last year, you’re bound to fall in love hook, line and sinker when it returns full blast at the Regency Theatre on Friday, June 8th. When the play first debuted, it lasted all of 30 minutes and shared the stage with two others. This time around, Shauna Joseph Productions promises it’s returning with all the bells and whistles, additional cast members and a whole lot more laughs. Best known for her vocal skills, the singer, songwriter, actor and now playwright Shauna Joseph is walking into her season and owning her place in the world of theatre. In fact, Joseph has already proven that she isn’t afraid to put herself out there when she acted in her own play last year, which ultimately won her the bragging rights of what she initially thought to be a harmless contest. “I’ve always loved writing since I was a little girl,” Joseph said. “Growing up in church, I got involved in Easter and Christmas productions and that’s where I did the bulk of my acting.” So when veteran writers Gea Pierre and Kerel Pinder put on a workshop/playwright competition in March of 2017, a timid Joseph decided to roll with it. “Actually, I didn’t know it was a competition but it was a workshop as well. I wanted to see what I could learn, so I signed up,” Joseph said. “A few days before the deadline, it just wasn’t coming together, and after realizing it wasn’t working, I went back and started looking through my old papers and found something that I had done before in church for a talent night.” Joseph had only a few weeks to put it all together. “I had to find actors and I pretty much had to go to people I had never met before,” she admitted. After seeing and admiring the works of actors Remardo Russell and Donovan Munroe in Pierre’s plays, she knew she wanted them to be in hers. “The beautiful thing about it is that some of them didn’t know who I was, didn’t know what the play was about, but they so love what they do, they said yes, no problem,” Joseph remembered. “That, to me, was just an awesome thing. “The crew worked so hard. They came to rehearsals, nobody was looking for pay and they just loved what they did.” Her play made it among the top three finalists and on March 26, 2017, Joseph’s Holy Hook Up, Dennell Knowles’ Suspect and Trevor Simmons’ Shudda, Cudda, Wudda was acted out on stage at the Regency Theater to a crowd of over 200. When the curtains closed on the last play and the judges’ scores were pooled, the Holy Hook Up had stolen the show. “That night when they called my name on stage, I was like wow, we did it. That was my Oscar moment,” a relieved Joseph reminisced. As for the monetary prize, the acclaimed playwright proudly shared it with her cast, grateful for their sacrifice and them supporting her dream. Joseph is using the exposure from the competition as a springboard to showcase new works from her arsenal that have accumulated over the last 20-plus years. It has long been a dream of hers to become a playwright, but she always kept it on the back burner and pursued her passion for music, her first love. The win catapulted her into overdrive and she created the full version of the Holy Hook Up that very night. What began with eight original cast members, including herself, now has a cast of 14 and tells the story of how bachelor Thomas Ford got to the holy hook up. “It’s basically a game show in which a young guy is ready to get married,” she said. He's a God fearing, intelligent and successful businessman, yet love eludes him. Feeling discouraged and a bit angry at God for forgetting him, he takes matters into his own hands and sets out on a journey to find his Holy Hook Up. Head on down to any one of the box offices at Knead and Brew, Signature Choices or Ronnie’s Organic Community Store and see how Thomas gets wheeled in when curtains open on June 8th - 10th at the Regency Theatre.
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