Amah Harris Bio

Amah Harris: OCT., B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.Theatre producer, director, playwright, actress, educator. She is an active member of the Caribana Arts Group. Amah is known for innovations in education and theatre where she synergizes elements of those two disciplines and cultural elements to develop both education and theatre techniques. These efforts are towards the harmonizing of differences and providing safe nurturing environments for script explorations, and learning spaces.

The public forum of theatre makes her best known for her pioneer work in professional Black Theatre in Canada. She co-directed Black Theatre Canada in the 70s, and founded Theatre In The Rough in the 80’s. In 2000, she returned to her first career, the teaching profession, with the Toronto District School Board. Amah’s anti-apartheid and anti racism work through the arts was foregrounded in the 70’s and 80s, and is highlighted in both Dailies and Caribbean press. Her plays and experiential workshops toured throughout Ontario and Canada, also in the U.S. and South Africa.

Her work in theatre and education did not begin in Canada, however, but in her home country of Dominica, where she founded The Little Theatre, (initially called, the Secondary Schools Drama Society), and taught at her alma mater, the Convent High School.

Amah states: "Children are flowers in the garden of the world. All flowers of tomorrow are seeds of today.Whether or not they grow into beautiful flowers is significantly dependant, not on mere chance, but on teachers,who are a key fertilizing element in this context of growth."

Awards:

In Dominica: The British Council Award for best performance in the 1964 Commemorative Shakespeare Festival.In honour of her contribution to theatre in Dominica, a Drama Shield was named after her in the mid-nineties and awarded annually to high schools in that country.

In Canada: In 2006, the Commonwealth of Dominica Ontario Association (Canada) awarded her the Educator’s Award of Distinction. Other awards include, The Harold Award for Artistic Excellence, The Caribana Arts Group Award for Volunteerism, and the African Caribbean Cultural Potpourri Lifetime Achievement Award for Education and Community Service. In February 2014, The Hamilton Black History Society awarded her, The Rev. John C. Holland Award of Merit; their top award.

Amah Harris states, “The major driving force behind my efforts has always been to nurture an environment of peace; to develop a vehicle that would initiate positive constructive change towards, The Harmonious Coexistence of Peoples. I see an effective contributor to that change being the understanding that differences, when harmonized, prove to be a powerful resource. The subtext to that is this reality: Life is interdependent and interconnected, hence each individual is vital to the success of the whole.”