Banana Boat Productions, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1996 by Merlina Rich, is dedicated to presenting quality Caribbean theater to the Caribbean and non-Caribbean community. Some of our productions have been in collaboration with other theatre companies. Main stage productions include Nine to Five Government Style, The New Hardware Store, Have Mouth Will Travel, All I’ve Got, Pretty P
apers, Good Morning Miss Millie and Mamma Decemba. In partnership with the Caribbean-American Repertory Theater, we co-produced Jestina's Calypso and My Children! In collaboration with New Perspectives Theatre Company, we co-produced The Ritual in 2007, and again in 2008 and 2009 due to audience demand, and as participants in the Theatre Communications Group FREE Night of Theatre Festival, as well as a revival of Mamma Decemba in 2008. Banana Boat Productions has also collaborated with Caribbean Cultural Theatre in presenting tributes to Perry Henzel, the author of the seminal Jamaican film classic, The Harder They Come, Charles Hyatt, the author of When Mi Was A Boy and Stephanie Black, the author and producer of H2 Workers (an immigrant apple pickers documentary). Some of our more recent readings include Old Story Time, with Nanawao Productions, as well as Positive, Hortensia’s Recession and Not about Eve with Braata Productions. Banana Boat Productions also produces a reading series each year, introducing new audiences to new Caribbean plays.
