Feature: Hart, officials feel the heat at opening of Academy

(UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart admires a model of the Academy)

It was a grand event.

The president, cabinet ministers, dignitaries, top government officials, PNM members, special guests, UDeCOTT, The Shanghai Construction group were all there Monday to celebrate the formal opening of the controversial multi-million-dollar Academy for the Performing Arts.

The Shanghai group built the facility through a contract awarded by UDeCOTT.

Both organizations won praise from the prime minister for completing the project. Patrick Manning made a point to dismiss all those who were critical of UDeCOTT boss Calder Hart.

When it was time for Hart to speak, he was full of praises not for Manning but for his wife, Sherrine. She is the lady who is linked to a Malaysian company that UDeCOTT handed contracts worth $668 million.

But there was no talk of any of that controversy Monday. Only pleasantries.

Hart was in a thankful mood, and his focus was on family.

"I want to thank all of our families for their understanding and support. And I also certainly want to thank my wife for her tremendous effort and support,” Hart said.

Earlier, he was feeling the heat in the building as were others sitting in the auditorium. He remarked that he knows of dealing with cold, having come to Trinidad to escape from the frigid temperatures of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

It seems that the brand new building already had a malfunction. Or perhaps a miscalculation of the heat in the place?

The guests were uncomfortable. Printed programs became makeshift fans as they tried to cool themselves.

Hart came to the rescue as he appealed for some help from officials of the builders, The Shanghai Construction Group (SCG). "I know that someone from SCG is in the auditorium and if I could ask them just to crank up the air-conditioning," he said.

He wondered if the the heating from the theatre's enormous lighting system was the problem.

Could it be that now that the lights were on, everybody was feeling the heat?

Well, the lights didn't seem to always work as planned either. At least one of them needed to be manually operated by an employee of SCG.

And the ultra-modern state-of-the-art facility didn't appear to have the right mikes too. Or perhaps it was intentional that wireless mikes would be discarded for the opening event so that audio cords would be run all across the stage.

Then there was that little problem of audio feedback. Did someone also forget to check the acoustics? Or was it designed like that?

Never mind.

The show must go on. And it did, with performances by the Divine Echoes, Eastern Youth Chorale, Shiv Shakti Dancers and Malick Folk Performing Company.

The atmosphere was biblical with the Eastern Youth Chorale performing the "Hallelujah chorus", "Days of Elijah" and "The Battle of Jericho."

Amen!