‘Never doubt yourself. I made it in’ – Rikkiya A. R. Brathwaite
This is a scenario that can be attributed to Virgin Islander Rikkiya A. R. Brathwaite. Today she celebrates her 17th birth anniversary and aside from the gifts of life and the surrounding love and affection from loved ones, this most recent development is the next best gift for her.
Her dream of becoming an actress on Broadway was given a guiding light that points in the direction that she wants for a career.
Come 6 July, 2014 her bags would be well packed as she would be heading off to Yale University in Connecticut, USA where she would be spending five (5) weeks for a summer programme undergoing an actor’s intensive course at Yale’s Summer Conservatory for Actors.
Speaking with Virgin Islands News Online from her Trunk Bay home yesterday June 9, 2014 Rikkiya said that there were many times she had doubted her abilities to qualify to be accepted into what is said to be one of the leading universities of all time.
“Never doubt yourself, I doubted myself but I got in,” she cautioned. It is only a summer programme, but her attending the five-week programme is seen as a step in her making leaps and bounds towards a career that, once realized will take the name of the VI another notch up in the world level of theatre.
She is destined to become an actor on Broadway. Currently Rikkiya is a student at the North Broward Preparatory School in Boca Raton, Florida, USA where she will be senior in the fall and is a candidate for the International Baccalaureate Diploma. It is customary of that school to select a few students to attend Oxford University, England for a two week summer programme. She was one of them who were chosen.
“But then right before I did that I thought that when I saw some actresses such as Lupita Nyong’o who are receiving Oscars because they are really good actors and actresses, graduating from Yale University, I said that was something I wanted to do and since there is an actors’ intensive course, I would probably get a one-on-one with those really good trainers and coaches,” she said.
She applied, “But I didn’t know if I would get in but yet I applied, I told my mom I want to do this and she said, ‘go for it’. I did it and I got accepted.”
At an early age, Rikkiya had given thought of what her career goal would be. Whilst a student at Cedar International School, Kingston, Tortola VI, she was involved in many musical theatre productions including the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
At North Broward she has performed in the musical “Company” and has recently auditioned for the lead role in another musical “Side Show”, a production which would occur in October of this year. At Interlochen Centre for the Arts, Michigan, where she attended three summers, she also performed in productions such as Hansel and Gretel and Hairspray.
She is also a former member of the BVI Dance School and has had instruction for over ten years in all levels of dances of Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Pointe and Lyrical amongst others. She also continues her dance career at North Broward Preparatory School.
Her transition was made from Cedar International in order to pursue a programme inclusive of theatre (which was not available VI) in preparation for college and subsequent career.
Virgin Islands News Online congratulates young Rikkiya and wishes her a very happy birthday today.
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