ANDERSONTHE NAME Donald Anderson has been clawing its way toward being a household fixture, especially in theatrical and comedy circles, over the past eight years.
The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts graduate has performed in Yard '99, Kiss Mi Neck, Breadfruit Kingdom, Dirty Money and numerous commercials.
His dreams of performance began with Donald Duck Presents and have only grown larger.
With numerous Actor Boy nominations under his belt, he has come a far way from the days when his mother told him he was 'an ass training to be a professional ass'. He notes that though she was originally hesitant, his mother now gives his career her full support.
A TRANSITION
Last year, after signing with Big Yard (known for its work with Shaggy, Brian and Tony Gold and Ric Roc) Anderson stepped away from a promising career in theatre. Almost Superman like, he cast aside his motley colours and transformed into 'Ice Man'. A deejay.
The Sunday Gleaner caught up with Ice Man at Backyaad, of which he is a co-owner with five friends. It is noon and the Constant Spring Road venue is almost deserted. He's wearing an army coloured T-shirt and a camouflaged, knitted peak tam. Sunglasses hide his eyes, but his quick laughter and animation speaks volumes.
The reasons spurring his step from the stage are multi-fold.
"I will be bold enough to say that I have big dreams." he says.
His big dreams had brought disappointment with his acting career. "In my younger days I was very satisfied to bring laughter, joy, or any emotion to an audience of 200, 300, 600 or 700 people," he said. Now he wants more.
"Mi ready now fi step out! Fi step pon a continent and mek my mark!" he says. "If I do plays for the rest of my life, I lock myself in."
Anderson continuously refers to the importance of his family and 'crew' but the names Christopher (Daley) and Brian (Gold) are ever present.
"They are brothers to me," he explains. "They encourage me to be a better person. They are my soldiers."
The year 2002 marked Anderson's move into a full-time career as a performer. "I felt it was time to step out as an artiste," he explains, though some would argue that 'stepping out' would guarantee his becoming the poster child for starving artistes.
"Mi need a chance now to do me," he explained. "I've never had the real outlet, that cannon blasting outlet."
Anderson believes that his association with Big Yard will provide his greatest avenue for self-expression.
He sees his incarnation into Ice Man as a grand opportunity, but he is quick to recognise the thorns that lie beneath the bed of roses. "It's a grinding job," he says.
Ice Man is not worried that his time as an actor will interfere with this attempt to storm the microphone.
"People know fire when dem see fire, regardless of what colour the flame is," he says with confidence. "You have to just go out there and hit them. If di public hate it a so!"
THE WAY INTO FILM
He has not done away with acting all together and continues to perform in commercials, because as he says "food affi eat."
Also, should Ice Man's musical career create the blast he imagines, he hopes it will pave the yellow-bricked path to film.
"I want work that will stretch me, put me in a different direction. The music is the current thing now and I want to take it as far as I can. A song is in me every day. A song bleeds in me every day," he says.
So, he dismisses any skepticism that he will fail because the public will not accept the transition.
He has given himself five years to give it his best shot, and leave his mark on the world.
"Anything can happen for me," he says, "including not a damn thing."
- T B-S
