By THEA RUTHERFORD, Guardian National Correspondent, thea@nasguard.com

Bahamian playwright Telcine Turner Rolle's most famous work to date began as a class assignment, the passkey at the end of a three-month Playwriting Seminar during her Fellowship at Northwestern University, 1972-73.

"Woman Take Two", a three-act play being read in high schools around the nation, was born of "desperation," Rolle joked in a recent interview. At the end of a course spent reading and discussing plays, the five graduate students in Rolle's group had to write, discuss and re-write scenes that would eventually become plays. Rolle's play evolved from humble beginnings to first win a Playwriting Prize in the University of The West Indies 25th Anniversary Literary Competition in 1975, be published by Rolle herself in 1987 and published again by Macmillan Caribbean in 1995.

The University Players did a performance from the original manuscript in 1979, under the direction of Sam Boodle. Based on that performance, Rolle rewrote the play and published it in 1987. In 1990 The Grand Bahama Players, directed by Arthur Jones, staged the play in Freeport. Rolle made at least one amendment based on that performance, so when David Jonathan Burrows directed his production at The Dundas Centre for Performing Arts in 1995, he incorporated that. The St. George's High School in Freeport, Grand Bahama made history on April 4, when a cast of students acted "Woman Take Two" to a full Regency Theatre there. Directors were Janice Pinder, Head of The Language Arts Department at the school, and Eisenhower ("Ike") Williams. It was the first public performance of that play anywhere in The Bahamas in 13 years. Rolle admitted it also being the first time she experienced a power cut during public performance. She was impressed by the attitude of Grand Bahama students, teachers, parents and the general public, who waited for at least half an hour.

Rolle wrote works before "Woman Take Two" and, God willing, because of her dissatisfaction with stagnation, there will continue to be more. She is currently working on a two-act play influenced by modern woes. "Writing is my way of getting rid of this frustration," she said. "I want to put

Though memory creates a haze over specific dates or particular inspirations, Rolle remembered that her first play, "A Cross for Easter", was written for children in 1972. It was performed that year by the then fledging St. Anne's High School Drama Club as its inaugural presentation.

What spawned Rolle's Fellowship was being Pandora Gibson Gomez' partner in a Dramatized Characterization for Two in the National Arts Festival 1972, and winning First Prize. For the first time Drama was included in the National Arts Festival. At that time she and Pandora were members of the Bahama Drama Circle, in a period when theatre thrived nationally and new productions were regular. Over the years Rolle continued to write. She had always been an avid reader. Known by friends growing up in Nassau as "Teach", she was also a fierce speller. In 1965 she began a career at the secondary and tertiary levels that connected a love of literature with a passion for performing and writing; it persisted for the better part of 28 years. In 1974, Rolle married Bahamian artist James O. Rolle. The following year their son Arien was born.

Rolle served in a few administrative posts, providing pauses in her teaching life that lasted only as long as she was able to bear being away from vibrant younger minds. She was Acting Education Officer for Language Arts at The Ministry of Education and Culture form 1975 to 1976, when she officially joined the nascent College of The Bahamas In 1977 she was appointed the second Chairperson of the Humanities Division at the college. From 1988 to her retirement in 1993 she worked in the college's Continuing Education Division.

Rolle's work continued to be published after retirement. In 2004 "Play Me," a collection of one-act plays for young people, was published. The book includes "Sunday, Funday", based on a 1984 improvisation exercise at St. Agnes Anglican Church, and "Master Thief", which includes one of her favourite characters, Jack.

A believer in the power of literary works to underscore their own value, Rolle has never sought to push her works. Most of her play scripts (some which she still considers "in the making") have never been performed, while a few have only been put on once. The costs of staging productions weigh heavily on many a Bahamian playwright. More than a few priceless manuscripts have either been lost or buried under dust.

The recent staging of "Woman Take Two" in Grand Bahama was a display of gratitude to Rolle. It was a welcome acknowledgement of the relevance of a timeless play filled with the cross-purposing characters of daily life who are too busy misunderstanding each other to truly live in harmony. Telcine Turner Rolle was happy the audience declined offers of ticket refunds and waited in the dark for the lights to come on, which, miraculously, they did.