Lots to catch up on, so let's get cracking!
Firstly, this is the image for our upcoming production of The Honey Spike by Bryan MacMahon (image by kind permission of Bradley McNeill). It goes on in the Town Hall Theatre from 9th to 13th August. You'll be seeing a lot more of it between now and then so best to just get it out of the way!
The Town Hall brochure's out, a Facebook event is up and spewing out invites, fund-raising options are being investigated AS WE WRITE! and our fantastic cast have already met for read-throughs and some rehearsals. The cast will be introduced one by one on, where else but? Facebook!
Brendan Savage is designing, Mike O'Halloran is lighting, Roisin Stack is producing and Craig Flaherty is stage managing.
Not that we've forgotten 'Grenades'. Heavens forfend! As part of Galway ♥ Theatre, a season of new and classic drama running at Nun's Island Theatre, 'Grenades' will be running there from Mon 11th - Sat 16th July, at 8pm.
Pinch us, we're dreaming.
No, we're not. We're sitting in the Town Hall listening to Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for the Arts. These kinds of meetings are always a bit of a bummer. So much talk about strategies and policies and education and budgets and...KILL ME NOW!
The voices of artists were heard though, even if the Minister did tend to come back with positives that didn't really address the negatives being raised. He does seem to be making a big effort to connect with practitioners, so maybe if we met him half-way and educated him about our collective experience we might see improvements in the issues with which we always grapple. Time will tell...
Leila Doolin spoke but we hadn't fetched a pen from the depths of the bag at the point so as a broad paraphrase, she stressed that this should be about art, not strategies, policies, see above.
Mephisto took the microphone with trembling hand to let the Minister know about the labyrinthine, sisyphean (pick any other miserable Greek mythological comparison) task of getting venues to take shows for touring.
Shorthand wasn't a subject in school so the bald notes taken must do and to avoid putting the wrong words in people's mouths, we shall stick to what we wrote as direct speech.
Jonathan Gunning of the Gombeens stressed the 3 Ts - Teasing, Troublemaking and Temptation. He also told the astonishing tale of how the Minister for Enterprise refused to register 'The Gombeens' as a company name.
Eileen Gibbons of Electric Bridget urged the Minister to look at the French system for the treatment of artists for tax purposes.
Martin Clancy of Branar told the Minister that 5 % of funding goes to children even though 100 % of children have access to the arts through schools while only 3% of adults choose to access the arts. (Mother of God, is it that low?)
Mike McCormack nearly had a revolution on his hands with his exhortation to 'Bring us into the room', that is, to bring the artists into areas of life from which they are now safely excluded - areas of (that word again) policy. But not arts policy: no, rather health, education, industry, foreign policy. A whole other worldview opened up before us.
He also had the extremely depressing tale of encountering a Social Welfare officer during one of those inevitable hiatuses artists have, who advised him he 'might have to give up his past-time'. (Mother. Of. God.)
Carmel Garrett of the Galway Youth Orchestra stressed the importance of facilities and asked the Minister were building under the control of NAMA being considered as arts venues/facilities/resources.
Maura Ni Chroinin of Galway Baroque Singers and Galway Early Music Festival pointed out the difficulty of promotion and admin work for a group made up of volunteers and suggested the use of one person/organisation to take care of smaller organisations' admin and promotion through social media.
Carmel Dooley spoke on behalf of music educators and, referring to the Minister's earlier description of Leaving Cert Art students in Kerry being given the opportunity to exhibit their work after the exams results are out, asked could the same opportunity be extended to music students.
The issue wasn't raised at the time, but with all this talk of Art and Music on the school curriculum, the question was murmured among the red seats: Could there be Drama/Theatre on the curriculum?
And now, further back into time: The Theatre Forum Conference came to Galway a few weeks back.
Time heals all wounds as they say, and the shock of realising that we and EVERYTHING outside Dublin is 'Regional Theatre' has worn off somewhat. Surely just as there is Dublin Theatre there is Galway Theatre, Limerick Theatre, Cork Theatre, Sligo Theatre, Kilkenny Theatre etc etc. (Obviously the fact that I can't be bothered to finish this list does weaken my argument somewhat, but come on! let's make some bit of an effort.)
It was great to have the conference in Galway. I think there is more to do in making the conference attractive to the little 'uns like us and individual artists who can feel a leetle bit overwhelmed by the sheer scale of industry industry industry.
But oh boy, Gabriel Byrne was magnificent: wry, modest, kind, open and generous.
And now, let's use that happy memory to bring the energy levels back to 'Make Plays Not Points': a quick and happy look back at our tour to Glasgow. The Tron was a dream...the staff helpful and involved, the venue gorgeous and lively, the play sold out and..well..SOLD OUT!
To add to our cup of overflowing joy, with our Culture Ireland funding we were even able to EAT!
What bliss it is to be alive.
