ArtScape: The eagerly-awaited new Stuart Carolan play, his follow-up to 2004's Defender of the Faith at the Peacock, and a joint winner of the George Devine Award in 2005, will open in Galway in September, starring Sean McGinley.
Empress of India will be a Druid production, presented by Dublin Theatre Festival, by arrangement with Galway Arts Festival (GAF), which gives some indication of the wheels that may have whirred behind the scenes. The play was originally commissioned by GAF's former director, Rose Parkinson, and at one stage might have made it into the 2005 festival, but is now due to open at Galway's Town Hall Theatre on September 12th before moving to the Abbey Theatre on October 4th for a two-week run as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival (the full line-up of which will be announced on Tuesday).
The play grew in scale (set and cast wise) and it became obvious that GAF wouldn't be able to co-produce both it and King Ubu for this year's festival, and that it would need someone else on board.
GAF director Paul Fahy says Druid and Garry Hynes became involved organically, and that Druid is now the bigger contributor in terms of finance.
Empress of India is directed by Hynes and designed by Francis O'Connor. Druid veteran McGinley, in his first theatre appearance in more than five years, will be working alongside a new generation of Druid actors, including Sarah-Jane Drummey, Nick Lee, Aaron Monaghan, Tadhg Murphy, Catherine Walsh and Miquel Barcelo. This will be the first time Druid has performed at the National Theatre since 1981, when it presented An Island Protected by a Bridge of Glass at the Peacock (also directed by Garry Hynes and starring Sean McGinley).
Empress of India is described as a play in which "the profane, the comic and the anguished combine to shattering effect, to ask uneasy questions about faith, belief and abandonment". The plot revolves around a celebrated Irish Hollywood actor who has watched his wife die and, abandoned to grief, took no further part in the lives of their children. He waits for the film role that will restore him to fame, but time has other ideas.
The play goes into rehearsal in a few weeks, following Druid's further forays with DruidSynge into Minneapolis and New York this summer.
Fresh eyes for Mermaid
Reviewers just get younger and younger, especially in Bray, Co Wicklow. This summer, Mermaid Theatre aims to develop new relationships with younger audiences in Co Wicklow by drawing up a reviewing panel to go to workshops and performances.
The new reviewers are: Mia O'Regan (aged seven), from Bray, who thinks she would be a good critic because she was one of the ducks in the Mermaid's Ballet Ireland workshop, where she "bashed into a girl on stage and got a black eye, but the ballet was still fun"; Karina (nine), from Ashford, who has read news items for her uncle's podcast, even though "sometimes it has to be re-recorded again if I make a mistake (or two)"; and Adam O'Gorman (nine), from Newtownmountkennedy, who was selected because he wants to be an actor and his teacher at the Gaiety School of Acting said he would make a good director "because I always come up with good stories - my mum believes every story Imake up".
The Mermaid programme includes a music workshop led by the Prey Trio and Playthings, the interactive children's exhibition, a hit at last year's Kilkenny Arts Festival. Mermaid is co-producing Mark Doherty and Mikel Murfi's new play for children, The Clerk and the Clown, with Galway Arts Festival (on there at the moment and in the Mermaid for four days in August), followed by Watch the Birdy, a children's play by the Italian Lyngo Theatre Company.
Members of the reviewing panel will also give their verdicts on a puppet show by Banyan Theatre Company called The Emperor's New Clothes in August.
The children will be on East Coast FM discussing their opinions. Mermaid director Maureen Kennelly's objective is to develop ties with arts festivals around the country and present high-quality international work.
• www.mermaidartscentre.ie
Dance partners
Daghdha Dance Company and Fás Limerick are co-operating on a dance-mentoring programme, with 12 places on a year-long course, the first partnership of its kind in Ireland, writes Brian O'Connell.
"This is an effort to reinvigorate the local dance scene in Limerick and also to bring more life to Daghdha itself. It's always our intention to bring young energies into the organisation," says Daghdha artistic director Michael Klien.
The successful applicants for this autumn's programme will be funded by Fás, which is also paying for the creation of two posts for the Daghdha Mentoring Programme for a year.
"Fás has been great to work with, and has given us a lot of independence," says Klien. "What it means is that we are able to pay people during their 12 months' training. Certainly the programme is unique, not only to Ireland but on a European level. I don't think you'll find too many partnerships of this type internationally. It's our first year with Fás and the course is mainly aimed at people who want to work in the performance world, from areas such as cultural policies or management to areas of research - so there is a wide berth."
The 2006/07 programme begins on October 2nd and Daghdha is seeking applications from interested dance practitioners.
"We will be taking applications right throughout the year," says Klien, "but we expect to fill the first round of students by the end of August. The response has been very positive; already we've had over 40 applications."
• Details: mail@daghdha.ie, 061-467872, or Daghdha Dance Company Ltd, 1 John's Square, Limerick
• Who says Galway hasn't room for more than one arts festival? If Project 06 has proved it is possible over the past fortnight, a third event, on a different scale - the city's Westside programme - is also aiming to generate some creative energy this weekend. Theatre, music, workshops on hip-hop, environmental art, spooky Scottish tales and teenagers modelling fair-trade clothing are among the events planned for the Westside Arts Festival, writes Lorna Siggins.
Supported by Galway Youth Federation, Westside Library and the Neighbourhood Youth Project, it aims to celebrate the "cultural tapestry" of the area.
Also tomorrow, as the festivals prepare to wrap up and hand over the city to the races, the Saw Doctors will give a free gig in Eyre "plaza" from 5.30pm to 7.30pm as part of Project 06. The support act is Noelie McDonnell and band, from 4.30pm. The concert is expected to cost €30,000, with €10,000 raised by the band, and the balance by Eyre Square traders and members of the Galway City Business Association.
• As the get-out from the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre on College Green continues, the Bank of Ireland exhibition programme is transferring this week to the bank's head office on Baggot Street, Dublin, where it will remain until January 2007.
Jenny Kirkwood is programming the exhibitions and is also looking after publicity. The first show at the new location, opening on Tuesday and running until August 18th, is Illuminate, an exhibition of Co Kerry seascapes by Ventry-based artist Jenny McCarthy, in the reception area in Bank of Ireland Head Office (A Block), Baggot Street, Dublin 2.
Jenny Kirkwood is programming the exhibitions and is also looking after publicity. The first show at the new location, opening on Tuesday and running until August 18th, is Illuminate, an exhibition of Co Kerry seascapes by Ventry-based artist Jenny McCarthy, in the reception area in Bank of Ireland Head Office (A Block), Baggot Street, Dublin 2.
• Dublin's first Culture Night, when the city's cultural venues will throw open their doors, will be on September 22nd, and Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) and the Council of National Cultural Institutions are calling on all city-centre venues to get involved. Culture Nights are a fixture in Rome, Copenhagen, Paris and other European cities, and TBCT wants to raise awareness of Dublin's venues and to encourage those who wouldn't normally do so to visit museums, galleries and theatres on that night.
Participants include the Gallery of Photography, the Graphic Studio Gallery, Filmbase, the Contemporary Music Centre, Project, The Ark, the Temple Bar Music Centre, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Irish Film Institute, the National Museum of Ireland, the Gaiety School of Acting, the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Library of Ireland, the Irish Film Archive, the Chester Beatty Library, the National Concert Hall, The Lab, the Rubicon Gallery and Temple Bar Cultural Information Centre. Details from Temple Bar Cultural Trust (01-6772255).
