ArtScape: January is a time for clearing out, but if what's in the attic is of interest in terms of our cultural history, what do you do with it?
Project Arts Centre on Dublin's East Essex Street is celebrating its 40th birthday this year and on Wednesday, to mark the occasion, artistic director Willie White formally handed over about 100 boxes of its archives from the past four decades to the National Library of Ireland.
The material, from posters and flyers to artists' contracts and correspondence, is a record of generations of activity at Project, which started as an artists' co-operative during the political ferment of the 1960s, later getting premises on Abbey Street. Throughout, it has presented work outside the mainstream.
The roll-call of some artists associated with Project at different periods is impressive across a range of genres: Michael Kane, John Behan, Constance Short, Nigel Rolfe, Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan, Peter Sheridan, Gerard Mannix Flynn, Olwen Fouéré, Gabriel Byrne, U2, Conall Morrison, Jason Byrne, David Bolger, Liz Roche, Jaki Irvine, Dorothy Cross, James Coleman, Elizabeth Kuti, Declan Hughes, Gerard Stembridge, Crash Ensemble, Rough Magic, Corn Exchange, Bedrock, Loose Canon, Pan Pan, the Chalet, David O'Doherty.
These days it's a professionally run arts centre and still the setting for lots of cutting-edge work. The Arts Council director, Mary Cloake, spoke warmly about the role of Project, how it still retains the artist at the centre of its activity and how it is still to the forefront of what is new and exciting and pushing out the boundaries.
It had developed into an institution, "but for some magical reason" hasn't forgotten the enthusiasm, social consciousness, and alertness that drove its founders 40 years ago, she said.
Aongus Ó hAonghusa, director of the National Library of Ireland, was on hand to receive the boxes. He reckons it'll take roughly a year to catalogue the material, after which the Project archive will be available to researchers and artists for consultation. Ó hAonghusa is delighted to have the collection, and when added to the Focus Theatre's papers, and material from the Abbey, Micheál MacLíammóir, the Fay brothers and other individuals, the National Library is building up a nice nest of theatre material - which may some day find its place in an exhibition on Irish theatre.
Meanwhile, Project today hosts a panel discussion on "postdramatic theatre". Given that the term "avant-garde" no longer seems adequate to describe unconventional contemporary performance, the term postdramatic theatre may grapple more successfully with new forms that depart from the traditional dramatic text.
Postdramatic theory goes back to the 1970s but got new impetus with a 1999 book by German scholar Hans Thies Lehmann (an English-language version will be published in February). Dr Christopher Balme (Universiteit van Amsterdam and editor of Theatre Research International) gives today's talk on postdramatic theatre (2.30pm at Project) facilitated by Dr
David Barnett of UCD's school of drama, with responses from the audience and an invited panel.
Jerome Hynes fellowship
How do you mark the life and contribution of Jerome Hynes, deputy chairman of the Arts Council and Wexford Festival Opera chief executive, who died suddenly last year? The council has decided to honour him with a fellowship in his name and is supporting a fellowship for Ireland, worth €71,000, within the UK-based Clore Leadership Programme.
The hugely influential and admired arts manager who worked with Druid Theatre and Wexford Festival Opera and was appointed deputy chairman of the Arts Council in 2003, died at the age of 48 last autumn, just weeks before the 2005 opera festival started.
The Jerome Hynes Fellow will take part in intensive residential leadership courses, receive professional development through mentoring, tuition and group learning and be seconded to an organisation to manage a high-level project.
The Jerome Hynes Fellow is to be one of about 25 potential leaders selected by the programme established by the Clore Duffield Foundation to develop their knowledge, skills, networks and experience across a range of cultural activity.
Hynes was instrumental in establishing a link between the Arts Council and the Clore Duffield Foundation, and last year there was an Irish participant, Fearghus Ó Conchoir, in the programme for the first time. Arts Council director Mary Cloake said: "Jerome Hynes was a leader of extraordinary vision and ability. Our hope is that this award, the highest the Arts Council offers to an individual, will contribute to the development of a new generation of leaders in the arts."
The Arts Council is funding €50,000 for the fellowship, while £15,000 will come from Clore.
The closing date for applications is February 21st, the fellow will be announced in June and the programme will begin in September. For information, tel: 0044 20 7420 9430.
On the home run
It seems to be a week for new Irish drama which explicitly addresses present-day Ireland. First, there was the premiere of Paul Mercier's Homeland at the Abbey. It's Fiach McConghail's first commission since taking over as director, and indicates that work which engages socially and politically with contemporary Ireland is the direction he favours. New Irish drama also continues to be premiered across the water. Following the November premiere of Tom Murphy's Alice Trilogy at the Royal Court, a Royal Court/Out of Joint co-production, of Stella Feehily's second play (Duck was in the 2003 Dublin Theatre Festival), O Go My Man is "set in the contemporary Dublin of charity-conscious celebrity chefs, more types of latte than you can shake an organic brownie at, and an influx of east European immigrants to serve them". It is directed by Max Stafford-Clark, with a cast including Denise Gough, Sam Graham, Paul Hickey, Susan Lynch, Gemma Reeves, Aoife McMahon, Mossie Smith and Ewan Stewart.
Giving it a four-star review this week in the Guardian, Michael Billington said the play proved Duck was no flash in the pan. "Feehily here goes beyond social observation to paint a picture of a modern Dublin that has reached a state of hedonistic craziness; and the point is underscored by the choric interjections of a female Polish immigrant who views the constant couplings with an exasperated scorn . . . It is the effortless mix of the real and the surreal that makes this a remarkable play." Happily, the production is due at the Everyman in Cork, from March 7th to 11th, although no other Irish dates are planned.
And mindful of drawing connections between drama and real life, the Abbey presents Abbey Talks, a programme of free talks and events responding to the work on stage, featuring Irish journalists and broadcasters. Next Thursday (6.30pm) Damian Kiberd reflects on issues identified in Homeland, and there's a post-show discussion on Wednesday, February 1st with Homeland writer/director Paul Mercier and set/lighting designer (and recently appointed Abbey associate director) Paul Keogan.
David McWilliams discusses The Grown-Ups, Nicholas Kelly's new play (Peacock from February 14th), and the new Irish middle class on February 21st. A panel discussion on March 6th (with Anne Enright, John Lonergan and Gerard Stembridge) centres on Art in the Age of Anxiety.
To connect with Conall Morrison's The Bacchae of Baghdad (Abbey from March 7th), Irish Times foreign correspondent Lara Marlowe talks about her experiences in Baghdad. And Christopher Murray discusses Sam Shepard on March 30th.
Irish artists interested in working in Paris for a short period can apply for a 2006 Artist or Writer Residency at the Irish College - the Centre Culturel Irlandais. It's an opportunity to spend two to three months working in Paris this year, with flights, accommodation at the college, studio and living allowance included. The Centre CulturelIrlandais also offers accommodation at preferential rents to students, researchers, writers, artists and others involved in cultural activity. The deadline for this year's residencies is February 28th; details from www.centreculturelirlandais.com or Helen Carey at 00331 58 52 10 30.
