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Midland Arts and Culture Magazine | SUMMER 2012Festival Director Billy NottMJudge Bryan McMahonand Billy NottAthlone celebrates60 th RTÉ All IrelandDrama FestivalSilken Thomas PlayersThe 2012 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival will be a glittering affair this year as the event gets set to celebrate itsdiamond jubilee. The 60 th festival will open at the Dean Crowe Theatre, Athlone on Thursday, May 3 and performanceswill continue nightly to Friday, May 11. A gala awards ceremony in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Athlone on Saturday, May12 will close the festival.BEGINNINGSThe festival was born out of aninitiative conceived by members ofAn Tostal to develop a nationalcompetition in drama. (An Tostal wasan organisation set up in the earlyfifties with the objective of organisingcultural and sporting events aroundIreland in order to generate a feelingof national pride while encouraginglocal tourism.)In October 1952, Cecil ffrenchSalkeld, Cultural Director of theNational Council of An Tostal, cameto the midlands in search of a venuefor this national festival of drama.On arrival in Athlone he met withPaddy Lenehan, Managing Director ofGentex, a local textile industry andthen the largest employer in theregion. Paddy offered the facilities ofthe Sportex Hall (part of the Gentexcomplex) free of charge as a venue tohold the event.Together with local teachers, BrendanO’Brien and Alfie Faulkner, acommittee was set up and plans tohost the event were put in motion.With funding from the Arts Council,which also celebrates its 60 thanniversary this year, the first All-Ireland Drama Festival was held inAthlone in April 1953 with BrendanO’Brien as Festival Director - aposition he held for 40 years.It comprised competition in 3-Act,(Open and Rural) 1-Act, (Open andRural) and Verse.The festival was officially opened byDr Hanly, Bishop of Elphin and theadjudicators were Maureen Delaney,Lennox Robinson and Gabriel Fallon.CURRENT PLANSSixty years on and the festival isregarded as the premier event of itskind in Ireland and beyond and withunprecedented attendance rates inrecent years, demand for seats isimmense.The top nine groups who qualify for aplace in Athlone have already comethrough a gruelling nationwide circuitof 35 festivals involving 29 groups inall.With works by Irish and internationalauthors, audiences are in for a feastof drama that will entertain andenthral in equal measure.The adjudicator for the festival isBrian Marjoribanks, a distinguishedspeech and drama lecturer andinternational adjudicator.During his long and varied career, hehas been a professional footballer,has worked in radio and televisionand has chaired an internationalpanel of jurors at the Prix ItaliaTelevision Festival in Sicily.FRINGE BENEFITSApart form the competitive businessof the performances at the DeanCrowe Theatre, the event has a widerdimension involving the town ofAthlone at large.Fringe events, many which are youthfocused,will include dramaworkshops, art exhibitions, streettheatre and shop window displays.The town will be decorated to give atruly festive welcome to the manyvisitors from all over Ireland who areexpected to descend on the town.Main sponsors RTÉ will broadcastsome of its radio schedules from20
Athlone during festival week, withdaily reports of the goings-on at theDean Crowe going out on air aroundmid-day.Another important feature of thefestival is the post-performanceentertainment in the theatre bar.Here, performers, crew, committeeand patrons will gather and exchangeviews on the night’s production andlater render a song or two well intothe small hours.MEMORIESNo doubt, in such convivialsurroundings, conversations willwander down memory lane wherereminiscences of festivals past will beevoked: the feats of Strand Playersand Sundrive Players who jointly holdthe record for the most wins (4); theacting prowess of Kitty Norton, GraceBrophy and Victor Wheatley;producers of the calibre of TerenceO’Doherty and Una Parker; suchmemorable winning productions asListowel’s Sive, Moat Club’s Abelardand Heloise and Charlestown’sBuried Child; the conversations withJohn B Keane; the adjudications ofAlan Nicholl or the writtencommentaries of Des Rushe.Many will remember the old caravanin the theatre forecourt which servedas a box office, the odds offered on ablack-board outside P J Bannon’s‘Festival Bar’ or the glorioussplendour of the Esso Trophy.SIGNIFICANCEThe importance of amateur drama inlocal communities throughout Irelandis further exemplified by thecontinued association with thefestival by RTÉ, which has beeninvolved as main sponsor since2004.The high esteem with which thefestival is held among the widertheatre community is evidenced bythe generous invitation extended bythe Abbey Theatre to one of thefinalists at Athlone to perform theirplay at the Peacock for a short runduring the Summer.This feature was introduced last yearand the amateur drama movement isespecially grateful to Abbey directorFiach MacConghail and Chairman ofthe Abbey Board, Judge BryanMcMahon who were influential inbringing this about.LOOKING AHEADIn recent years, groups such as SilkenThomas Players, Cornmill TheatreCompany, Estuary Players andKilmeen Drama Group havepresented award winning productionsto an audience primed for indulgencein drama at its best, whether it isthrough the familiar territory of wellknown plays or through rarely seenground breaking exploits whichchallenge both performer andspectator. Having survived the trialsof the last six decades, whetherpolitical unrest or advances in digitalforms of entertainment, the dramafestival will continue, as in the past,to be the torch bearer for crossborder theatrical endeavour anddramatic achievement. MSUPPLEMENTARYINFORMATIONIn 1959 the festival moved fromthe Sportex Hall to its presentlocation at the then known DeanCrowe Memorial Hall. This was alsothe year when Esso became thefirst sponsors whereby theypresented a perpetual cup to thefestival which was known as theEsso Trophy.The first winners of the trophy werea group from Listowel, Co Kerrypresenting a play by a little knownbudding playwright by the nameof John B. Keane. The play wascalled Sive.The competition streamlined itselfinto the 3-Act Open Finals from1969 and remained in much thesame format as today with thenumber of finalists reduced in2004 from twelve to nine. In 1999,the hall underwent majorrenovation and refurbishmentopening its doors in 2000 as theDean Crowe Theatre and ArtsCentre, presenting a modern, fullyequippedvenue fit to bring thefestival into the 21st century.Kilmeen Drama Group, Champions 2011My Hometown- a photographic journey through the streets of BirrArtist Jackie Lynch recently launched a book abouther hometown of Birr having spent two yearswalking around the town photographing thestreetscape and each time noticing and capturingdetails she hadn’t seen before. Her book is acelebration of the craftspeople that made thisheritage town what it is today.Jackie had lived for a year in Xian, PR China and afurther six years in Kyoto, Japan and her work isheavily influenced by Asian aesthetics, in particularthe Japanese aesthetic of ‘wabisabisuki’ which canbe loosely translated as ‘the patina of old age’.Jackie has chosen to highlight the charm in a wornstep, a rusty gate, chipped paint and details that areenriched by the forces of nature and decay. Theshabby door is just as beautiful to her as the brightlypainted one because it has character that only timecan create.This book celebrates the uniqueness and goodcraftsmanship of Birr but it alsocelebrates the proud sense of place theartist has and the affection she has forthe town she is so familiar with. This isnot just Birr through an artist’s eyes; thisis Birr through treasured eyes capturingthe changing seasons and the spirit ofthe town.The book contains an introduction aboutBirr’s legacy by Caimin O Brien and athought-provoking conclusionrepresenting the future by RosalindFanning.Esso ceased its long associationwith the festival in 1999, makingway for Ericsson to become mainsponsors from 2000 to 2003. In2004 RTÉ stepped on board withthe festival getting majorprominence thanks to the facilitiesprovided by the nationalbroadcaster. MOnly 500 copies were printed and a few are stillavailable in The Organic Store, Birr, Birr Castle Shop,Birr Theatre and Arts Centre or directly from Jackie atwabisabisuki@yahoo.co.uk costing €25. M
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