[transgendernews] [Theater] [NY, USA] What’s New in the Old Country?
Stephanie Stevens
September 16, 2007
What's New in the Old Country?
By MARK BLANKENSHIP
[PHOTO: <http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/12/arts/Blan1650.jpg>
A scene from "Rock Doves" by Marie Jones, a new drama opening on
Sunday at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. Sara Krulwich/The New
York Times]
THE Troubles are over, but the trouble has just begun.
That could be the tag line for "Rock Doves," a savage drama by the
Northern Irish playwright Marie Jones that receives its world premiere
Sunday at the Irish Arts Center in Midtown Manhattan. Set in
present-day Belfast, it depicts four outsiders — including a
transvestite and a homeless man — enduring the aftermath of the
Belfast Agreement, which ostensibly ended paramilitary violence in
Northern Ireland in 1998. Of course declaring peace isn't the same as
having it, and as she's hiding from the hostility in her neighborhood,
a prostitute named Bella declares, "Compared to what's going on out
there, we're normal."
Its thorny view of peacetime makes "Rock Doves'" an obvious fit for
the arts center, which was founded in 1972 to demonstrate the breadth
of Irish life and culture through classes, film, music, dance, the
visual arts — and theater.
The center's leaders say they especially want their programming to
reflect watershed recent events — like the nation's economic boom and
the restoration of Northern Ireland's government — that are pushing
Ireland into a new age.
Pauline Turley, vice chairwoman of the center's board, said such
developments weren't always reflected in the cultural works that
appear in New York. "For a lot of people their exposure to Irish
culture in the mainstream is the drunken Irish priest or some other
stereotype," she said. "To have a place that celebrates so much more
about being Irish is important. Our challenge is to see Irishness in
all its complexities."
That's partly why the center staged "The Blowin of Baile Gall" in
2005. Featuring an African character who joins a local construction
team, Ronan Noone's drama explores the tension created by an influx of
immigrants to Western Ireland, a subject little discussed in the
United States.
In a telephone interview, the actor Gabriel Byrne, who has advocated
on the center's behalf with the Irish government, said that such
performances can be much more than entertainment. "The danger of Irish
culture becoming stuck in the notions of the 19th century is very
real," he said. "Irish-American culture is in danger of dying if it
doesn't get the chance to reflect the new Ireland."
Mr. Byrne added that a "new self-confidence" created by Ireland's
recent prosperity — a report from the Bank of Ireland cited a 19
percent increase in the nation's net wealth in 2006 over the previous
year — has pushed the Irish to reinvigorate their cultural
representation abroad.
In its current state, though, the Irish Arts Center can hardly support
such ambition. Tucked away on West 51st Street near 11th Avenue, a
block in the Clinton neighborhood where boarded-up windows abound, its
99-seat theater and unassuming classrooms hardly match the grandeur
of, say, Scandinavia House on Park Avenue. "We want to succeed," Ms.
Turley said, "but we're almost afraid to be too successful, because we
simply don't have the capacity."
International efforts are under way to build a new home. Mr. Byrne,
who said he wants the center to include meeting and social space, said
he would meet with Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland this month
to discuss expansion plans.
Christine Quinn, the New York City Council speaker and Irish-American
herself, has also championed growth. "For the Irish Arts Center to
become a permanent part of the cultural infrastructure," she said, "we
need to make sure it has a physical space that reflects the
contribution that Irish people have made and continue to make to New
York."
As for the center's programming, the city has committed to increasing
its support to $40,000 next year from $6,000 this year. Aidan
Connolly, the center's executive director, also said that the Irish
government, which provided about 4 percent of the center's $693,000
budget this year, had urged him "to apply for greater levels of
funding for programming."
Still, the money must develop projects people want to see. A study by
the center suggests that its patrons crave old-fashioned fare as much
as political art. "There's clearly a population of our supporters and
audiences who are very interested in things like traditional Irish
music," Mr. Connolly said, adding that classes on step dancing and the
Irish language are among the center's most popular.
Besides, strong work about the current Irish moment may not always be
easy to find. Ciarán O'Reilly, producing director of the Irish
Repertory Theater, one of New York's most respected nonprofit theater
companies, said he also wants to stage the "voice of the new Ireland,"
though he hasn't found the ideal play to reflect it. "Maybe it takes
time to gain that perspective," he said.
"People like to think the place they came from will always be there,
but in a way — and it's a sad thing — the bigger cities are becoming
more homogenized," Mr. O'Reilly added. "If people don't remember their
heritage, it gets lost, and I think the theater's job is to heighten
our sense both of what is and what was."
Mr. Connolly said the center's traditional programming could help
awaken New Yorkers to the culture's future. "Whatever it is that's
hooking people into Irish arts, that's great," he explained. "As long
as they're interested, we can take that opportunity to stretch their
consciousness and take them in a new direction."
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/theater/16blank.html
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h/t BLS R af D
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