Druid Theatre isn’t quite handing on the baton yet. However, the internationally successful theatre company has initiated a new creative partnership with its former alma mater, NUI Galway (NUIG).
The partnership aims to develop performance arts in the region, according to Druid artistic director Dr Garry Hynes and NUIG president Dr James J Browne.
It will provide a new “creative thrust” for the university’s academic programmes, NUIG president Dr Browne explained. Under the terms of the three-year collaboration, NUIG will contribute to the development of Druid’s next major theatre event in 2012/13.
Druid will develop a range of practice-led workshops and seminars at the university in turn, including a series of master classes for BA and MA students. Dr Hynes will become adjunct professor at the university which influenced Druid’s formation way back in 1975.
A Druid director-in-residence will be appointed at the university to co-ordinate the joint classes and oversee mentoring in various aspects of directing and stagecraft. The initiatives will focus on NUIG’s MA in Drama and Theatre Studies and its BA Connect in Theatre and Performance.
The university will be “enriched by the talent and experience of a world leading professional theatre company”, Dr Browne said. “In turn we are able to play a role in Druid’s ability to continue to present first class theatre for stages both here in Ireland and abroad.”
Dr Hynes recalled how back in the early years of the company’s formation, the group had worked hard to shake off the tag of "a bunch of students from UCG (University College, Galway)", as the college was then known.
It now felt “very good” to celebrate the university’s role, particularly at a time when it appeared that the country had “squandered its economic wealth”, she said.
“Just as I - informally - took my first steps in the theatre in NUIG, I am now, through this programme looking forward to helping the emergence of the next generation of theatre makers from my alma mater,“ she said.
Druid was founded on the then UCG campus in 1975 by graduates Mick Lally, Marie Mullen and Garry Hynes - all of whom have since been conferred with honorary degrees by the university. The Druid archive is housed at the NUIG James Hardiman Library, and a playwriting award was established in college in memory of Garry’s brother, the late Jerome Hynes who was the theatre company’s general manager at a formative stage.
The new partnership was celebrated this week in Druid Lane's refurbished theatre with a reading by Marie Mullen and NUIG students Kate Murray and Emer McHugh of an excerpts from Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire.