Quietly but surely, developments have been taking place in relation to the Irish Academy for the Performing Arts, originally proposed for Earlsfort Terrace. The Minister for Education and Science, and the Minister for Arts and Heritage commissioned a study to report on precise needs for specialised training that the academy might cover and the precise model which it might follow. The head of research and development at the Guildhall School of Music, Peter Renshaw, a former principal of the Yehudi Menuhin School, who has worked widely as a music consultant, was given four specific terms of reference for his report. He was to assess the appropriate scope and content for the academy; the areas of immediate and longer-term specialisation appropriate to the academy; the process to be adopted to achieve the preferred model; and the potential, if any, for the rationalisation of existing resources. His research has been completed, and it is expected that his findings will be published after the two ministers have assessed them and reported back to the Government.
The strangest aspect of the whole IAPA proposal has been the fact that it has been a building-led project, despite the fact that the use of UCD buildings in Earlsfort Terrace would inevitably delay the project and escalate its costs. It's a triumph for common sense that a suitably-qualified expert was called in to go through the basic preliminary steps in assessing what is actually needed and how it might best be brought about.
The Galway Arts Festival has been a huge critical success this year, but box office so far is about 25 per cent down on last year.
Festival Manager Fergal Mc Grath isn't sure why: could it be that tourism is down generally? Or could it be the impact of other events, such as REM's concert in Dublin or the Guinness Blues Festival? Or did the volume of free events make a dent in the ticket sales?
The free street events really made the city swing last weekend, however. The extra £200,000 which the festival got as a Millennium Festival allowed it to push its activities up a gear, and it would be hard to countenance it slipping back next year, when there will probably be less millennium money. Mc Grath says that sponsors have already been responding to the profile of the enhanced event, and it looks as if they may keep the festival at this year's funding level. The Galway Festival's Artistic Director, the English-born visual artist Ted Turton, may be stepping down this year, but he has already been snapped up by the Kilkenny Arts Week as a consultant.
He has been asked to go onto the board of the Galway Arts Festival, and is considering this, but is concerned that being the servant of two festivals could become a problem.
Cork's Corcadorca Theatre Company's plans for the next year include a play called Hatch 22 by first-time writer Neil O'Sullivan, about petty criminals who the Celtic Tiger has not bothered to lick, a new play by the writer of Discopigs, Enda Walsh, called Bedbound, about a father and a daughter who live in the one bed, a production of The Merchant of Venice and, most intriguingly, a collaborative passion play by Conal Creedon, of Under the Goldie Fish fame. The company is holding open auditions for actors from tomorrow until Sunday , 24th and 25th at the Vineyard, off Patrick Street in Cork. They intend to open this portfolio of actors to any potential employers, pointing out that the director Deborah Warner recently asked them for tips when casting her film, The Last September. Tel 021278326 for a slot.
John Rocha and Van Morrison are to share a stage in London in September. Well, actually, Smurfit Media UK is putting on a series of Irish shows with B*witched, the Saw Doctors and Jean Butler as well as Van the Man, which will sugarcoat an exhibition of a plethora of other Irish businesses, from fashion to food and drink, to travel and tourism, to sports, crafts and even information technology. The event will run at the Olympia, London on September 11th and 12th and the ticket hotline is 0044-870 9000275
It was a week in which Groupe F. confirmed the joy of fireworks in Galway, but tragically also one which showed their danger. Miklos Mennis, founder, with Maria Hingerty, of the Irish Theatre of Fire fireworks company died last week after an accident in his workshop in Wicklow. His magic will be missed.
Where is the time now it's not in the slime? I know it's a question much bandied about in the best circles, and this is the answer: it's "no longer in existence". Tales of it having another life have proved untrue - it has been "recycled", says the National Lottery. The technology behind Hassett and Ducatez's installation, with a ticket printer and a visual display counting the number of seconds until the millennium is in the lobby of the National Lottery building on Abbey Street. At the time of writing there were 141,265,94 or in other words, plenty of time to chill the champagne.
Liz Roche has choreographed a new dance work for the Rex Levitates Dance Company called Peeling Venus - it lasts an hour and runs tonight and tomorrow night and then next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 10 p.m. The event is free but you can get tickets at Temple Bar Properties, 18 Eustace Street, Dublin 2 . . . Belfast-born director Cathie Boyd, whose Scottish-based Theatre Cryptic has won an Edinburgh Fringe First award and travelled to Dublin last year, has been named winner, in the arts section, of the European Woman of Achievement Awards 1999 . . . Cloyne Music International, Co Cork, featuring the Chamber Players of London, the Trio Divertimento from Denmark and the Trio Variabile from France, among other groups, from tomorrow until August 18th. Proceeds go to the restoration of Cloyne Cathedral and Cloyne Community Development Fund. Phone 021-652479 for information . . . A music management and promotion course will run tomorrow noon - 2 p.m. at the City Arts Centre - phone 01-6770643 to book a place . . . The James Morrison Traditional Music Festival runs this weekend in Riverstown, Co Sligo and features master-classes, sessions, set-dancing and a Saturday night concert. Tel 07165082 for information.
