Putting on a show

The boom of the 1990s funded the creation of numerous regional theatres. So how have they been faring? Rosita Boland reports.

The arts are perpetually underfunded, it could be argued, no matter what the state of the Government's finances, but the economic expansion of the 1990s did eventually filter down. It means that several arts centres and theatres have opened their doors in the past few years, a development that would have been impossible a decade earlier.

Among the new venues are An Grianán Theatre, in Letterkenny, the Civic Theatre, in Tallaght, the Pavilion Theatre, in Dún Laoghaire, Glór Irish Music Centre, in Ennis, Draíocht Arts Centre, in Blanchardstown, and Mermaid Arts Centre, in Bray, all of which opened between 1999 and 2002. Most benefited from the cultural development scheme initiated by Michael D. Higgins when he was minister for the arts.

The broad idea behind the new spaces was to offer people outside Dublin the opportunity to see cultural performances closer to home, so encouraging audiences for multidisciplinary arts.

Arts centres and theatres in the regions or on the peripheries of large urban areas have to adapt to their audience bases. They all provide amateur productions, for example, such as local musical societies, drama groups and school plays. Keeping a balance between offering top-quality professional work and building a relationship with sections of the community already interested in the arts as amateurs is a challenge faced by the artistic directors of all these venues, who all happen to be women.

An Grianán has one theatre space, which seats 345. Its core catchment area of 50,000 people is Letterkenny, although, as Patricia McBride, its director, says, "We see ourselves catering for the entire audience of Co Donegal."

For about five weeks of the year it programmes local amateur work: musical societies, pantomime and drama. "The objective is to have the local community directly involved with the centre." The rest of the year the programming is a mix of theatre, ballet, music and comedy - this last consistently pulls in the student crowd. "We're still trying to get the balance right," McBride admits.

"It's really important to offer people what they want and also to offer challenges. But it's very difficult to get people in for modern dance and also for new theatre, areas where the audience aren't sure of what they're getting."

An Grianán is also a production company, staging two shows a year that go on to tour other venues; the most recent was The Little Mermaid, which transferred to the Pavilion. Last year it turned over €1 million and filled 62 per cent of its seats. "We've established ourselves very well," McBride says. "There are people in Letterkenny who say to me they don't know what they did before the theatre arrived."

At the Civic Theatre Bríd Dukes, its director, says they "rarely see any strays from town". The audience comes primarily from Tallaght. The Civic has a main theatre, seating 282, and a studio black box that can seat up to 70. There is also a gallery space; last year's main show was by Seán McSweeney. This year it will have Patrick Pye for its fifth-anniversary show.

Alongside its professional programme it has two weeks a year of amateur work. It fills about 60 per cent of its seats, last year turning over €1.4 million. "We're just about breaking even now," Dukes says. "It's a very vibrant time in theatre, and I want to build the audience to 75 per cent."

At the Pavilion, where the theatre seats 420 people, the turnover last year was €1.2 million. "We wouldn't ever expect an 80 per cent audience. Some shows do have a tiny audience," says Polly O'Loughlin, its director. "Last year overall we had about 40 per cent capacity. That would be a fairly normal percentage for a theatre like us."

To a large extent the theatres draw from the same circuit of touring shows, and their programmes tend to be very similar and chiefly mainstream. The more mainstream they are, goes the reluctant consensus, the easier it is to interest people.

Viennese Strauss gala evenings, comedians such as Pat Shortt, John Breen's Alone It Stands, any of John B. Keane's plays, Des Keogh, Marie Jones's Stones In His Pockets: these and others like them draw the crowds.

"We're not a producing house," O'Loughlin stresses. "But each arts venue has to find its own niche. We are the main venue for the Festival of World Cultures, so we have a strong world-music audience. And we brought in India's Daksha Dance Company on their first visit to Ireland, so we'd like to become known for developing our dance programme."

Glór, which is a regional arts centre as well as a national centre for Irish music performance, cost €8.5 million to build. In 2002 it lost €253,000. Its primary funders are Ennis Town Council and Clare County Council. Its main space seats 650, with room for 60 more in a studio space.

"It's well known that Glór is costing a lot of money," admits Katie Verling, its director. "We've needed these five years to justify ourselves. By the end of 2004 we hope to have cut costs and be breaking even."

Glór's core base is in Ennis, with its 22,000 residents, but it can pull in audiences from all over the county and, sometimes, from Limerick and Galway. The reformed Planxty played their first two sell-out gigs there this month. "Trad players and performers are beginning to see us as a home base, a place where they feel safe," Verling says. "They'll play here first before going out on tour."

What she finds hard to sell is contemporary dance. "It's appallingly difficult. So is unknown theatre and the middle-of-the-road gigs you'd think there would be a big audience for, like country music. You definitely have to adapt your programme to what people want."

Draíocht, opposite Blanchardstown shopping centre, has two stages, seating 286 and 96, as well as two gallery spaces and a workshop room. Last year it turned over €1.2 million. "We're not a producing house, we're a receiving house," says Emer McGowan, its director.

"What we're really trying to do is provide arts experiences that people can plug in to. There is an audience for some professional work, but people don't come in droves to it. You have to programme local amateur work; that's the reality of being a new arts centre. But the amateur groups say their standards are rising as a result."

Mermaid Arts Centre has a theatre space for 242, a gallery and a workshop room. It's catchment area is Bray, wider north Co Wicklow and south Co Dublin. Like some of the other arts centres, such as Glór, once a week it also runs an art-house cinema, which has been "consistently successful from the word go, particularly with a young audience that doesn't seem to go to anything else". Last year the centre had a turnover of €750,000.

"Being a multidisciplinary arts centre is crucial to our survival," says Aideen Howard, its director. "About a quarter of our programme is derived from the local community: ballet schools, musical societies, drama. Our imperative is to mix professional and amateur.

"It's essential to have a connection with the audience on your doorstep, and the local amateur societies report that audiences are up 150 per cent since they started using our venue."

Howard says the price of tickets seems not to deter audiences. Those for amateur events cost only a little less than those for professional shows. "Sixteen euro would be the usual theatre price, and most of the amateur groups charge €12 or €14. So it isn't prices that put off audiences for particular shows."

Howard echoes her colleagues when she says that, when it comes to hard-to-sell shows such as dance and new theatre, it's "all about encouraging audiences to take risks".