On The Town: The inspirational founder of the Focus Theatre was remembered at the opening of Jesus Hopped The A Train, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, this week.
Deirdre O'Connell was the theatre's founder and artistic director from its opening in 1967 until her death three years ago. She also founded the Stanislavski Studio in 1963 in Dublin.
The play, which had its Irish première at the Focus, was attended by O'Connell's sister, Geraldine O'Connell-Cusack, with her three daughters (and the founder's nieces), Breifni Cusack, Geraldine Ann Cusack and Kaniah Cusack.
"Deirdre would have loved the play," said O'Connell-Cusack, whose book, Children of the Far-Flung, published last year by Liffey Press, recounts the story of the theatre and the woman behind it.
The performance at the Focus had great resonance also for the family, she said, because "we grew up in New York, and our father worked in Riker's Island, where this play is set".
"The actors are being true to what Deirdre gave her life to," she added. "She was an extraordinary woman . . . That was her chair. She would sit there and welcome everybody personally."
Among those at the opening was Jack Gilligan, arts officer with Dublin City Council, who will shortly be moving into the council's new arts centre premises in Foley Street, Dublin 1.
The purpose-built arts centre will have an exhibition space, a performance area and an art studio.
Eileen Sheridan of Tall Tales Theatre Company, is producing Topdog/Underdog, by Suzan Lori-Parks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, she said. The play will open as part of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival, on Tuesday, October 5th, in Project's Cube.
Writer Eibhlís Ní Dhuibhne and her son, Ragnar Almqvist, were also in the audience, as was Bea Kelleher, executive producer of the Fringe Festival, who is gearing up to sell 67,000 seats over the festival's three-week run starting on Monday, September 20th. This should generate a turnover of just under €1 million, she said.
Jesus Hopped The A Train at the Focus Theatre, 6 Pembroke Place, Dublin 2, will run until Saturday, September 18th