Getting on with some good news

ARTSCAPE:TO HELL WITH all this misery and bad news and interminable and pointless speculation about the Budget. There was a real sense of pleasure at Trinity's announcement this week of its new Academy for Dramatic Arts, with the wholehearted financial and practical support of the Cathal Ryan Trust – in the form of Danielle Ryan, his daughter – and with the involvement of London's renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada). Forget a quiet ripple of clapping: after the eloquent speeches there was sustained applause and even whoops, for what is hoped will be a world-class academy to support theatre making in Ireland.

Amazingly, instead of the Forum on Actor Training, set up following the controversial axing of TCD’s Bachelor in Acting Studies in 2007, being a mechanism to shelve the issue, its main recommendation – a national academy of dramatic arts linked to a university – will actually happen, and seemingly to the highest international standards, planned carefully with input from Rada (possibly the first time such an academy has been planned from scratch as opposed to developing organically in dribs and drabs), and with its own swanky base in the docklands.

The process has been a reasonably well guarded secret, with just a limited number of people being consulted in the run-up to the announcement this week; Prof Brian Singleton was palpably relieved to have finally let the cat out of the bag, having had to keep the ongoing plans under wraps for over a year. No one was willing to put a figure on the overall budget for the academy, which involves the building from Trinity, ongoing support from the Higher Education Authority, and the Cathal Ryan Trust funding the refurbishment and five years of Rada, as well as continued involvement via an “enabling fund” .

The academy’s building off Pearse Street will include a studio theatre, rehearsal rooms, training facilities for stage and film/television and a workshop for set and costume design and construction. Student intake will start in autumn 2011, selected by audition/interview, and there will be a remission of fees; graduates get University of Dublin (Trinity College) qualifications. The Academy’s three courses – a three-year Bachelor in Acting, a two-year Higher Diploma in Stage Management and Technical Theatre, and a one-year Masters in Fine Art (directing, design and playwriting) – will be interdependent and flexible, key to making it financially viable.

“With a small intake on all the courses, our aim is to attract the most talented in all the dramatic arts within the island of Ireland and beyond,” said Singleton.

Rada director Ed Kemp talked about the important role of training. "In this age of X-Factorand Bulgaria's Got Talent, the point, as the parable says, is what you do with that talent", and how good theatre training gives dramatic artists the wherewithal to use that talent to find "the sound of their own voice in this noisy world".

Danielle Ryan, who graduated from Rada in 2003, ended her speech, which detailed the considerable involvement of the trust with the academy, “as my father [Cathal] would say: okay then, get on with it”.

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WHEN GALWAY CITY Council arts officer James Harrold decided to run a "one book, one city" initiative in the first language, he encountered a slight problem, writes Lorna Siggins. There was a plethora of titles in the Erse inspired by the landscape of the State's largest Gaeltacht, but not so many titles focused on the western capital itself.

"Not so many" narrowed down to one – Lig Sinn i gCathú (Lead Us into Temptation)by the late writer and Irish Timescolumnist Breandán Ó hÉithir. And so, last Saturday, in spite of floods that severed large parts of the county from the city, a new English translation of Ó hÉithir's classic by publishers Cló Iar-Chonnachta was celebrated at the Galway Arts Centre.

The initiative received €5,000 from the Arts Council, and master of ceremonies for “Aon Chathair, Aon Leabhar” was arts centre director Páraic Breathnach, while actors and actresses from An Taibhdhearc presented excerpts. O hÉithir, Aran islands native and nephew of Liam O’Flaherty, had translated the work into English himself.

The racy account of life in the mythical city of “Ballycastle” at Easter 1949, revolves around a number of characters, including college student Martin Melody who was fond of a “deoch”.

The publication is an unusual step for Cló Iar-Chonnachta, which normally publishes in Irish. Harrold purchased 100 copies of the new edition to place in the libraries, coffee shops and other locations around the city, and readers are encouraged to return the borrowed version today. Prof Alan Titley, head of the department of modern Irish at University College Cork, will give a lecture on the book in Galway City Museum at 2pm today.

Another distinguished Aran islander is a guest next Tuesday in Conradh na Gaeilge, next door to the Galway Arts Centre, for Airneán sa Chathair. The programme of cultural evenings also includes a slide show, which will be presented by author, broadcaster and mountaineer Dermot Somers next month, and in February, film-maker Bob Quinn will present his documentary, Fly-tipping in London, abut a group of Connemara people living in London in the 1980s.

Floods, deluges and otherwise will not deter the Loughrea Creative Writers' Group from publishing their collection of short stories, Razzle Dazzle, on Monday in Loughrea library. Abbey, film and television actor Declan Conlon will read excerpts, and the publication will be launched by broadcaster Liam Nolan.

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ACTOR LOUIS LOVETT will spend part of next year as the first theatre-maker in residence at the Ark cultural centre for children in Dublin and, as part of that, next month he performs in a world premiere by Tasmanian writer Finegan Kruckemeyer, The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly, directed by Lynne Parker.

Lovett, who performs for adults and younger people, has acted on the Ark stage more than 500 times and has a long association with it as a writer, director and actor. His company Theatre Lovett makes work for family audiences. "Our first theatre-maker in residence keeps high quality art at the centre of everything we do and allows us to deliver maximum impact for the vital territory that is children and families, schools, communities and artists," says Ark director Eina McHugh. The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly("sometimes it takes a girl-sized human, to solve an adult-sized problem") opens on January 28th, is for age seven-plus and is the first part of the residency which will also include outreach in schools and communities, actor training and teacher training. This last strand is a module for teacher-training colleges to enhance the arts curriculum and enable teachers to use drama for the classroom.

CORK CITY MANAGER Joe Gavin has confirmed that he is interested in ensuring the future of an art-house cinema in the city following last week's closure of Kino, writes Mary Leland. He had put proposals to Kino proprietor Mick Hannigan as long as two years ago but these were not taken up at the time; however, renewed contact has now been made. "Whether or not Kino itself can be revived depends on the current owner coming to an agreement with City Hall," Gavin said in response to rumours that the council might buy the cinema.

In the meantime, the council is continuing work on the redundant St Luke’s Church near Montenotte, where Máire Bradshaw of Tigh Filí is to be the principal tenant with a management group embracing other arts practitioners in the city. The church dates from 1889 and is almost as visible as Shandon; closed for worship in 2003 and acquired by the city council, its refurbishment was assisted by a grant of €600,000 from the European Regional Development Fund. It is now the centrepiece of the St Luke’s Cross Renewal Project, which was marked by the turning on of Christmas lights by the Lord Mayor, Cllr Dara Murphy, on Thursday.