Drama in store at annual Galway Theatre Festival
Lifestyle - The latest Director of Galway Theatre Festival, Sorcha Keane, combines a love of arts with a business background. It all helps in staging the annual event which gives a platform to new talent alongside more established artists as she tells JUDY MURPHY.
There’s nothing like theatre. You walk into a room with a bunch of strangers and you hear a story, known or unknown, and have a collective experience that’s so live and so tangible.” Such passion isn’t surprising coming from the Director of Galway Theatre Festival, Sorcha Keane whose love of arts, combined with an aptitude for business makes her an ideal person to steer this thriving organisation, which is celebrating its 11th festival next month.
The 2019 Galway Theatre Festival will run from May 3-11, with a range of drama from established and upcoming artists, as well as works-in-progress, and two free performances, including Beats on the Street from the Macnas Drumming Ensemble, which will be on the city streets – the location will be announced closer to the performance date of May 8.
Galway Theatre Festival (GTF), which began in October 2008, has grown from that inaugural four-day event which staged six productions at Nuns Island Theatre, to its current incarnation, presenting more than 20 productions across a range of city venues. That’s in addition to the works-in-progress, workshops and discussions about surviving and thriving in a notoriously difficult business.
“Our ethos is to support independent and emerging theatre artists and give them a space to present their work,” explains Sorcha.
Dubliner Sorcha first came to Galway to do a Masters in Theatre, having previously graduated from UCD with a BA in French and History and a Masters in Cultural Policy and Arts Management.
After leaving UCD, she worked in corporate travel for several years before changing direction.
“I ran away to the circus,” she says with a laugh about relocating to Galway.
Here she has worked as a volunteer with Galway Theatre Festival as well as the Film Fleadh and with the Arts in Action programme at NUIG.
Sorcha’s business background, her love of arts, and her experience as an intern with GTF last year, made her an ideal choice to take on the mantle of Festival Director last June when Máiréad Ní Chróinín (also of Moonfish Theatre) stepped down from the role.
“I always had a love of theatre and also had a love of festivals,” Sorcha explains.
Since 2008, GTF has supported emerging theatre groups and individual practitioners, as its founders realised “there was a need for a platform specifically for emerging artists in Galway and the West of Ireland”.
The event has grown since then under the guidance of a committed group of people, including former directors Róisín Stack and Máiréad Ní Chróinín, but GTF has remained true to its original remit.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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