2009/2010 Season

Spring Presentation

By Frank McGuinness

Directed by Harvey Levkoe

Produced by Yolanda Savino-Walsh

The Alumnae Theatre

70 Berkeley Street

Opening Night Reception at 8pm - February 18th

Evenings at 8pm

February 19th, 20th, 25th, 26th, 27th March 4th, 5th, 6th

Matinees at 2pm

February 21st, 28th

Tickets

Evenings $18; Matinees $15 Opening Night Reception: $40 Group Rates Available The American Premiere of FACTORY GIRLS by Frank McGuinness was originally presented by Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA and Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor, Long Island, NY, June-July 1999. For Tickets and Information Call 416 440 2888

DIRECTORS NOTES

Frank McGuinness's work is filled with humanity, his sense of politics and his ability to tell a good story.

Theatre is where McGuinness belongs. "It may drive me crazy and drive me hard, but I am never happier than when I am writing a play. I love the thrill of these voices becoming my familiars; I love their company or am threatened by their company. That's a tremendous, joyous thing and when it is happening it completely dominates my life: everything else is a sideline."

Although he had done some acting and directing as a student, he had little thought of writing plays until he attended a workshop under false pretences - in truth it was to meet someone he was attracted to - but not having a play to submit, he sent off a detailed description of a non-existent work. To his horror he was accepted and had only a week to write the play. That play would eventually become through many rewrites - The Factory Girls.

It was a play that celebrated the working class culture of women, and drew inspiration from his grandmother, mother and aunt's experience working in the local shirt factories of Buncrana where he grew up. "I was brought up to appreciate a beautifully made shirt."

What draws the play together is a generous sympathy with the five women's foibles in all their forms. But McGuinness lets us know that he loathes sentimentality and views the notion of redemption as laughable. "Sentimentality has damaged so many writers and storytellers and to hell with redemption. It's not true, folks! To me, it's like creationism. Grow up and face reality. Just grow up."

Frank McGuinness has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in the theatre. He is best known to North American audiences for is 1993 Someone to Watch Over Me which won the New York Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and his ground breaking adaption of A Dolls House which won three Tony Awards in 1997.

Today he lives and works in Dublin and lectures at University College Dublin where as a student he studied Pure English and Medieval Studies to post graduate level.

HARVEY LEVKOE - January 2010

Playwright
Frank McGuinness McGuinness was born in Buncrana, a town located on the Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal, Ireland. He was educated locally and at University College Dublin, where he studied Pure English and medieval studies to postgraduate level. He first came to prominence with his play The Factory Girls, but established his reputation with his play about World War I, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which was staged in Dublin's Abbey Theatre and internationally. It won numerous awards including the London Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright for McGuinness. He has also written new versions of classic dramas, including works by Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, and Euripides, adapting the literal translations of others. In addition, he wrote the screenplay for the film Dancing at Lughnasa, adapting the stage play by fellow Irishman (and, indeed, fellow Ulsterman) Brian Friel. McGuinness's first poetry anthology, Booterstown, was published in 1994. Several of his poems have been recorded by Marianne Faithfull, including Electra, After the Ceasefire and The Wedding. McGuinness previously lectured in Linguistics and Drama at the University of Ulster, Medieval Studies at University College, Dublin and English at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Then he was a writer-in-residence lecturing at University College Dublin before being appointed Professor of creative writing in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin.
Castlist
HARVEY LEVKOE - Director Harvey is very pleased to have the opportunity to direct for the Toronto Irish Players for the first time. Harvey started directing in 1995. He has directed over forty productions working for independent and community theatre companies from Markham to Whitby but mostly in the Greater Toronto Area. Some of his favourite projects include: A Man For All Seasons, Suddenly Last Summer, Tartuffe, Art, Cabaret, Lawrence and Holloman, The Heiress and the Matchmaker.
YOLANDA SAVINO-WALSH - Producer Yolanda has been with TIP for many years working behind the scenes on the Executive. She produced TIP’s award winning A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh and made a stage appearance in Jonathan Lynn's The Warrior Bard. Yolanda is delighted once again to be given the honour to produce for the Players and is indebted to her wonderful crew who have again risen to the challenge.
BARBARA TAYLOR - Ellen Last seen on stage in TIP’s award winning production of A Skull in Connemara, Barbara’s role as Ellen marks her 35th anniversary performance with TIP. As a founding member of TIP she performed in their first production along with her mother Dorothy sister Gina brother James and Aunt June. Her mother Dorothy was one of TIP’s finest actresses and directors and played the role of Ellen in TIP’s 1988 production of Factory Girls. Barbara welcomes and thanks all the wonderful new TIP members who have joined us for this production. It has been a privilege to take this journey with old and new friends.
SHEILA BENCH - Una Sheila Bench joined TIP in 1980 and has enjoyed playing many roles. Some of her favourites were Mrs Gogan in The Plough and the Stars and The Mother in The Cripple of Inishmaan. She has also worked backstage. She is enjoying being Una in The Factory Girls. Sheila is from Dublin.
DEBORAH WYMAN - Vera This is my first production with Toronto Irish Players and I hope there will be many more. Many thanks to Harvey for casting me and to the rest of the cast and crew for allowing me to have such a great time... it was almost sinful! I have over 14 years community theatre experience with The Oakville Players and other area groups. I love acting and I am equally comfortable in administrative functions or back stage.
CLAIRE SERINGHAUS - Rebecca Claire is an actress, artist and freelance writer. She is delighted to be back onstage after a fruitful hiatus in Northern Ontario that saw her taming goats, growing vegetables and avoiding deep-woods bear encounters. Claire has trained with the Second City, Theatre Ontario, Sears & Switzer and the Beckett School of Music and was seen most recently playing all female roles in Trainspotting at the George Ignatieff Theatre. She would like to thank her family and friends for all their support.
ASHLEA J. RUSSELL - Rosemary Ashlea J. Russell, being the youngest member of the cast, hails from the beautiful Emerald Isle! Raised near Belfast, in the North of Ireland, Ashlea's passions include drama, poetry, writing and she has a great singing voice. Her Irish roots serve her well in this current production, where she can draw on her early childhood living in Ireland and knowing its people, to bring to life the witty, cheeky Rosemary!
DERMOT WALSH - Andy Bonner Dermot has been involved with TIP for many years, this being his twenty-third appearance. Over the years he has played a wide and diverse variety of roles, too numerous to mention. Recently he played Tommy in The Muesli Belt, Thomas Moore in the award winning production of The Warrior Bard, and Father in A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocers Assistant.
PAUL MICUCCI - Rohan Paul's most recent roles have included, Dr. Cukrowicz in Suddenly, Last Summer at the Curtain Club and Valère in Tartuffe with East Side Players. Paul is thrilled to be working with such a wellspring of talent that is Toronto Irish Players.
KAREN FARNOCCHI - Stage Manager Karen has Stage Managed for various companies in town and on some wonderful productions; most recently East Side Players, Laughter on the 23rd Floor. It’s a privilege to work with TIP at the Alumnae and doing so with this very talented cast and devoted crew is a delight! A very special "TIP o' the ha" to Harvey who always allows me plenty of opportunity to use my left and right brain!
SHARON TAYLOR - Assistant Stage Manager Sharon's last involvement with the Players was an unexpected surprise led by Natalie Harrower. In 2007 Natalie's Contemporary Irish Theatre students from the Celtic Studies Program University of Toronto researched and presented material for TIP's production of At The Black Pigs Dyke by Vincent Wood. Her last performance with the Players was as Nora in 2005's spring production The Plough and the Stars by Sean O'Casey. Enjoy the show!
Photos
With thanks to William C. Smith and Irish Connections Canada. www.irishcanadamag.com All photos are copyright ©2009 William C. Smith.

Fall Presentation

A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant

By Tom Murphy

Directed by Catherine Driscoll

Produced by Sheila Bench

 

Biographies
Tom Murphy - Playwright Tom Murphy was born in Tuam, Co. Galway in 1935; he was the youngest of 10 children. He became a vocational school teacher and in 1959 co-wrote his first play, On the Outside, with Noel O’Donoghue. His next play, A Whistle in the Dark, was rejected by the Abbey Theatre, as was A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer’s Assistant, under its original title of The Fooleen. However, in 1961, A Whistle in the Dark was produced in London by Joan Littlewood, to acclaim but much controversy. He emigrated to England in 1962 and wrote plays for BBC TV. However, some of his new work was performed in Ireland: Famine (Peacock Theatre 1968); The Orphans (Gate Theatre 1968). In 1969, The Abbey produced A Crucial Week. Murphy returned to Ireland in 1970 and most his plays have since premiered at The Abbey. He was honoured there in 2001 with a retrospective season of six of his plays. Considered by many to be Ireland's greatest living playwright, he holds honorary degrees from Trinity College, Dublin and NUI Galway. He lives in Dublin.
Catherine Driscoll - Director Catherine Driscoll has been a member of TIP for several years. This is her fourth outing as director: Moll (2007), nominated for best director at the ACT-CO Awards; The Weir (2006), won best director at ACT-CO; and, I Do Not Like Thee, Dr. Fell (2006). A graduate of Trinity College London (Eng.) - drama teaching. Before moving to Toronto, she worked for RTE in Dublin; now works for CBC Newsworld. She is also a member of The Alumnae and will produce The Queens by Normand Chaurette in April 2010.
Sheila Bench - Producer This is Sheila’s first time to produce. Usually you see her on stage either making people laugh or cry. Her brothers, Christopher Smith and Frank Smith wish her every success in her endeavour. Sheila and her brothers have been members of TIP for decades and she is proud to come from a very talented family. By the way, they are all true Dubliners.

 

A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant by Tom Murphy

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the first production of A Crucial Week in the Life of a Grocer's Assistant. It took place at the Abbey Theatre and the successful run helped establish Tom Murphy's career-long relationship with Ireland's National Theatre. The relationship had a rocky start at the beginning of the Sixties; however, when both A Crucial Week (under its original title of The Fooleen) and A Whistle in the Dark were rejected by the Abbey. The Abbey may have been sensitive to official and public opinion because both plays are a blistering comment on post-war Ireland's inability or unwillingness to deal with the problem of emigration, the problems it caused the many affected families and the often devastating consequences for those who emigrated.

In A Whistle in the Dark, which premiered to great success in Stratford and London in 1961, we see the appalling destruction of an already dysfunctional Irish family living in Coventry; in A Crucial Week, Murphy turns his searing intellect and lyrical pen on a young man in small-town rural Ireland of 1958 tormented with trying to decide whether to stay or to go. He is torn between the perceived freedom of living life abroad and the comfort - poor and suffocating though it is - of staying in his own place.

The wretchedness of the family in Coventry leaves us in no doubt that they would have been better off staying in Ireland. Yet, in A Crucial Week, we fully understand what's driving John Joe away. He has no money and no prospect of ever earning a decent wage from the stingy grocer, Mr. Brown. He also has no freedom and no voice because both have been smothered by his overbearing mother who, in league with the priest, is determined to keep him at home. Her "smothering and slobbering" has already driven her other son away, but John Joe does not want to be "forced to stay or forced to go". He wants "the freedom to decide and make the choice" for himself.

A Crucial Week can be seen as a metaphor for the Ireland of the late Fifties and early Sixties: a nation trying to find its own voice and shed its infantile state after centuries of colonialism. But, Murphy has written a play that still speaks to us in the 21st Century. John Joe's Herculean struggle to be able to look deep within himself to find his own voice is a struggle for the ages. Ben Barnes (former Abbey director) once said of Tom Murphy, he "speaks to our souls. Or, more accurately, to the trouble in our souls."

Catherine Driscoll
Director
October 2009

Photos

With thanks to William C. Smith and Irish Connections Canada.
www.irishcanadamag.com
All photos are copyright ©2009 William C. Smith.

Castlist

John Joe	Eugene Duffy
Mona	Sarah Kidd
Mother	Rita Ferguson
Father	Dermot Walsh
Peter Mullins	Mark Hill
Alec	Derry Fitzpatrick
Mrs. Smith	Nora Rafferty
Agnes Smith	Ingrid Wirsig
Mr. Brown	Michael Sherman
Pakey Garvey	Howard Quinn
Miko	Howard Quinn
Fr. Daly	Liam Doherty
Pension Man	Jude Hession