Performing arts sector to stage protest in city

THOSE involved in Cork’s performing arts sector are set to take part in a protest calling on the Government to announce its decision on the return of indoor classes before the end of the month.

The Government is due to announce what the next step is on the resumption of indoor classes in late August, but those in the sector are calling for more time to prepare for a potential reopening in September.

Speaking to The Echo, director of Montfort College of Performing Arts, Trevor Ryan, said he and colleagues in various stage schools across Cork will be at the protest on August 16 to call on the Government for “a definitive answer”.

Mr Ryan said that announcing a decision in late August puts stage schools and performing arts colleges under unnecessary pressure, as many rent school halls or GAA halls, which, he said, are not going to offer their spaces without confirmation that indoor classes are officially allowed to resume.

“There’s an awful lot of work involved — we can’t just flick a switch and open tomorrow,” he said.

“We need clarity. We need a definitive answer from the Government, because ultimately we don’t want to take our staff off the PUP and be told in a couple of weeks you can’t open, and then they won’t be able to sign back on again.

“The problem is, in 17 months, they [the Government] haven’t engaged with us once.

“It’s the usual rhetoric, it’s the same old emails and saying they’re looking at it and we promise we’ll look at it — but nothing was ever done.

“They never engaged in any dialogue with us at any point, we really feel that we’re bottom of the food chain.”

He said there also seems to be “serious inequality” when it comes to the reopening and resumption of different sectors.

“I have colleagues and friends involved in the production of West Side Story in the Bord Gáis [Theatre] a couple of weeks ago, and there were 50 in the audience in a 2,500-seater venue,” he said.

“I’m the director and co-writer of the Opera House panto, and we start planning that in March, and it’s now the middle of August and we still have no idea if we’re going to be able to put on a panto or not.

“I know the Government has loads to do and lots of sectors to look at, but we’re the experts in our field and all we wanted in all this time was for us to sit down to explain our situation and tell them how we can do it safely and effectively.”

Well-known Cork actor Norma Sheahan said there are a lot of young people who rely on performing arts as an outlet, including those who need it for speech therapy, art therapy, or dance therapy, and are not interested in sports.

She said, however, that there are others, who, after almost two years without their outlet, have turned elsewhere to pick up another sport or hobby which she said may leave those in the industry finding it difficult to get customers back.

Reflecting on her time in performing-arts schools, she said that she does not know what she would have done without drama for two years, saying that she would have been “lost” without it.

“I would have been almost addicted to performance, but if it had shut down for two years, I would have gone to do something else,” she said.

“It was my outlet, and it was the thing I hung onto after I gave up on everything else, as an outlet to avoid getting into teenage depression and stuff like that.

“Drama was the one I never gave up, even when I lost interest in other things,” she said.

Those attending the protest are asked to assemble outside Cork Opera House in Cork City on Monday, August 16, at 10.45am.