"I LOVE IRISH AMERICAN PEOPLE" says Pauline Turley, executive director of the Irish Arts Center in New York City. "They have so much passion for their arts and culture," she says as the slightly muffled sounds of keening tin whistles leak through the walls of the cramped office.
Located in Hell's Kitchen, a neighborhood once infamous for its more criminal Irish elements, the center was established in the early 1970's to foster Irish arts and culture. Since then, theater, film screenings, music, lectures, art shows and classes in Irish arts and culture have been the center's lifeblood.
In fact the center has been so successful at presenting such culture that it has survived and thrived. Enough so that on March 24th the center will celebrate its 25th year anniversary at the 5 Ist Street location with a program of theater, music, comedy and dance hosted by authors Frank and Malachy McCourt.
The life of the Irish Arts Center has gone through several phases and its share of highs and lows. At its inception, the center was a grassroots organization with a socialist bent that grew out of a response to the conflict in Northern Ireland. Somewhat of a hippie cause celebre at the time, John Lennon and Yoke Ono hosted the first fundraiser for the center in 1972.
In 1974 the City of New York donated the then run-down building where the organization is still housed and extensive renovations were completed in 1994. The center first brought the traditional Irish musicians, The Chieftains, to the United States in the 70's and later produced plays by Kenneth Branagh and the Brothers McCourt.
Film director Jim Sheridan, creator of such breakthrough Irish films as My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father, was artistic director of the center for most of the 80's, when it received recognition as a professional theater and won several Obie Awards. Eerily, in 1985, JKohn F.Kennedy, Jr. starred in an invite-only drama called Lovers about two young Irish lovers drowned at sea.
These days the presence of film talent in the center continues with current artistic director Neal Jones, a prominent actor who has roles in many films, including Devil's Advocate and G.I. Jane and in the HBO series, Sex and the City.
With Jones' directorial skills in hand, Turley says one of her greatest challenges is to provide quality theater for audiences while simultaneously staying afloat in Manhattan's competitive off Broadway theater scene. Turley says she does so by programming new Irish plays as well as traditional works.
She adds, "I am happy to keep audiences coming in. I think it's very important to continue to provide quality programming that people want to see.
"The last two shows we had to turn people away," says Turley, referring to Don Creedon's comedy Celtic Tiger (Me Arse) and a standup comedy show with television stars Ardal O'Hanlon and Tommy Tiernan. Celtic Tiger (Me Arse), a provocative look at the new Ireland and the comic effects a booming economy has on unemployment, religion, education and sexuality, had a sold-out run last fall and returned this February.The play echoes the popular Irish literary trope of the emigrant returning to the homeland, only to find things have changed beyond his wildest dreams(or nightmares).
This ties in with another major challenge that Turley sees continuing into the future--the effort to build new audiences. "Build it and they will come," says Turley, referring to the center's current attitude concerning outreach to audiences that were overlooked in the past. In an effort to attract recent Irish immigrants who before might have shied away from theater,Turley programs works by new Irish playwrights like Creedon, and books comedians like O'Hanlon and Tiernan, who have already been established on Irish television.
"I think there are some people who feel a little like theater is not for them," says Turley. "But theater is for them as well. I like to try and open up the doors of Irish and Irish American theater." The tall, auburn-haired Turley, 27, was raised in Newry, County Down and graduated from Trinity College in Dublin, where she studied drama and theater. She began traveling extensively in the United States in 1993 and settled in NewYork in 1997, where she began volunteering at the center and producing plays.
"I never intended to stay, but then I saw an opportunity to produce theater focused on contemporary writing," says Turley. "I saw that there were many new talented actors and writers," she says, "And I see myself as a facilitator who likes to focus more on contemporary work." She adds, "I saw a need for change, so I gave up what I was doing and started doing this." Seated in the center's slightly scruffy administrative offices,Turley speaks practically about the hurdles she must leap to do her job successfully.
"As in any arts' organization, funding is the hardest part--making ends meet," says Turley. Ticket sales, grants, corporate and individual donations all go into the mix that keeps the center viable.
"I always enjoy a challenge, Turley says, smiling. "I like to turn problems into a challenge.
"The degree of success of the center depends on the talent of the people running it."
If that much is true, then Turley's talents are expansive. Other more mundane tasks she must grapple with are building maintenance and effective management of very limited space--three floors holding a IGG-seat theater, classrooms, administrative offices and two art galleries. "We're literally bursting at the seams, she laughs, as a classroom full of traditional Irish bodhran drummers tap away somewhere upstairs. Programming shows and workshops is no small feat, with over forty classes in Irish language, literature, history, dance and instrumentation vying for space with a constant flow of cultural performances and special events.
The hours are long. Working most nights at the center,Turley says her Manhattan apartment is basically just a place to sleep. "I don't even need to keep my clothes there," she says with a smile, pointing to a hook on her office door festooned with hangers and various garments. "Everything I need is here."
by Terry Roethlein
