Galway Advertiser 2001/2001_02_22/GA_22022001_E1_061.pdf 

Extracted text

In 2001, to celebrate 15 years on the road, Opera Theatre Company's spring tour turns into a countrywide fes tival with a double-header of two great operas performed on consecutive nights and a whole range of fringe events taking place in each town. The highlight of the tour is Benjamin Britten's adaptation of J o h n Gay's The Beggar's Opera and Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse, both of which are sung in English and feature the accompaniment of a full orchestra. The tour arrives at the Town Hall next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday,

^NTERTAIMMFNT Opera Theatre Company's So you want to win double header an Oscar?
Ever dreamed of being the next Neil Jordan, or winning the coveted prize for yourself? The Galway Film Centre may be able to start you ofT! But, if you think the resource is only for those suitably qualified, think again. Manager, Liz Meaney, opens the doors to anyone interested in the medium of film and video. Interested? Take advantage of the fact that submissions are now being sought for (a new initiative by the centre) ID Films 2001- a scheme designed to encourage the use of the visual medium in the local community. Says Orla Nix, chairperson of the Galway Film Centre Board of Directors: "The aim of the initiative is to, encourage and enhance knowledge of video making in the community and to foster an interest in community culture. Liz Meaney, follows on from this, saying that such schemes allow the centre "to reach the people who might normally never be in contact with us". And what is the criteria? Liz Meaney hopes that the groups who come for ward will be those that "see themselves as hav ing a different sense of identity, to the extent that they are a community". So, if your neigh bourhood/village/group has a worthy story to tell or an awareness to highlight, get writing! In celebratory mood, last year winners, the Travellers Support Group, Battle Poetry Group of Loughrea, Aids Help West Support Group, and St Grellan's Community in Ballinasloe presented their labours last Saturday loan audi ence of dignitaries and local film-makers in the Town Hall Theatre - via the medium of film. Supported by the Arts Council, Galway Corporation and the County Council, these four lucky groups spent five months last year receiving expert training and guidance from the in the GFC recording of their unique identities, as Meaney explains it. "telling their own story on their own terms". Such was the success of the venture for both the Galway Film Centre and thegroups them selves, that Liz Meaney hopes to see some or all of the participants working with the GFC again, whether or their own projects or those of others, and it has just been announced thai the initiative will run for at least another two years. If you were unfortunate to miss the screen ing first time 'round, plans are afoot to screen the documentaries to a wider audience, although details have not yet been finalised. Contact: Caroline Jacobs at the Galway Film Centre, Cluain Mhuire, Monivea Road, Galway. (091) 770748 or education@galwayfilmcentre.ie

On Tuesday, February 2 7 , O T C Galway Arts Festival. This welcome tration for 13 players. Highwayman present The Lighthouse, a spine-revival features the original cast and Macheath is fought over by Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit and also chilling drama based on the true crew. story of the mysterious disappear On Wednesday, February 28, they by their scheming dads, who want to sell the thief to the hangman. This ance of three lighthouse k e e p e r s present The Beggar's Opera, the from a r e m o t e l i g h t h o u s e on the boisterous ballad opera that turned production holds particular interest for Galway audiences as it's directed 18th century opera on its head. It Scottish coast in 1900. This operatic ' w h o d u n n i t ' r e a c h e s s t i m u l a t i n g features punchy, familiar tunes and a by Sean O'Tarpaigh, currently of emotional heights and its inaugural racy text satirising high and low life Ros na Run and a former artistic production in 1998 was hailed as one in e q u a l m e a s u r e . In Benjamin director of An Taibhdhearc, who also plays the eponymous Beggar. of OTC's finest ever achievements, Britten's version, the melodies are thrilling audiences at that y e a r ' s given a rich, contemporary orches

America's most popular singer/song w r i t e r of c h i l d r e n ' s songs Tom Chapin is to play a concert in the Town Hall T h e a t r e on S a t u r d a y March 10 2001 at 3pm. He is a gifted entertainer who charms his audiences with his warmth and memorable melodies that captivate chil dren and adults alike. He has released six albums with his latest offering. This Pretty Planet based on the environment. being nominated for Tom's Grammy in a row and it's not sur why with his unique body of son have turned into children's classi*

and so forth. It promises to be a fun cone, children as well as parents.

' T h e Painter, the Fenian, Van Gogh and Mark Twain'
The respective post mortem careers of Aloysius O'KeUy and Vincent Van Gogh is a salutary reminder of the instability of artistic reputation. Van Gogh died virtually unknown in 1890. at the O'Kelly was being applauded in the popular American-Irish press as the 'famous Irish artist'. The connection between the two artists is greater than the simple reversal of their reputations would suggest. Van Gogh was an enthusiastic collector of O'Kelly's newspaper illustrations and communicated that enthusiasm to his most intimate friends, his brother Theo and his friend Van Rappard. O'Kelly's considerable profile among his literary and artistic contemporaries is further confirmed by Mark Twain's purchase of O'Kelly's painting Huckleberry Finn' for his daughter Clara Clemens, O'Kelly's most typically American painting pro duced some 10 years prior to his emigration to the United States. No more than that of his brother, the prominent Fenian James J O'Kelly, the life and times of Aloysius O'Kelly reads like something from an adventure story for boys. His early work provides an extraordinary pictorial account of the Land War and its impact on peasant communities in Connemara. Niamh O'Sullivan has argued that the great strength of these paintings is the artist's empa thy with his subject, and his ability to give artistic expression to that sense of fellow-feeling making 'the extraordinary ordinary, thereby dignifying those traditionally represented as monstrous, feeble or degraded'. O'Kelly's personal and artistic restlessness resulted in a technically and thematic variety including work done in Brittany, Connemara, North Africa, Britain and America. That his declining reputation has been restored is largely to the credit of Niamh O'Sullivan from the National College ol Art and Design, cura tor of an exhibition of Aloysius O'Kelly's work at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modem Art Dublin, which was attended by more than 30,000 people over a period of two months in late 1999 and early 2000. A major study of O'Kelly's work by Niamh O'Sullivan is forthcoming from Cork University Press. Galway audiences will have a rare opportunity to
TIME

sec something of O'Kelly's work on Wednesday February 28 when Niamh O'Sullivan will present an illustrated lecture entitled The Art and Politics of Aloysius O'Kelly: Citizen Artist' at NUL Galway. The lecture is part of the series. 'Images and Imaginings: Perspectives in Irish Studies', presented by the newly established Centre for Irish Studies which aims to showcase some of the most exciting recent research in the field of Irish Studies. The lec ture will commence at 8.00pm in the O Tnuthail Theatre. Millennium Arts Building. Admission is free of charge and everyone is welcome to auend