Irish Ideas are Shining

Irish Ideas are Shining

The Jewish Journal - 1995

Think about it. Even without Chaim Herzog, the Irish and the Jews have quite a bit in common. We are both engaged in bloody, terrorizing wars. We both revere and safeguard the language of our respective ancestors. And we both have a reverence for the written and spoken word. When Yeats wrote "God guard me from those thoughts men think / In the mind alone;/ He that sings a lasting song/ Thinks in a marrow-bone," he was echoing a sentiment as old as Psalms.

In L.A., the Irish love for the spoken word has led to the creation of the Irish Theatre Arts Center, a creative and cultural center for the performing arts in West Hollywood. The center, founded last February by director Robert Ginty, is a first for the city's huge Irish and Irish-American community.

Ginty, who directed TV's China Beach and Evening Shade, is the kind of visionary force every art center needs. Astounded that L.A. had nothing to rival New York's Glucksman-Ireland House, let alone the Abbey or Gate Theatres, Ginty convinced old friend, Father Jack Beattie of St. Ambrose's Catholic Church on Fairfax to make a performance and workspace available. The father, faced with declining local parish population, happily complied, and the Irish Theatre Arts Center was born.

Don't go to the center expecting to buy a ticket and see a play. "I'm not in the equity-waver theater business," Ginty told FYL. "I want the quickest way to draw people into the space."

In other words, Ginty is creating a bustling workspace where new and seasoned playwrights, artists, actors and directors can meet, read scripts out loud, explore characters, challenge and compare idea.

Forget the curtains and the klieg lights, the star egos, the $150 per hour acting lessons and the $200 script consultations. Ginty wants people to approach Irish theater the old-fashioned way: for love, not money. "Ireland has a storytelling tradition," said Ginty, "and people want to be in touch with their roots. It's amazing, since we started, over 1,000 people have come here to hear words."

The theater's Wednesday-night free play readings have attracted upwards of 100 people, including such performers as Charles Druning, Jean Smart and Liam Neeson. ITAC is planning a screenwriting workshop with My Left Foot director Jim Sheridan, as well as art shows and Irish musical performances.
Upcoming staged readings will include works by Frank Gilroy, Joe Cacaci and Shay Dunphy's The Irish Hebrew Lesson.

Ginty's Hollywood connections have not only added cache to the readings, but have also helped some young playwrights land studio contracts. The director himself is hemorrhaging money to support his dream center. "Evening Shade helped me carry this thing at first. Now the that's cancelled, I need another show and a lot of donations."
Fortunately, the Irish community has rallied to the cause of art, making a success of the ITAC's first fundraiser. "I think the Irish people who have come her see it as a wonderful oasis, nourishing artistically and socially," said Cynthia Baer, the center's executive director.

One of the models for the ITAC was New York's 92nd St. Y. "It is, I f I may say so, a great Jewish institution," Ginty said. He was amazed to hear that L.A.'s Jewish community, glutted with actors, writers, director, you-name-it, hasn't launched a theater arts center of its. Come to think of it, why haven't we?