Theater roof leak could be perfect for Tara Players – Winnipeg Free Press

As the snow melts, a leaking roof over the Erin Street Clubhouse threatens to wash away a half-century tradition of Irish theater in Winnipeg.

Since the company was founded in 1973, the Irish Association of Tara Players of Manitoba has produced more than 200 shows about the Emerald Isle, bringing the likes of Beckett and Behan, Shanley and Shaw to the stage.

“It's a lot of plays,” says the company's founder, Brendan Carruthers, 77, who speaks with the gentle lilt of his native Dublin.

“It's our hope to do hundreds more.”

However, climate does not interact. For nearly three years, the culprits were curse drops of various types. Then in 2022, the flat, 50-year-old roof over the clubhouse was exposed to rainfall. Siobhan Kiely heard the sound of raindrops pattering into the 83-seat Players Theatre.

“We've got to the point where patches just don't do the trick anymore,” says Kiely, a member of the Irish Association's nine-member board, who made Tara debut in a Sean O'Casey production in 1990. The moon shines on Kailenamo.

The damage is 60 thousand dollars. With a $40,000 pandemic-era government loan coming due soon, the bill will not be easy to stomach.

With the theater space largely out of business, the Irish community has lost a major source of income for more than two years. The clubhouse often hosts events, including popular movie screenings and St. Patrick's Day celebrations for the public and its 160 paying members.

But the creamy pints of Kilkenny poured on the roof of the club last March 17 were accompanied by a bitter admission that the beating heart of the community was in dire need of defibrillation.

“We can't let our beloved theater die,” Keeley said.

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The Irish Community was established in 1972; It took less than a year for its inaugural board to recognize the need for an amateur theater company with a mission to facilitate, assist and promote the integration of Irish culture.

The launch of the Tara Players coincided with a new phase in the annual celebration of several performance groups, including the Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre, as well as cultural and ethnic groups now known as Folklorama.

These events were driven not only by community interest, but also by public support for the arts offered by multiple levels of government, including the federal Liberals under Pierre Trudeau.

The timing was fortuitous: in October 1971, Trudeau introduced the government's multiculturalism policy by appointing a minister of multiculturalism a year later. By 1975, Trudeau's policy of cultural pluralism gave birth to the National Multicultural Theater Association, which provided the basis for support for companies such as the Tara Players until the late 1980s.

During that period, Manitoba playwrights such as Ukrainian-Manitoba Ted Galay (Sweet and sour sauce after Baba's funeral) found success with ethnically oriented productions, while new companies such as Prairie Theater Exchange (then the Manitoba Theater Workshop) explored language and ethnicity with shows such as Dennis Foon's Comedy. new canadian boy A Chalmers Prize winner, the newcomers here spoke English and the “home Canadians” talked nonsense.

Carruthers witnessed this boom through the eyes of an outsider who came to Winnipeg in 1968 to work as a printer.

“I've never been to a theater production, but you can't grow up in Ireland without an interest in theatre. This is part of the makeup of the country,” he says.

Shortly after the founding of the Irish Association in 1972, led by founding president Aidan O'Brien, Carruthers became a cast member of the Players' first show, a play by JM Synge. In the shadow of the glen In 1973, it was installed in the hall of the St. Ignatius Church during the folklore festival.

“I can still make my own lines,” he says. “Come with me now, lady of the house . . .”

After the Tara Players began performing in their current home, the company developed a reputation for solidly professional productions with such notable actors as Omar Alex Khan and Lorraine James, says theater historian Kevin Longfield. A long-standing member of the Irish community. Meanwhile, the company helped host the Acting Irish International Theater Festival, which was closed due to the onset of COVID.

“The word amateur means you do it for love, and that's the first misunderstanding. Amateur doesn't mean second-rate,” says Carruthers.

In the 1990s, the Taras and Prairie Theater Exchange staged a play by Frank McGuinness. The one who watches over me Tony-winning Broadway show starring Stephen Rea and Michael York.

Longfield saw both Manitoba productions.

He much preferred the version implemented by the troupe, headquartered on Erin Street.

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Over the past few months, Keeley and the Irish community have passed the hat, raising about 12 percent of their online fundraising goal through a GoFundMe campaign. If reached, the $90,000 would go toward not only repairing the roof, but damage to carpets, lighting systems and the stage itself, he said.

They also communicated with government officials; While waiting for a response, the group applied for a series of grants to ensure the long-term viability of the theater.

“My goal is to have this theater up and running by September,” says Kiely, whose parents joined the Irish community in the 1970s and debuted their first play at the theater under a leaky roof. “It feels a little scary right now.”

Carruthers hopes Keely's perfect schedule will hold up as he explores a new creative path after serving as a director, producer and actor.

“Once a dream “I wrote the first play for Tara players,” he says.

It was supposed to debut this month.

On Sunday, Carruthers, director Ray Cloutier and the show's cast gathered for rehearsals, gathering in the club's dining room instead of a theater where buckets of raindrops collect.

“It's going to be a show, though, and we'd love to have it in that theater to open the next season of Tara,” says Carruthers.

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