After London, "obviously, the pace here is much more relaxed". You can only think, "God help London, then". But Teerth Chungh, newly appointed director of the Draiocht Arts Centre in Ballymun, Dublin, is adamant: "I believe I have definitely changed for a better quality of life," she says.
She has been based here since April 1999 after her partner, Richard Wakeley, took up his post as executive director of the Abbey Theatre. However, work and family commitments - she had her second baby last year - have meant that she didn't seek a job in Ireland until recently. Her recent UK work sounds most unlikely: she managed five floats in the Lord Mayor's Show, which traditionally accompanies the election of a new lord mayor in London (she was "with the Woolwich's" float, for instance) and she managed Sainbury's showing at agricultural shows.
Sounds a far cry from programming Draiocht, which will have a multi-purpose auditorium, capable of being arranged for 250 seats, 550 people standing, or an outdoor arena of 2,000; a dance and performance space with 80 seats; art galleries, a cafe and bar, band rehearsal, TV and recording studios, and a host of other facilities. But Chungh's flurry with the floats was actually a departure from her previous experience in theatre management.
Originally from India, she was educated in England and studied stage management at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her enthusiasm for Ireland dates from her management of some tours for the late, lamented Belfast theatre company, Charabanc, which brought her all over the country. She came away, as she says, "very passionate about this country, impressed with the generosity of the people".
Is she still? She feels there have definitely been some major positive advances here in recent years: "There's an awful lot of development and an awful lot of buzz. It's an incredible happening place compared with London. And there's a European feel to it - I think it's to do with the Liffey running through it." She won't even be drawn on the lack of a transport system, saying she was used to that, trying to get to work in London and finding the Tube line was down.
She has been programme director at the Riverside Studios Arts Centre and general manager of the Cochrane Theatre in London. Running the latter venue gave her, she says, a lot of experience, which she will use at Draiocht, because she oversaw its redevelopment, establishment and programming. Yes, but isn't the West End a far cry from Ballymun? Chungh argues that, although West End audiences go into a show with certain expectations, the Cochrane routinely challenged these with a "contemporary, cutting-edge programme".
Chungh agrees that the relationship between the Ballymun venue and the local community will be the measure of its success; she calls it a "regional venue, essentially", which will, however, hope to attract audiences from outside the region. She intends to programme a mixture of "best quality community work, best quality national work and best quality international work".
Tony O Dalaigh has been working with Draiocht, and has programmed the venue's first few weeks; the official opening is likely to be at the end of April or the beginning of May. Chungh is now working on finalising the team that will run the arts centre, and within two weeks the names of the general marketing manager, the public relations manager, the production manager, the visual arts officer, the education officer and the outreach officer will be announced.
Neither of the Irish shortlisted authors for the Whitbread Prize, novelist Anne Enright or poet Maurice Riordan, emerged as category winners yesterday. Matthew Kneale won in the novel category for his book English Passengers, about a 19th-century sea-faring odyssey; John Burnside won in the poetry category with The Asylum Dance.
Twenty-five-year-old Zadie Smith, whose first book, White Teeth, has been a smash hit, won in the first novel category, having been controversially passed over for the Booker and Orange prizes. Bad Blood - A Memoir by Lorna Sage is the Whitbread biography category winner.
Her autobiography tells how she escaped a claustrophobic background in post-war Britain, married the 17-year-old father of her child and went to university with him (they both got Firsts). The category winners each receive £3,500, but the big lottery is on January 23rd when one lucky writer will win £22,500 during a ceremony televised on BBC2.
Osmego Dnia, who will perform No Man's Land (Wednesday, Samuel Beckett Theatre, 8.30 p.m.) and Il Pudore Bene in Vista from Italy with Austria's Andreas Staudinger, who will create a world premiere commissioned by the Theatre Symposium, entitled Camera Echo (Saturday, Samuel Beckett Theatre, 8.30 p.m.)
Irish companies taking part include Blue Raincoat, Bedrock, Loose Cannon, Artslab, Pan Pan, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Corn Exchange and Corcadorca, and there is a full and fascinating programme of workshops and demonstrations.
Dublin International Theatre Symposium, 01-2800544/ email:info@dublintheatresymposium.com/ www.dublintheatresymposium.com
Samuel Beckett Centre Box Office: 01-6082461
The IRMA Trust is running a series of masterclasses for young bands in Kerry: instruments covered include bass, drumming and lead guitar, and the dates of the classes are February 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th - apply before January 12th to Doreen O'Connell, Music Programme Co-ordinator, Samhlaiocht Chiarrai, Main Street, Tralee, Co Kerry.
Tel: 066-7129934 or samhlaiocht@indigo.ie.
The Faculty of Applied Arts in DIT, Rathmines, Dublin continues its ambitious public lecture series with a lecture on January 29th at 6 p.m. entitled "Performance Epistemologies: Knowledges About, For, And In" by Philip Zarrilli - he is Chair of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Exeter and has done extensive research on drama in Kerala, India.
