Centre stage

Lifestyle – Professional Galway drama troupe, Fregoli, will be in the spotlight next week when they premiere an exciting original production for the Galway Theatre Festival in the home of Druid Theatre. They have come a long way since their debut show in 2006 as Dara Bradley found out.

Depending on your bent, perceptions of Project 06 can be roughly separated into two broad camps.  It was either an unnecessary, divisive distraction from the good work of the ever-evolving Galway Arts Festival, which was producing quality, varied programmes that compared favourably with arts festivals around the World.

Or it was a timely reminder that, in 2006, Galway Arts Festival had lost its way, had grown elitist, moved on from its roots in the community, and had diminished involvement of local acts, artists, musicians and companies.

But for a small group of NUI Galway students, Project 06 was much more than that: it was the mother that gave birth to the theatre company that later became known as Fregoli.

A group from Dramsoc, the college’s society for students with an interest in theatre, staged a children’s show, Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl, during the one-off alternative festival.

Though it was small-scale stuff – they didn’t even have a theatre and it was put-on at the university squash court – this Project 06 production was the seed that grew into one of Galway’s best-known theatre companies.

“It kind of provided the momentum,” recalls Maria Tivnan, who has been Fregoli artistic director since the beginning.

“We were having the craic, and we just enjoyed being part of something. It created a sense of urgency and sense of momentum. It created the belief that you could take over the world. That’s good.

“I think you need that at times and that was encouraged by Ollie Jennings (founder of both Galway Arts Festival and Project 06). It was a ‘we are in Galway and we can do this work’ spirit,” says the Barna-based, Roscommon native.

The next milestone of the road to establishing a theatre company in Galway City came when Maria, and other students who were there from the beginning – Rob McFeely, who is now her husband, Dara Finn, Rebecca Ryan, and Tracy Bruen – gained recognition at Irish Student Drama Awards, scooping two gongs.

Rob won best director; Maria won best actress; Dara was nominated for best actor; and their production was nominated for best production.

“One of the judges said to me after, ‘I assume you’re doing this?’ And I sort of said ‘well, not really, we’re sort of doing things here and there’ but she said: ‘Well, you should be’. That sort of finalised it, if you like. We sort of said, ‘well why aren’t we?’. It came out of that,” says Maria.

The name came later, discovered by Dara, who was studying medicine.

Fregoli is a syndrome, “which is a psychological disorder where you think that everyone in the room is the one person playing many parts,” she says.

It was named after a famous Italian 18th century impersonator, Leopold Fregoli.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.