Family fun as Macnas marks 30 years of making magic

Lifestyle –  Judy Murphy meets the Artistic Director of Macnas Noeline Kavanagh who is helping the next generation to shine

For the past 30 years, Macnas Community Theatre Group has brought its colourful spectacles to the streets of Galway and to cities all over Europe, the Americas and as far away as Australia.

The magic is set to continue on Sunday week, October 30, when Macnas will stage its latest show, Savage Grace, in Galway City.

A celebration of love in all its manifestations, Savage Grace also marks the Celtic festival of Halloween and pays homage to the spirit world, in particular to a creature known in Irish as An Cailleach, or in Slavic myths as the Baba Yaga – a supernatural, fearsome hag.

Savage Grace, which will have some 300 performers weaving through Galway’s medieval streets, has been designed by Orla Clogher; there’s new music specially composed by Orlagh de Bhaldraithe, and costume design is by Cherie White.

One of Galway’s finest young bands, the city-based My Fellow Sponges, are taking part and there will be a new Macnas Percussive Ensemble, directed by former Saw Doctor Éimhín Craddock with a group of drummers from Cloughanover, who will join the existing Brass Ensemble to bring additional noise, fire and colour to Macnas’ performance.

With rehearsals entering their final week, 300 people are coming through the door of Macnas’ HQ in the Fisheries Field, beside NUIG, nightly from Monday through to Sunday, says the group’s Artistic Director Noeline Kavanagh.

And the fact that the main creative team of Savage Grace is made up of women makes her happy.

Noeline, who has designed and directed most of the company’s recent parades, has taken a back seat this year as the younger generation develops its creative vision.  She’s glad to advise and help with direction, but credits Orla Clogher with devising the concept and the creatures for Savage Grace and says Orla’s vision “is like Tim Burton meets the west of Ireland”.

Like Cherie White who has designed the costumes, Orla came through the Macnas Ensemble training facility which was established in 2010.

Macnas has had a tradition of training people since the community group was established in 1986 by Páraic Breathnach, Ollie Jennings, Pete Sammon and Tom Conroy, all of whom were involved with Galway Arts Festival at the time.  It’s no exaggeration to say the raggle-taggle group of employees, FÁS workers and volunteers based in the Fisheries Field, where they designed and created mythical stories and fantastical creatures, helped change Galway’s landscape.

Despite having almost no money, Macnas staged memorable parades – among them Gulliver and Tír Faoi Thoinn – during the annual Arts Festival, helping to lift the city from the economic gloom of the 1980s and enhancing Galway’s reputation as a hub for creative people.

Through the decades, Macnas has enjoyed good times – which include supporting U2’s Zooropa tour, and performing at festivals worldwide. There were tougher periods too – internal conflict and Arts Council grant cuts among then. And, back in the day, it had a more macho culture than in recent times.

Galway City woman Noeline Kavanagh, who cut her teeth as a volunteer with Macnas during its early years, before going on to study drama at Trinity College, has been Artistic Director since 2008 after periods spent working with theatre companies in Ireland and Europe, including the UK’s Welfare State and French company Theatre du Soleil.

Since returning, she has steered Macnas into new and exciting territory, travelling with shows to places as diverse as Russia and Texas.

It hasn’t always been easy, but this smart, warm woman who talks a mile a minute, has an ability to focus on the positive, believes totally in teamwork and is passionate about Macnas’ role in training the next generation of artists.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.