Magic arts

It’s inspiring to talk with anyone who is totally impassioned by their involvement in the arts. And that is definitely the case with Teerth Chungh, who is the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Draiocht Arts Centre in Blanchardstown. Teerth was originally a student of drama, and it shows when she focuses on the forthcoming Draiocht presentation of two inter-linked plays on a double bill, Rita, Sue And Bob Too, by Andrea Dunbar and A State Affair, by Robin Soans. They are being presented by the Out of Joint theatre company and directed by Max Stafford Clark who also directed Hinterland at the Abbey, though we won’t hold that against him. Either way, Teerth sure is excited about her upcoming double bill.

“Well, Rita Sue And Bob Too was written by Andrea Dunbar when she was just

eighteen in 1982,” she explains. “And it

follows the lives of two schoolgirls who grow up on a Bradford estate and it chronicles their affair with a married man. But what was intriguing about this play at the time – apart from the fact that its author was only 18! – is that it was set around the early Thatcher years and it captures the mood of the country at the time. So it has a political stance because, obviously, the early Thatcher years were full of expectation and promise. And a tremendous anticipation of not only what the Conservative government might do but also what a woman Prime Minister would do.”

Teerth herself was living in Britain in those years.

“In 1982 I was just starting drama school. I can relate to it on that level,” she says. “But what fascinates me even more is that eighteen years later Max Stafford Clark, who had originally directed Rita Sue and Bob Too decided to go back to Bradford and look at the economic conditions there so A State Affair is actually a record of what they found in the estates around Bradford and Leeds where Andrea grew up and had written the play. So the two do work very well as a double bill. Because one is setting the scene for what follows 18 years later.”

Theatre, of course, is only one aspect of Draiocht’s output in terms of the Arts. Just as staging plays is only part of Teerth’s workload.

“My position here is twofold, actually,” she explains.”It’s the executive management of the entire building itself and what is contained in it and also programming the main space and the studio. And I oversee the visual arts and the outreach in education programme.”

And a music programme is part of Teerth’s gameplan. “Quite a bit of jazz!” she says. She also insists that, operating in an outer suburb of Dublin, they very much see Draiocht as a regional venue.

“We take great pains to position ourselves that way,” she says.”Because we have a tremendous audience space here and we find there are particular shows that you put on the computer and they will sell very quickly. And even though other shows are more difficult to see, the point is we can put on more challenging and innovative work and hope that, too, draws in the audiences.

“And we try to put on a really good mix of International and local work because we know one does balance out the other and that people will come by association sometimes. So if they have come to see a show like, say, Rita Sue And Bob Too we will suddenly see them turning up at a gallery opening.”

And drawing the general public into the whole wide world of the arts at every level surely is the ultimate aim of any Arts centre?

“Absolutely. And that is what I hope we are achieving here in Blanchardstown.”