VOICES I had a fascination and love of the theatre before I thought of it as a possible way of life. My first memory of being at a live performance was of sitting on a family friend’s knee at a ‘Dubliners’ concert in The Stadium on Dublin’s South Circular Road when I was no more than about five. I attended many of their concerts thereafter and always found the atmosphere exciting and urgent. As a child my sister and I were fortunate in that our parents had befriended many people in the world of entertainment and would very often get to meet them post performance. Memories of meeting Maureen Potter or Danny Cummins after a ‘Panto’ at the Gaiety are lovely to look back on. Jesus Christ Superstar at Goffs in Kildare or meeting B.B. King after a concert at the stadium are other memories that are still vivid in my mind but it wasn’t until I saw my first ‘straight’ play, The Field at The Abbey Theatre, that I think the seed was sown in regard to what I would love to do for a living. There is a young son in the play and I remember looking at the performance the actor gave and thinking, “I could do that!”. Thirty years later and I’m still trying to, ‘do that!’ A life in the arts can be very frustrating at times, enforced periods of unemployment, rejection and just plain bad luck or bad timing but when on occasion and the stars are aligned, there is no better feeling than connecting with another actor and the audience in telling a story and combining to capture a shared experience that is hard to beat. I will continue to pursue this life as an actor simply because I have some indescribable need to do it and I’ve learned that any relative success comes not from talent, which will get you only so far, or hard work which is vital but most of all through perseverance.
Phelim Drew
Phelim Drew will peform in Joxer Daly Esq. See page 13 for more details.
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