Threshold Ceremony Souvenir Programme

Lyric Theatre

HRESHOLD CEREMONY 10 September 2009

thresh•old / threshold; NAmE hold/ noun 1 the floor or ground at the bottom of a doorway, considered as the entrance to a building or room 2 the level at which something starts to happen or have an effect 3 [usually sing.] the point just before a new situation, period of life, etc. begins

WELCOME

THRESHOLD CEREMONY Thursday 10 September 2009 at 12 noon Lyric Theatre, Ridgeway Street, Belfast

Forty-four years ago, in June 1965, supporters of the Lyric Players gathered on this site to celebrate the laying of the Foundation Stone of the original Lyric Theatre. Today we are proud to be unveiling our new Threshold Stone. I am delighted that Seamus Heaney – poet, Nobel Laureate and long-time Lyric supporter – has agreed that his words will greet audiences as they enter the new theatre. As a young, up and coming poet Seamus wrote Peter Street at Bankside to mark the opening of the original theatre. Today we celebrate this key milestone in the construction of our new home with the final stanza of that poem ‘chiselled’ forever into the theatre’s sandstone threshold. To Seamus, for his continued support, I extend the Lyric’s sincere thanks.

Host Dan Gordon

Writers are the lifeblood of theatre and through the decades the Lyric has staged the work of countless men and women. I am very pleased that many of them are with us to mark this occasion – and I am delighted too that many of the actors, directors and fellow theatre professionals who have worked with the company in the past are also here as part of the wider Lyric family. Of course, today is as much about the future as it is about the past. We are properly informed by, and indebted to, what has gone before – but the unveiling of this Threshold Stone is a statement of intent for the theatre’s future. In our new home we can introduce more people to live theatre than ever before and we can stage world class productions of important work in a way that, up to now, we might only have dreamed of.

Chairman’s Address Mark Carruthers Fleance

By Michael Longley

Today we truly are on the threshold of something wonderful. Thank-you for your continuing support – we wouldn’t be where we are without you.

A note from Brian Friel Read by Geraldine Hughes

Mark Carruthers, Chairman, Lyric Theatre It is essential to nurture the wealth of artistic talent which we have here in Northern Ireland and investment in culture and arts brings many dividends. There is the benefit which investment brings in relation to physical, economic and social regeneration. There is also the impact on the economy, the tourism industry and an enhanced quality of life for all. This is the rationale behind the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure’s investment of over £9m in this project. The aim is to make the new Lyric a first class facility at its spiritual home on Ridgeway Street.

The benefits of this substantial investment will be experienced not just in Belfast, but throughout Northern Ireland and beyond. I am fully supportive of the work of the Lyric Theatre. It has acted as a springboard for many famous artists over the years and I am confident that the new Lyric will maintain its tradition of developing new local talent and producing the stars of tomorrow.

Minister for Culture, Arts & Leisure, Nelson McCausland MLA

Limen

By Neil Martin Peter Street at Bankside

By Seamus Heaney Unveiling by Seamus Heaney of the Threshold Stone for the Lyric Theatre Peter Street at Bankside was written in 1965 for the founding of the first Lyric Theatre on Ridgeway Street. Peter Street, a carpenter, built the Globe in London where many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. This stanza from the poem, engraved in sandstone, will mark the threshold to the new theatre: I dedicate to speech, to pomp and show, This playhouse re-erected for the players.

I set my saw and chisel in the wood To joint and panel solid metaphors: The walls a circle, the stage under a hood Here all the world’s an act, a word, an echo.

As the longest-running principal sponsor of the Lyric Theatre, the Arts Council is pleased to extend its support by investing a further £2.4million in the theatre’s new state-of-the-art premises. Over the last forty years the Lyric has provided an outstanding cultural programme for audiences, generating some of the most stimulating and groundbreaking theatre ever seen in Ireland. As Northern Ireland’s only producing theatre, the Lyric is a key partner in the Arts Council’s strategy for building new audiences and nurturing local talent from across the drama community; from actors to writers, directors, designers and technical crew. The opening of the Lyric’s new building in 2011 will mark a much anticipated new chapter in the theatre’s history. It will meet the growing demands of local audiences and provide Belfast with an outstanding new drama space of which it can truly be proud.

Entertainment in the marquee, Lower Botanic Park, provided by Grimes & McKee MELO String Quartet

Rosemary Kelly OBE, Chairman of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland As Lord Mayor of Belfast I applaud the contribution which the Lyric Theatre has already made to arts, culture and community development throughout our city and across Northern Ireland. By supporting the exciting future for this landmark building, Belfast City council is taking action today which will become tomorrow’s legacy. This project is a wonderful example of how we can strive to achieve my vision of a Belfast without barriers where everyone, whatever their background, can embrace the diversity of our city’s cultural offering. The social, cultural and economic benefits from investment in the new theatre will be enormous. This will be a source of great civic pride to the people of Belfast - a lasting legacy for current and future generations. Belfast is now recognised as a truly cosmopolitan, European and international city. This new theatre is proof of our increasing confidence.

Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Naomi Long

Patron Liam Neeson OBE Board of Trustees Professor Sir George Bain, Maire Campbell, Mark Carruthers (Chairman), Philip Cheevers, Stephen Douds, Henry Elvin, Dan Gordon, Patricia McBride, Sid McDowell CBE Senior Executives Chief Executive - Ciáran McAuley Artistic Director - Richard Croxford Development Director – Angela McCloskey

Programme Notes

DONORS AND SPONSORS Let paudeens play at pitch and toss, Look up in the sun’s eye and give What the exultant heart calls good That some new day may breed the best Because you gave, not what they would, But the right twigs for an eagle’s nest!

Look up in the Sun’s Eye, a line from To a wealthy man who promised a second subscription to the Dublin Municipal Gallery if it were proved the people wanted pictures by W B Yeats, is engraved on the foundation stone of the original theatre. The stone has been carefully preserved and will take pride of place, along with the new threshold stone, in the new building.

The staff and Trustees of the Lyric would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to all of the many donors and sponsors who are supporting the capital campaign:

LIMEN for solo cello A number of key factors informed the writing of this short piece – Seamus Heaney’s poem Peter Street at Bankside, a site visit a few weeks back to the Lyric and the word of today - “threshold”. I have tried to capture elements of each in the music.

Threshold is a fascinating word and concept – a crossing from one place to another, where the crossing applies, Janus-like, in both directions - from outside to in and from inside to out, from familiar to new, from the real to a suspended reality, “where all the world’s an act”, to quote Heaney. Passing through a door was a very important thing in Roman mythology, and the Latin for threshold is limen. Psychology tells us that the liminal state is characterized by ambiguity and openness - one’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent during this period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behaviour are relaxed - a situation which can lead to new perspectives. This too could effectively be an explanation of theatre itself.

I visited the theatre site a few weeks back and as I stood looking out across the building work, I was struck by how balletic the activity of the workers seemed to me. Toiling independently of each other and yet in an almost graceful and choreographed pattern it was hypnotic, dreamlike.

I have taken four notes to represent the four corners of the threshold stone, and have allowed them, dancer-like, to develop and climb, to fall and rise again, their mantric and echoing ground-bass figure reaffirming their foundation.

Neil Martin Acknowledgments The staff and Trustees of the Lyric would like to thank all those who have generously provided full and part sponsorship-in-kind for today’s event, including: Diageo Coca-Cola North Down Marquees

Darragh Neely Design Dorman & Sons John Harrison Photography

Yellow Door Aiken PR Production Services Ireland

And special thanks to Hillmount Nursery Centre, Mike McLaughlin, Ivor Wilson, the Gilbert-Ash construction team, Belfast City Council Parks Department and to all our volunteer staff for helping out today.

... and the many hundreds of Bronze and Silver Supporting Cast members and ‘Name a Seat’ donors who have all played a vital part.

Special thanks to our many friends and colleagues in the arts world who have given so generously of their time and talent to create and perform for fundraising events since the start of the campaign in 2003, including Brian Kennedy, Neil Martin and Neil Shawcross.

EMPOWER, INSPIRE, ENGAGE, ENTERTAIN

The Development Story So Far

This story is ordinary in many ways. And extraordinary in one. There weren’t many people from the part of Belfast I grew up in who made it to university. In the last couple of years of the sixties Belfast was burning again, the flames fanned by bitter sectarian strife. For those of us who were teenagers then, it was easy to be sucked into that fire. Tribal identity has a strong pull. And I was no more immune to it than anyone else. But in April 1969 I was dragged by a teacher to the newly opened Lyric Theatre. I was sixteen, and probably went kicking and screaming. The play was Sheridan’s The School for Scandal. And it changed my life. The thrill of live performance. The sense of that special place that a theatre is. In those days the buses went off early, but I remember walking home on air. And after that I went back again and again.

The theatre gave me a sort of literacy. It opened my eyes and it gave me other alternatives to dream about. That’s what theatre does best. It teaches you to dream with your eyes open. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

1951 Lyric Players founded with the staging of a production of Robert Farren’s Lost Light, which played to an invited audience in the consulting room of Dr Pearse and Mary O’Malley’s house at 117 Lisburn Road. The stage was the recess of a large bow-window.

Professor David Johnston, Playwright

1960 The Lyric Players Theatre formally established and registered as a non-profit making Association and Charitable Trust. The search began for a site for the company’s first purpose-built theatre.

1952 The O’Malleys and the Lyric Players moved to Derryvolgie Avenue, staging plays in their new studio theatre - a 10ft x 12ft stage area within a converted stable loft attached to the house. Four years later, the studio was extended with the addition of a green room, dressing rooms, balcony and outside stairs. Drama School opened.

1957 A literary magazine, Threshold, was launched publishing the work of established writers as well as new young writers and critics.

1963 New Gallery opened in premises on the Grosvenor Road under the guidance of Alice Berger Hammerschlag. Belfast Academy of Music founded.

1965 Foundation stone laid by the poet Austin Clarke on Ridgeway Street site on June 12th, the Centenary Year of the birth of William Butler Yeats. A fundraising target of £110,000 was set, but raising the money proved problematic and the original designs were revised. Two years later, it was decided to begin building on the basis of the resources available, just over £70,000.

1968 New theatre opens. The first productions staged were the four Yeats plays of The Cuchulain Cycle, directed by Mary O’Malley.

1977 Extension to theatre with improvements in stage areas, scenery dock and backstage accommodation.

2003 Open competition to design a new home for the Lyric won by O’Donnell + Tuomey. Major funding campaign launched to raise the capital funding.

2008 Theatre finally closed its doors to the public with a glittering gala on 13 January. A private gathering of major players in the theatre’s history is held on stage shortly afterwards. The Lyric achieved 95% of the fund-raising target and was given the green-light by DCAL and ACNI for construction of the new theatre to commence. The original theatre is demolished and the site cleared.

2009 Construction begins. Threshold Ceremony held 10 September. £800,000 left to raise. Opening scheduled for Spring 2011.

Working with young people has been a core part of the Lyric’s remit since the company was founded. Our arts-based education programmes create unique opportunities for young people to interact together outside traditional community boundaries. Participation in, and enjoyment of, drama teaches the importance of team spirit and discipline. It encourages the development of creativity and self confidence, and allows young people to explore important issues in a safe and supportive environment. Drama is a means to forging lifelong friendships that transcend religious, social and cultural divides and this is essential to building a peaceful and prosperous future. One of the primary motivations for our redevelopment is the opportunity to build a series of education spaces within the theatre, dedicated to nurturing and celebrating the creative talents of young people of all abilities and backgrounds.

“Great theatre has the capacity to touch our lives in extraordinary ways and for over forty years the Lyric has been an indispensable part of Northern Ireland’s cultural life – empowering, inspiring, engaging and entertaining. During my early career this theatre was like a beacon of light and hope six nights a week, doing everything from Shakespeare to Yeats to O’Casey with a group of actors and actresses that affected me very deeply and still do.”

Liam Neeson, Patron, Lyric Theatre

our VISION FOR THE FUTURE

The Lyric is sited between the characteristic grid pattern of the surrounding Belfast brick streetscape and the serpentine parkland setting of the river Lagan. Our architectural design concept responds to these conditions by housing each of the three principal functional elements of the building within its own distinctive brick box, with the public circulation spaces and staircases wrapping around the fixed forms of the theatre, the studio and the rehearsal space, standing on the sloping ground of the site like rocks in a stream. The skyline of the building will display the constituent ingredients of the conceptual design. The solid sculpted brick volumes linked by transparent, permeable public spaces are intended to visually connect the street through the Lyric woods to the continuous flowing line of the river through the city. All the building materials are selected to endure and will be crafted to weather with age.

The main auditorium houses a 390 seat theatre in a single steep rake, the body of the audience not broken by balconies, with the actors in the same room as the audience. Designed to ensure optimum sightlines, the seating layout is creased along one line, folding slightly, like an open hand to hold the audience, focused on the stage but within sight of each other. The space has been designed to encourage and intensify the intimacy, which was the most successful characteristic of the old theatre. The other auditorium is a six metre high brick ‘empty space’ warehouse space. Its flexible layout provides for end stage, traverse, thrust, in the round, cabaret and promenade performance possibilities. It has been sited along the street frontage with a picture window to provide visual communication between street and theatre activities.

Brick, timber and stone form the fabric of the internal public spaces and bespoke furniture throughout the building. The public approach up a gently rising sandstone stair from the street and enter a dynamic foyer space leading from the box office to the bar, with a flowing stairway to the upper foyer which overlooks the River. The spiralling circulation pattern empathises the generating force of the performance spaces at the centre of the plan.

Design Statement - O’Donnell + Tuomey, Architects

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