ARTSCAPE:IN ANOTHER blow to theatre education in Ireland, the new four-year level 8 (BA Hons) degree in theatre and drama Studies scheduled by the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) on this year's CAO list has been withdrawn, writes Mary Leland. Designed as an academic and practical course using the services and tuition facilities at the Cork School of Music (CSM), a constituent college of the institute, the course was due to begin this year.
A terse statement issued on Wednesday by Dr Brendan Murphy, president of CIT, says merely: “The existing education programmes in speech, drama and theatre studies will continue to be offered as heretofore. A proposed new degree programme in this area will not commence in the next academic year. CIT will continue to prioritise new course programmes mindful of the overall resources available to us.”
Decoded, that means that CIT did not have the finances to support the new degree but that the speech and drama courses already available at the school of music are continuing as usual. This is clear from the further statement issued on Thursday, in which the institute said its budgets had not been finalised when the new degree course was advertised in January. At that time it had planned that the budgets would be in line with previous years. “However, there were substantial downward adjustments to the budgets eventually allocated to all third-level institutions and CIT, in common with all of these other institutions, had to review its upcoming academic programme and plans for the year.”
The statement said the only way a new programme could be offered in these circumstances was if some existing ones were dropped, and the priority was to ensure that the needs of existing viable courses were met in the first instance. “It is also worth noting,” the institute added, “that any downward adjustments made in budgets were proportionally less at CIT Cork School of Music than elsewhere in the wider Institute.” The statement did not predict the future of the theatre and drama studies degree, saying only that its provision would be “entirely dependent” on the budgetary situation in 2010.
Of the six new CIT courses offered in the CAO handbook this year, this is the only one to be withdrawn. According to the CAO, such withdrawals are not unusual, but in a statement also issued in the past week the director of Cork School of Music, Dr Geoffrey Spratt, apologised for the inconvenience caused to the 138 students who applied for the course through the CAO.
Acknowledging that the provision of the course was part of the institute’s strategy for the Cork School of Music as articulated in the Langford Report by the school’s development group adopted last year by CIT’s governing body, Dr Spratt agreed that the Government had invested more than €60 million in the CSM’s new building and facilities and that those sophisticated facilities had been seen as underpinning the introduction of the drama and theatre studies degree.
As recently as January, Ed Riordan, CIT’s deputy registrar, endorsed the new theatre studies degree and quoted Dr Murphy as saying that while budgets might be tight it didn’t mean the institute would not be developing new programmes. They would be funded through efficiencies such as tighter allocations of teaching hours and no replacement of retiring staff.
It is understood that resources for the first year of the new degree course at CSM were to be achieved by cutting tuition and provision in certain areas throughout the school, but particularly by limiting new junior intake, now down from 160 to 60 pupils, and searching for what were described as “new funding models” to support first- and second-level education. This popular and competitive junior stream has been a contentious issue between CSM and its third-level parent body; because music education is a long-term process, this is the stream from which the school’s graduate population is grown and its survival is of great concern to Dr Spratt, his staff and the CSM parents’ association.
Yet despite anxieties about their future impact on the critical mass required by the school in terms of musical training, these economies were imposed and it is understood that teaching staff are operating technical services such as stage and auditorium lighting and sound and recording equipment in place of missing personnel.
In January, Riordan forecast a greater merging of CIT and CSM courses in terms of music-related computing, technology or multi-media studies, and explained that the new degree was to be one of a suite of additional courses introduced by CIT.
The course will now not be offered in 2010 either, which means that the sacrifice of staff, tuition and new intake made to allow its introduction have all gone for nothing, except to add to the fretfulness of the relationship between the Cork School of Music and its parent body.
Wexford Opera House has received a Royal Institute of British Architects award, with the jury commenting that “essentially this building is a triumph for its dedicated client group (Wexford Festival Trust), for the town of Wexford, and for Ireland and for the world of music. The critics of the international opera have yet to give their verdict, but one suspects the technical, acoustical and design team have delivered a small but perfectly formed operatic masterpiece.”
The annual award honours architectural standards of excellence, primarily in the UK, listing only six buildings in their international section as worthy of the prize. London-based Keith Williams of Keith Williams Architects was lead nominee for the project, which was designed and project-managed with OPW.
For tours of Wexford Opera House, see wexfordoperahouse.com or tel. 053-9122400.
Award tally: At this stage the Druid and New York’s Atlantic Theater production of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan has won five awards out of 11 nominations for New York theatre awards. Last week Aaron Monaghan won an OBIE for his performance, and the entire cast got an Outstanding Ensemble Award at the Drama Desk Awards. (These follow David Pearse’s Outer Critics’ Circle Award and Aaron Monaghan and Kerry Condon’s Lucille Lortel Awards this month.) Meantime Playboy’s UK tour is getting a great reaction with four-star reviews from the Guardian, the Times and the Daily Telegraph as well as a Brighton Argus Angel Award at the Brighton Festival.
Good news this week for artist Sarah Browne, whose piece for the Venice Bienale has been bought by Kildare County Council, in advance of the opening of the Irish Pavilion in Venice next week. Commissioner Caoimhín Corrigan is particularly delighted as it gives the Irish representation at Venice an added impact for international curators and presenters looking at the work.
artscape@irishtimes.com
