Panto is busy arts centre’s second main income source

The chair of the board of directors at Mullingar Arts Centre, John McGrath, has revealed that the annual pantomime is the second most important income stream for the facility, behind only the contribution awarded annually by Westmeath County Council.

He stated, however, that the lack of support from the Arts Council is a sore point: "The Arts Council gave us a grant of only €15,000 in 2019. We were turned down for a grant in 2020," he said, going on to state that: "The rationale for the grant refusal was nonsensical and undermined the integrity of the centre and the professional theatre practitioners it engages with regularly."

Speaking at a meeting of the county council, and continuing with his thanks to the county council, Mr McGrath said its support isn’t just financial but also comes in the form of building maintenance and IT support – "without which life would be virtually impossible", he stated.

Mr McGrath said the annual grant from the council represents about 12% of turnover at the arts centre.

In just one week in January, 3050 people participated in performing arts activities at the centre. Mr McGrath said the Arts Council believes Mullingar Arts Centre cannot provide a quality art experience to such large numbers as it does: "The fact that this project still runs and participation rates increase does not support this assertion," he said.

"The number of children, young people, adults, schools and community groups that we work with and support on a daily and yearly basis is a testament to the high quality projects and engagement that occurs.

"If it wasn’t valued, participants would simply not return or continue. Without a doubt, there is no centre in the country close to our figures."

A difficulty with which the centre is having to contend is the pressure on space, Mr McGrath told the meeting, bemoaning the lack of storage positions for props, costumes, instruments and even chairs.

Now open for 25 years, the centre is, he says, showing evidence of wear and tear to the extent that the retractable seating in the theatre and the bar floors will need to be replaced soon.

In his presentation to members, Mr McGrath revealed that over the course of the year the centre is host to over 150 individual shows covering all genres.

The centre also runs a classic recital programme “ as often as possible” in rural churches.

There are three dance schools operating out of the centre, and in addition to the students who attend those schools each week, the arts centre provides dance outreach to 14 primary schools in the midlands.

The school musicals programme had 15 schools participate in the musical ‘Joseph’ in January and a further nine schools commenced rehearsals in February for a production in May and June of this year: "In the five years preceding the pandemic, in excess of 5000 schoolchildren took part in the shows in the centre through this scheme," he said.

The Mullingar Student Players group has staged 19 musicals and 15 plays at the centre and other theatre companies there include Little Brother; the Rail Theatre Company and the Mullingar Musical Society

Under the Mullingar Voices scheme, a music teacher visits schools over a period of 12 weeks and trains their choir to sing songs which are all composed by Mullingar people. The participants then take part in a joint concert.

To provude children in rural schools with an opportunity to have contact with the arts, rural stage schools are run; and ‘The Academy’ at the centre provides classes in dance, drama and musical theatre for children aged 3-18.

The centre is home to three choirs – the gospel choir which has 35 members; the Sweet Tunes choir, which has more than 70 members who are active retired people; and a youth choir.

"Providing access to groups with additional needs has become a priority of the centre," Mr McGrath said.

"From the moment we started to provide outreach, we established a great rapport with the various organizations in the town that care for individuals with additional needs."