A NEW LIFE: Denis Conway tells Regina Daly giving up teaching for acting was not a choice, it was simply something he had to do
Denis Conway came to a crossroads in his life as he turned 30. He had been teaching for six years but found no fulfilment in his work. His real passion was acting which started as a hobby during his school days in Colaiste Therese in Greenmount, Cork.
It was 1991. There was no Celtic Tiger in sight. And career prospects in the performing arts were bleak. He sought his parents' advice. His mother was against it, believing acting should remain his hobby, but his father took a different view. "Does it make you happy?" he had asked... "then do it."
He confided to Denis that he had hated every second of the 45 years in his own job, but he had 13 children to think of, and in those days there were no choices. His father's advice gave him the courage to make the change.
Denis Conway is now a successful actor on the Dublin and Irish theatre circuit. His latest role is as Salieri, Mozart's great rival, in Ouroboros's production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (currently running in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College).
He has won several awards including Best Actor, for Richard 111, Irish Theatre Awards 2001; Best Actor for Castlerackrent's Jason, Cork Arts & Theatre Awards 1990; and numerous county and regional awards for his work with the local amateur drama group Macra na Feirme in Whitechurch, UCC Dramatic Society and the Cork-based Culture Through Theatre (CTT) group which was the genesis of Cork's Meridian Theatre.
He is also becoming a familiar face on our TV screens having played parts in Michael Collins, Intermission, RTÉ's Fair City and TG4's Tri Sceal.
He has recently returned from a six-month filming stint in Morroco, London and Thailand, having been cast as General Nearchus in Oliver Stone's film about Alexander the Great (also starring Colin Farrell).
It's a long way from teaching chemistry, and even further from the days he considered becoming a Presentation Brother. The Brothers dissuaded him from joining, suggesting it was really teaching he wanted.
As he hadn't applied to University College Cork, he took a job with CIÉ that year, cleaning platforms and working as a bus clerk in Cork's Capwell Station.
It was during this time he became involved in amateur drama, but he put it on hold for the next four years while studying for his science degree.
He took it up again during his H Dip year after his housemate Jack Healy (Meridian Theatre) told him he should be an actor. Despite enjoying acting for several months touring with CTT, he applied and was accepted for a teaching post in Zimbabwe where he remained for the next three years.
He returned to Ireland in 1988, lecturing part-time in Moylish Technical College in Limerick. He also returned to acting. Jack had written to tell him about the newly formed Meridian. And so over the next three years he divided his time between teaching in Limerick and acting in Cork.
By the time he was 30, he knew it had to be one or the other: He plumped for acting.
"The hardest thing was leaving Cork and moving to Dublin. The first five years were very tough," he remembers.
"Micheál Martin was in college with me and I was looking at him and others from UCC doing so well. I thought 'am I bonkers?'
"I didn't know what was driving me, but I knew I just had to keep going, even though I found acting hard, and still do."
During those difficult initial years in Dublin, he got by on his earnings from supply teaching, but very soon began to hate it.
"It became soul destroying for me and I stopped. I realised that if I didn't have any other option things might change. And they did."
Around this time, he met the director Michael Caven (Ouroboros) who gave him good roles in productions such as Ulysses, Mutibility and Macbeth.
His confidence grew and he felt empowered, leading to better offers and bigger roles. He also met his future wife Elaine who was very encouraging. They now have two young children - Oisin and Ele.
It seems once he fully closed the teaching door, several others opened.
What advice does he have for those in the throes of major change? "The day you give up on your dreams may be the very day something will happen," he says.
"I knew I had to follow my instinct... my gut, which is where creativity comes from. Everyone has a talent and it needs a creative outlet, whether it's fishing or writing. In my case the creative instinct was too strong to ignore. In the end I didn't really have a choice."