THE opening night of Fox And Crow, the Gaiety School of Acting's end of year show at Project at The Mint, was an evening when rising stars of the theatre met the established favourites. Michael Colgan and Marie Rooney came along from the Gate and chatted with the school's executive director, Patrick Sutton. Following on from the showcase held at the Gate a couple of weeks ago, director Alan Stanford decided to use four of the recently graduated students in his forthcoming production of Lady Windemere's Fan.
Director Ben Barnes took a night off from rehearsals for Juno And The Paycock, which will open shortly in the Abbey, he then moves on to the first English production of John B. Keane's Sive, first at the Walford Palace and then on to London. Actors' agents checking out the talent were Lisa Cooke of the Lisa Richards agency, Dorothy McGabhana, Julian Baldwin and Theresa Nolan.
Suzie Kennedy, artistic director of TEAM theatre and Fiach Mac Conghail, director of the Project, both showed their support. Mac Conghail was just back from the Venice Biennale and was full of tales about the Irish pavilion and the 100 strong party attended by many of the country's arts administrators and artists. Gavin Kostick, who wrote Fox And Crow, is now working on a film script with Michael O Connell, producer of Joe My Friend, while Caroline McSweeney, who co directed the play with Shut ton, is looking forward to spending more time with her own theatre company, Locus.