By Paddy McCarthy
I was Out&About on Sunday last and visited the Irish American Center in Mineola, Long Island for a benefit for the Boylan family all the way from County Monaghan, living in one of my favorite places Williston Park. Brendan Boylan, husband of Amanda who is currently suffering with breast cancer reached out to the Irish community as the family has incurred some very major medical expenses. Now, the best part of this beautiful story is that people came out in droves from all over to support this cause. I have been to a lot of different events in my life and never saw such appreciation from the Irish community as I did last Sunday. The donations for the family were just fabulous I might tell yea and again the turnout was super.
I’ve never seen so many prizes that were laid out from one side of the hall to the other and it seems that just everybody bought tickets for both the admission and for the raffle tickets. Great people and it was so nice to see how we support each other in bad times and good with most of the audience from all parts of Ireland and of course Irish Americans who came together to help each other, now where would yea get it?
I met with lots of people that I know very well who I haven’t seen for over a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and you could see everybody was carefully with masks and distancing. I had the pleasure speaking to Brendan Boylan and the poor man was just overwhelmed with what was accomplished to support his wife and family. It was nice to see some Irish personalities like the one and only Eileen Cronin and another radio disc jockey Tony Jackson and of course the painter herself, Noelle Clancy and her partner Bill Russo.
The woman that does everything to make every event at the Irish American Society Center successful is Betty McLoughlin who together with all her volunteers made this event a GREAT success. Look when we all work together no one can stop us, remember what I said no one because I was personally so proud of all of them. As we say, you can’t beat the Irish.
There is no stopping Michael Mellamphy as he takes over as the new Artistic Director of the Origin Theatre Company. He has big shoes to jump into, no less than those of the great George C. Heslin who I might say is a hard act to follow but I know that Michael will be capable to do it as we are all pulling for him.
Mellamphy, who co-curated (with the actor Sarah Street) the 13th Annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival in January, takes over the artistic leadership of the New York-based company, now in its 18th consecutive season, with a strong mandate from the board to continue to develop Origin’s unique mix of shows and events that introduce consequential contemporary voices from Europe to New York audiences.
Mellamphy’s first moves will be to produce three events and productions taking place in May and June which are familiar components of Origin’s seasonal programming, but which will bear his unique stamp as a New York-based actor, theatre producer, and business owner.
“Having worked with the Origin team on an all-virtual 1st Irish Festival, which far-exceeded expectations and reached a significantly wider audience than past festivals, I am confident we can produce powerful theatre under these very unique and changing pandemic circumstances,” Mellamphy reports.
Starting May 9, Origin will produce a scaled-down version the 3rd annual European Month of Culture in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States; on Sunday June 13, an innovative live-and-virtual version of Origin’s immersive Bloomsday Breakfast celebration will be produced with Blooms Tavern (the 7th annual edition did take place last year in a virtual format); and later in June a thoughtful and highly relevant new play from the Netherlands about racial profiling, “A Kid Like Rishi” – that was scheduled to premiere last fall – will be brought to life for its American premiere as a radio play production cast and produced in New York.
“Michael Mellamphy’s expert curation – with Sarah Street – of this year’s Origin 1st Irish, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt what a masterful producer, instigator and team builder he is,” commented Carletta Downs, Origin’s board chair. “We know from first-hand experience of his commitment to Origin, to our community and of his always good-natured approach to his fellow artists and collaborators. We couldn’t be happier to have convinced Mick to lead Origin and to continue the incredible legacy of the company’s founder George C. Heslin.”
A native of Cork Ireland, Mellamphy is a busy New York actor who is a member of the Irish Repertory Theatre and a founder of The Pigeon Theatre Company, as well as a former owner of the Irish bar Ryan’s Daughter where he produced a number of immersive theatre productions. Before helming (with Street) the 13th annual Origin 1st Irish, which hosted 20 virtual events and showcased the work of 34 contemporary Irish playwrights, Mellamphy had already become a familiar 1st Irish presence, winning two Best Actor awards in previous years.
In addition to making numerous television appearances over the years he is also the performance capture artist of the cheeky Irish gunslinger Sean MacGuire from Rockstar’s hugely popular video game “Red Dead Redemption 2”.
“Using technology in theatre production is at the forefront of my thinking now,” says Mellamphy. “Covid 19 has thrown many challenges at our community and many of us, including Origin, have responded creatively. I feel strongly we must get back to in-person productions but in the meantime, we can use everything we’ve learned over the last 12 months to create new paradigms, mix live and recorded elements, even mix formats like social media with live theatre.”
See you all again next week when I am out and about….