20 January 2012 (Theatre Interview)

Words: Caomhan Keane

The Irish Times Theatre Awards revealed their nominations last Saturday, releasing the three judges from the unmerciful whip of unwavering, choiceless theatre attendance. I caught up with one of them, the lovely Christine Monk, during her weekly shop, where she took me into the room where the decisions were made, informing me as to how they whittled down the 150 or so shows they saw throughout the year to the lucky four per category.

How did you get involved with the Irish Times Theatre Awards?

I've been involved with the awards for the past ten years on the event side of things so I had a sense of what it was about. I knew the team and one day last January I got the magical call from Gerry Smith. Which I did go away and think about for 24 hours.

What went through your mind in that time?

The fact I had a 3 year old son that I wouldn't get to put to bed for a year. Also I had to ask my husband if he wanted to babysit for 12 months.

What criteria must be met for a show to be considered for an ITTA?

It has to be a new production, not judged in a previous year, presented by an Irish company, that is fully professional (people getting paid) and that had a minimum of five performances.

After that we were completely free to interpret things in whatever way we want. We had lovely discussions on what constitutes a supporting actor. How big does the role have to be? If somebody comes on and does one line and does it so brilliantly that they change the whole course of the play is that as deserving as someone who was on the whole time?

How was your approach to theatre affected by your role as a judge? What questions did you have to ask yourself?

The interesting questions were around design and lighting. You really had to say to yourself 'how does the sound design work in this', 'how is it contributing and not contributing', etc. With writing, 'is this of merit? 'Should it be a short story?' 'Is there a reason it's been put on the stage'?

I did get an entirely new respect for the theatre reviewers. We didn't see a lot more than the major theatre reviewers would have to go to. The idea of having to do that year after year AND having your views on the show be so incredibly public. I mean, we don't have to say what was the worst. I also learnt that going to a lot of theatre isn't as easy as it looks. There is an awful lot of juggling, watching all the invites pour in and making sure you reply.

How did you narrow the field?

We eliminated as we went. We were going to meet every eight weeks but I think we ended up meeting every 12. What we would do at these meetings is discuss what productions would go forward or what productions wouldn't be eligible for any of the awards. So when we got to a final nomination meeting in December we knew what we were dealing with. We weren't looking at the whole year and going 'where do we start.'

Tell us about the final day. The day you finalised the list?

We decided we would bring our own personal nominations for each award in. We put them all on the table and went from there.

We took it category by category, in the order that they are presented on the night. So we started with the design categories and worked our way up the Best Production. As we talked about the category there might be something that nobody had put down and the more we talked about it the more we realised it really resonated.

You said that you went in with your individual lists. How much did they coalesce with the other judge's choices?

There were things in there that wouldn't have been my choice. I won some and I lost some. We all did. The things that are in there because of me I am really proud of. But nothing is in there that anyone disagreed with. Nothing is in there that some one said, 'I don't want that but I'll go with it because it is 2 to 1.' We stand behind our final choices 100%.

In the end it comes down to three people and there opinions. It's the best actor or whatever, according to those three people who you hope will represent the word on the street.

Tell me about the judge's choice award?

The criteria for that award are something that can't be nominated in any other category. You can't nominate the Lyric theatre for opening a brilliant venue. You can nominate its productions but not the theatre. And we all thought that Ann Clarke is a one-woman band, producing some of the best productions in the country and internationally. The achievement of doing by oneself is pretty phenomenal.

Val Sherlock is brilliant. He does all the hair and makes up for the Abbey, the Gate, the operas, and Rough magic. There is no hair and makeup category because he would probably win it every year.

You said in the Irish Times that it hasn't been a good year for writing?

It was more that there wasn't a big list of contenders for The New Play award. In some categories we had 10 or more possibilities, but in the writing category our choices seemed quite clear. The writing we chose was excellent. But it came from a smaller field than usual.

Mentorship was something the judges mentioned. Do you think that young companies want mentorship?

I'm not sure it's the right word. What we (or I anyway) meant was encouragement, support and most of all funding. Space to experiment and space to get it wrong. I think that exists in all kinds of forms already, from Theatre Forum to MAKE to Project Brand New to the Fringe. I hope it continues and that new ways and platforms for younger artists to break through continue to be created.

Full list of nominations here.

Caomhan Keane's response to the nominations here.

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