MICHAEL EGAN COLLECTION:
GUIDE AND INVENTORY
SPEC.CMS.114
(Compiled by Elva Griffith, 2004)
INTRODUCTION
Michael Egan, Mick, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1954. He was a founding member of City Workshop, a Dublin community based theatre group established in the early 1980's under the umbrella of the North City Centre Community Action Project with Peter Sheridan as Director. This was a pioneering group in terms of both community theatre and community education. It was structured around the production of three plays which charted the history of the north inner city focusing on three distinct periods: the 1916 Rising and its aftermath, the decline of the docks in the late 1950's and 60's, and the heroin epidemic of the early 80's.
Mick was actively involved doing research, acting, and writing for the group. He wrote A Hape a’ Junk and co-wrote with Peter Sheridan The Kips, The Digs, The Village, two of the plays in a trilogy. This trilogy toured many community venues and professional theatres throughout Ireland, and was presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1983. It also ran at the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Besides the major plays, which City Workshop presented, he was also involved in writing shorter pieces of topical interest to the community, exploring issues like welfare rights, the justice system, and teenage pregnancy.
In 1984 he received a Dublin Arts Council Bursary in Literature.
From 1984 to 1992 Mick worked as a full time professional actor. He performed at the Olympia, Gate, Focus, and Project theatres in Dublin, at the Cork Opera House, and at many smaller venues around Ireland. He toured to the Edinburgh Festival, the Israeli Theatre Festival, to the Royal Court Theatre in London, and to Broadway. Plays in which he has performed include King Lear, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, La Ronde, Juno and the Paycock, Blood Brothers, War, Hatchet, The Risen People, Waiting for Godot, and A Bedtime Story. Mick has also worked in Pooka Theatre for children as puppeteer and actor. Film work during this period includes Far and Away, The Courier, Sometime City, Pigs, Caught and, for television, No Comment, Inside.
In 1992 he started working as a volunteer to facilitate a drama workshop in the Merchants’ Quay Project. He co-wrote with Thomas Larkin and directed Scrooge Panto, which was performed by the drama group in St. Anthony’s Theatre.
In October 1993 he founded and became Artistic Director of the Q.T. Merchants, a drama group based within the Merchants’ Quay Project. This was a client centered project set up as a response to the increase in illegal drug use and HIV in the south inner city. The programme was designed to train workers in acting skills and stagecraft leading to the creation and production of plays, provide a forum for second chance education through related personal development, and provide a safe group environment for people stabilizing their lives after drug dependency.
Mick wrote and produced the following plays for the Q.T. Merchants: The Drama Group Goes To Monaghan (1994); Sex and the Saints (1994); Laughers and Screamers (1994); Death of St. Francise (1995); Everybody Get Stoned (1995)
In 1995 he produced and directed the live arts activities for A Shot in The Arts, an exhibition featuring performance pieces, at the Guinness Hop Store.
Mick wrote and directed the short film Thirst in 1996. This film had its first viewing at the Dublin Film Festival in March 1997. Thirst was selected by RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) and shown in their Short Cuts program. It was further selected and shown in film festivals in Derry, Galway, London, and Athens.
The OSU Libraries acquired this archive from Mick Egan in 2002.
MICHAEL EGAN COLLECTION -
CATALOGUE OF INVENTORY, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Detailed Listing/ Box and Folder Listing:
Box 1
Folder Number #1-22- A Hape a’ Junk. Holograph draft fragments and notes. See also SPEC.MMS.295. 198 leaves.
- Welfare sketch. City Workshop, directed by Peter Sheridan, 1981. This was Mick’s first dramatic piece and was performed for years at numerous community venues. Typescript and holograph. 12 leaves.
- Pub sketch. City Workshop, directed by Peter Sheridan, 1981/1982. Holograph. 11 leaves.
- Pregnant. City Workshop sketch for community venue, directed by Peter Sheridan, 1982. Development of a Shane Connaughton script. Holograph. 4 leaves.
- Street Theatre sketch (fragment). City Workshop, 1984. Typescript. 1 leaf.
- Sketch performed at Project Theatre, 1985. Typescript with holograph additions. 5 leaves.
- Laughers and Screamers notebook containing: first draft of prologue, directing notes during rehearsals; notes and bits of script for The Drama Group goes to Monaghan; holograph notes and draft fragments, first draft of epilogue, and typescripts for Laughers & Screamers. 103 leaves.
- Programme for Laughers & Screamers; playbill for The Drama Group Goes to Monaghan
- Newsclipping reviews: Sex and the Saints; Laughers and Screamers. 2 clippings.
- Euro Drug Week News. Issue no.1, August 1994: article re Sex and the Saints and the Merchants’ Quay Project
- Two newsclippings and six photographs: A Shot in the Arts
- Three photographs: Merchants’ Quay Project groups
- Laughers & Screamers. Typescript, signed.
- Laughers & Screamers. Holograph. September 1994. 12 leaves.
- Laughers & Screamers. Holograph notes relating to prologue and epilogue. 9 leaves.
- Correspondence: from The Royal Court Theatre (12 March 1984) to M. Egan; from The National Theatre Society Limited (17 November 1993) to M. Egan; from M. Egan (1994, undated) to Allen Ginsberg; from Temple Bar Properties (30 August 1994) to M. Egan. 4 leaves.
- Killincarrig Fox, 1995/1996. Unpublished. Typescript with few holograph additions and original color illustrations. 10 leaves.
- Written for a debate on abortion. Typescript. 2 leaves.
- Script performed in Merchants’ Quay commissioned by Fiana Gail, 1996. Typescript. 3 leaves.
- Script performed in Adam & Eve church by the T. Merchants, 1997. Typescript. 4 leaves.
- Thirst. Typescript. 10 leaves.
Box 2
Folder Number #22-27- Thirst: an original screenplay. Notebook containing: 3 drafts; production notes; shooting schedule; location, cast, crew, and shot lists; script used on set. Typescripts with holograph notes. Story board drawings. 95 leaves.
- Thirst. 2 videocassettes, original and converted copy for American television.
- Videocassettes for Laughers & Screamers and Life is Peculiar. The script for Life is Peculiar was written by one of the participants in the Drugs Group, Julie Malone. Mick Egan produced it, and the film maker Vinnie Murphy directed and guided the group through the making of it.
- Biographical sketch of H. Egan. Typescript.
- Thomas: a play in three acts by H. Egan. Typescript (carbon) with holograph changes. 108 leaves.
- Odam by H. Egan. Typescript. 61 leaves.