Northside Misfits drama as cultural ambassadors to Manchester

Drama member Marie Quinlivan with Lord Mayor of Manchester, Carl Austin-Behan with whom this community creative group had a research meeting
Misfit member Marie Quinlivan with Lord Mayor of Manchester, Carl Austin-Behan with whom this community creative group had a research meeting

NORTHSIDE Misfits Community Drama Group took on Limerick2020โ€™s mantle for Manchesterโ€™s mighty Day Parade on Sunday June 19. This enormous carnival manifests the creative spirit of Mancunian communities and is produced by Walk the Plank. That outfit came to visit Moyross in March to view the Misfitโ€™s original play โ€˜taLKโ€™ in the spirit of support.

According to cultural programmer Niamh Bowen of Culture House, โ€Walk the Plank is a company specialising in outdoor performance and artworks who visited Limerick to see the work of local groups as well as scoping out the cityโ€.

All part of this relentless 2020 bid process. Consequently The Misfits, under theatre practitioner Karen Fitzgibbon, were invited to Manchester to experience preparations for the parade as much as the event on the day.

โ€œWe flew out early morning Friday June 17, directly after we staged โ€˜taLKโ€™ at the Belltable. We got to see work in progress at Granada Studios [production site], a spectacle of colour with a sewing room, areas for bigger pieces, costumes and props. We met European representatives from Belgium and Italy and had a full tour of what participants were doingโ€.

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Actors Stephanie Ryan and Jake Gilligan, core to the cast of 'taLK"
Actors Stephanie Ryan and Jake Gilligan, core to the cast of ‘taLK”

Its relevance to European Capital of Culture is to do with equipping communities with the knowledge, production skills, logistics and creative push to mount the razzle dazzle of parades of this enormous impact.

โ€This is part of community capacity building work that will be an important element in Limerickโ€™s bid,โ€ observes Bowen.

First hand from Karen Fitzgibbon: โ€œWe met with cllr Pat Carey, a Dublin man living there whose concept Manchester Day Parade was seven years agoโ€. Led by Manchesterโ€™s Lord Mayor Carl Austin-Behan, this yearโ€™s theme was EUREKA! The primary entry condition set the 2,500+ participants of โ€œall ages, colours and sizesโ€ was โ€œthat everything had to be pushed or walked or cycledโ€.

Street performances that issued were all the more remarkable for their being no street barriers in place so that โ€œwhile casual but really spectacular, it felt very connectedโ€.