A heartfelt thank you from the Watergate in Kilkenny for 30 years of support

This year marks the 30th year the Watergate Theatre has operated as Kilkenny City and county’s centre for live performance.

On behalf of the Watergate Board of Directors, which includes: Nickey Brennan (chairman), Gilly Fogg, Anja Terpstra, Dermot Gaynor, Ciaran Dunphy, Esosa Ighodaro, Cllr Fidelis Doherty and Cllr Andrew McGuinness, I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to the people of Kilkenny and beyond without whose support the Watergate might not have reached its 30th year of being.

In the recent past Covid-19 was, of course, our biggest challenge and I can say without equivocation that each occasion our doors reopened during the Covid rollercoaster, our audience flocked back to support the performances on our stage. This both validates the importance of and love for the performing arts in people’s lives as well as the role of the Watergate as a thriving pillar of community and the arts in Kilkenny.

PICTURES: Thumbs up from Kilkenny audiences to Barnstorm play

In 2018 when the Watergate celebrated its 25th anniversary I wrote: ‘A municipal theatre has a series of purposes in a community; to both entertain, foster talent and behave as a centre for creative, artistic excellence and exchange for those who access it so that their lives are enriched culturally. This will remain at the core of the Watergate ethos in the coming years.’

I am thrilled to report that our vision is being realised. Our annual audience turnover has grown by nearly 60% between 2017 and 2023. In addition to the increased numbers our audience profile has also deepened and diversified. This, of course indicates that we are both reaching more people in number while also deepening and diversifying the profile of our audience to give a true reflection of Ireland in 2023.

As well as presenting a diverse programme of work to appeal to as wide an audience profile as possible, as a funded arts centre, we have the role of supporting the development of work by Kilkenny-based artists. We now have a well-established artist’s residency programme which in 2020-2022 supported Monkeyshine Theatre Company to develop their projects, Story in our Time and More than Human.

Projects

In 2023 we supported Asylum Theatre Company in the development of a number of projects including ‘The Local’ which was part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival programme in 2023. Both of these Kilkenny-based companies are innovators whose work is some of the most ground breaking and pioneering in Ireland today. The Watergate is proud to be linked to and support them.
Over the next five years we plan to be ambitious in the continuation of the Watergate’s journey as the only funded performing arts space in Kilkenny City and county. We have a big responsibility to deliver for audience members and artists. In 2024 we hope to launch a series of new artist supports under the banner, Watergate Creates. As part of this, in December (date to be confirmed) Asylum will host a takeover of the Watergate where they will invite theatre artists and actors to sit down with Director Donal Gallagher and Producer Maura O’Keeffe (Once Off Productions) to brainstorm early career roadmaps. There’ll also be one-to-one producer clinic opportunities where budding producers will have the chance to sit down with Maura and colleagues to talk though the world and journey of a theatre producer. Look out for more details of this across the Watergate and Asylum socials and watergatetheatre.com!

At the Watergate we are proud of our small but extremely dynamic team. All that we have achieved over the past five years is largely down to their hard work, creativity, commitment and excellent humour! I’d like to especially mention Breda Gertberg who has worked at the Watergate for all 30 years of its life. On behalf of the wider Watergate team and board I can say that Breda is one of the funniest, most capable and multi-talented people we have had the pleasure to work with.

In conclusion I invite you to peruse the pages of our new website which can still be found at watergatetheatre.com. As part of its design attention has been focused on accessibility. We hope everyone can enjoy using the features via which, if we’ve done our job well, you’ll find at least one thing that interests you in our series of live events and that we’ll soon welcome you to a show with open arms. If it’s your first time with us, we hope it will be the first of many.

As ever we thank Kilkenny Co Council and the Arts Council of Ireland for their support.

Here’s to the next 30 years!