Tributes have been paid to Everyman Theatre co-founder John O\u2019Shea, with the theatre\u2019s former chief executive honouring his \u201chugely significant contribution to the cultural fabric of Cork\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Shea, who was 86, was born in Cork, graduated from UCC, and spent most of his adult career teaching English at Col\u00e1iste Chriost R\u00ed secondary school at Turner\u2019s Cross.<\/p>\n
Along with Dan Donovan and Sean O\u2019Tuama, Mr O\u2019Shea co-founded the Everyman Theatre Company in 1963 from several amateur drama groups operating in Cork city \u2014 first at the CCYMS\/ Little Theatre in Castle St and then the Fr Mathew Hall between 1972 and 1987, which was re-named the Everyman Playhouse.<\/p>\n
Wishing to develop further, Everyman acquired the old Palace Cinema on MacCurtain St, and reopened it as the Everyman Palace Theatre in 1992, with the historic Victorian theatre building still home to the theatre today.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Shea was also an accomplished play director.<\/p>\n
Memorable productions of his include A Man for all Seasons by Robert Bolt, designed by Bob Crowley; Saturday, Sunday, Monday by Eduardo De Philippo; The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter; and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov.<\/p>\n
In a statement, chief exeutives Des Kennedy and Brian Fenton said they were deeply saddened by the passing of their founder.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cJohn\u2019s vision, generosity, and belief in the power of theatre shaped this building and The Everyman\u2019s place at the heart of Cork\u2019s cultural life,\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis legacy lives on in every performance, every audience, and every artist who has passed through our doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former chief executive Patrick Talbot added: \u201cJohn O\u2019Shea was an integral figure in the history of Cork theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis passion for the stage was inspirational.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis co-founding of Everyman Theatre harnessed generations of theatre artists in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of people got their first exposure to classic plays of the world repertoire through Everyman productions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHis rich legacy includes the reclaiming of the historic Palace Theatre for live shows. He made a hugely significant contribution to the cultural fabric of Cork.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to Everyman Theatre co-founder John O\u2019Shea, with the theatre\u2019s former chief executive honouring his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[781,18,117,3856,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-264008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-everyman","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115827471096829799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}