Ms Deirdre Masterson:

Good afternoon everyone. It is my pleasure and privilege to be invited to Leinster House and I thank the Cathaoirleach for the invitation and opportunity to talk to the joint committee about the future of musical theatre in Ireland. I also acknowledge Irish playwright, Mr. Billy Roche, West End performer, Mr. Killian Donnelly, representatives from the Association of Irish Musical Societies and The Royal Irish Academy of Music and welcome their contribution to this area of discussion which we all feel very passionately about.

My campaign can be broken down into three aspects. The first is the acknowledgement of musical theatre as an art form and an entity in its own right and that it be funded accordingly, using similar templates as is currently recognised for opera, theatre and dance in this country. The second aspect is we should consider creating and providing a national musical theatre company with suitable platforms for our professional musical theatre practitioners, musicians, composers, lyricists, creatives and production teams. The third aspect is that we should highlight what this art form represents with respect to the immense potential it could create in the form of further employment, revenue, tourism and educational possibilities.

It is important to define what musical or musical theatre is. A musical is a stage, television or film production that combines music, acting and dance and utilises popular-style songs to tell a story. It can trace its roots back to religious rituals of prehistoric humankind and has been a celebrated and popular art form from the dramas of ancient Greece right through to current Broadway and West End productions. Though musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements.

As a professional opera singer and vocal coach, I was horrified and surprised to learn there was nothing available for a student wishing to study musical theatre at third level a decade ago. The only option of emigration for further studies involved incurring huge financial costs. As a result, I established the Irish College of Music Theatre in 2011 to provide Ireland's first third level musical theatre courses in business partnership with the then Dublin Institute of Technology. I now act as director of musical theatre at American College Dublin and deliver degree and masters programmes where I am proud to promote ten years of successful Irish alumni gracing national and international. However, the harsh reality is we are now training our students to emigrate on completion of their studies. It is sad to advise that the only way we can see our home-grown perform is by travelling to the West End or further afield, or perchance our graduates are employed by an overseas touring company returning to perform in one of the many sold-out performances presented at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre. This will be further discussed by Mr. Donnelly from the West End via video link.

To close, I appeal for us to acknowledge musical theatre for the wonderful art form it is, create a national musical theatre company, nurture and provide for our home-grown talent and in turn create employment, pride and lots of entertainment for everyone.