Doc McGlone's "Ria Mooney: The Life and Times of the Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, 1948-1963" - by Stephen F. Smith (SHU '92)

Seton Hall University Professor Dr. James P. McGlone always roots for the underdog. Much of his career as a theatrical director has been devoted to his passion for long-forgotten plays (“chestnuts” as he lovingly refers to them), uncovered through his spending countless hours in hundreds of remote bookstores and libraries throughout the world. He allows his audiences to view the works of playwrights that the modern theatrical establishment has largely neglected and banished to the dusty shelves of book depositories. Through his work with SHU undergraduates, the Summer Theatre in the Round, and his Celtic Theatre Company, he continues to bring to light the handiwork of overlooked theatrical craftspeople for one singular purpose: to entertain his audiences.

Jim has now brought that same zeal for the underdog to a new artistic endeavor, a soon to be released biography of Ria Mooney, former Artistic Director of Ireland’s Abbey Theatre. In February 2002, McFarland & Company Publishers will publish Jim’s first book:  Ria Mooney:  The Life and Times of the Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, 1948–1963.

McFarland’s website describes the book as such:

Ria Mooney was a pioneer in the theatre, the first woman to serve as the resident producer of the National Theatre of Ireland (popularly referred to as The Abbey) between 1948 and 1963. She distinguished herself as an actress and director of some of the most important playwrights and performers of her time, and received excellent reviews for her work. But after leaving the Abbey, she has, for the most part, been overlooked in theatrical histories. In this work, Ria Mooney receives the notice she deserves as one of Ireland’s most significant theatrical artists of the twentieth century. Her entire theatrical career is covered and special attention is paid to her work as actress and as resident producer at the Abbey. The author explains how Mooney assembled and nurtured her acting company and worked with the playwrights whose plays she mounted at the Abbey and the Queen’s playhouses. A picture is created of the swiftly changing theatrical, cultural, political, and social climate of Dublin during her tenure at the Abbey. Her importance to Irish theatre is summarized, and her career is evaluated in light of reviews of her work and the work of those she directed.

Jim has been familiar with Ria Mooney’s name since his earliest days with the Celtic Theatre Company. He remembers his conversations with Marie Kean, the legendary Abbey Theatre actress who Jim directed in John B. Keane’s Big Maggie at SHU in 1979. Kean told Jim how the current powers that be at the Abbey Theatre had shamefully forgotten the enormous contributions of Mooney, her former mentor.

Over the course of the next 20+ years, Jim continued to uncover and direct more Irish plays first premiered under Mooney’s Abbey tenure, including the earliest works of luminaries such as Brian Friel and John B. Keane, as well as long forgotten playwrights like M.J. Molloy, George Shiels, and Walter Macken (among many others). These playwrights were all commercially and critically well received during their era, but many of their works have not been produced in many years (in some cases, not since their premieres). It was this paradox that intrigued Jim and prompted him to begin to search for the reasons for this historical oversight.

Like a detective, Jim interviewed many of Mooney’s contemporaries and poured over hundreds of hard-to-find newspaper reviews from the period. He began putting his findings down on paper in the spring of 1997. He readily admits that he never imagined that when he began this enormous project that it would ever be published. But after completing the work, and the prompting of colleagues, friends, and family, Jim began shopping his manuscript to various publishing houses. He received a positive response from McFarland & Company Publishers, located in Jefferson, North Carolina. The company, founded in 1979, is one of the leading publishers of scholarly and reference books in the United States.

Jim hopes that the book’s publication will "start a new dialogue in the highest Irish theatrical circles on Ria Mooney and the body of work under her stewardship of the Abbey." His other wish would be to prompt a review of this sadly overlooked theatrical era, and bring the works of the playwrights nurtured under Ria Mooney back to their rightful place, on contemporary stages in front of appreciative Irish, and worldwide, audiences.

Asked how it feels to be a newly published author with his name splashed across the book’s attractive cover, Jim states simply, "It’s surreal!"