Ella Clarke's Michael Colgan Story #metooMC

I first met Michael Colgan in 2007. I had been asked to help on a production where the choreographer had taken ill and it was about to go into technical rehearsal. I arrived during a break and sat in the empty theatre while the director wrapped up a few notes with an actor. Colgan appeared, and the director introduced me to him. He looked at me and said, “You’re sitting in my seat.” I was taken aback and replied with some kind of apology. It read to me as exceptionally rude and arrogant. I felt I was being made aware of his high status, and my low status. A little while later, I was asked by the same director to choreograph a production of the musical Sweeney Todd for the Gate Theatre. During rehearsals, I remember asking the head of production about crediting policies at The Gate. It had been my experience within Irish theatre that regardless of contribution to the production, a choreographer was always credited at the bottom of the list, in line with an accepted hierarchy of value. I had made it my policy to ask about this on whatever production I worked on, feeling that it was unfair and needed to change. I was never comfortable about doing so, and I believe it didn’t help my career, but it needed to be addressed. When the programme appeared, my name was credited with the technical crew on the inside of the programme. The rest of creative team was credited on the front cover alongside the director. I was insulted and angered by this. It seemed exceptionally unconventional in an international context, not to credit a choreographer of a musical with the creative team. During the preview run, it was house policy for the creative team to be brought to the hospitality room for a note session with Colgan following each of the performances. On the first night, when he noticed me there he said something to the effect of “What’s she doing here?” meaning me. Blushing and shaking, I answered that I was there because I was the choreographer of the current show. He asked everyone what they would like to drink, excluding me, and had orders brought from the bar. I was ignored, but continued to give notes when I felt the well being of the cast required it. The same routine played out for the remainder of the preview performances, four or five nights. Throughout this time, Colgan was hostile and rude towards me, and I was ignored each night. In the bar after the opening night of the production, Michael Colgan groped my buttock as he passed by me. I choose to believe he didn’t recognise me because I wasn’t wearing my work gear. The thought of the groping being a calculated humiliation of me is painful. I did not call him out about the groping. I was shocked. I tell this story because it is my opinion that my career has been limited by this kind of power structure, and that speaking up in whatever way I did, when I did, brought me an image that was deemed ‘difficult’. I knew it was likely I would never work in the Gate Theatre again, which I haven’t. I know I wasn’t alone dealing with this kind of abuse of power, and the loss to the art form is what hurts me most.