Following the success of the pilot festival in 2007, AGAP decided to go public with Lentfest and to expand the programme. Thanks to the input of the late Erne Parkin and sponsorship from Dumbreck Decorators, we began a marketing campaign which included leaflets and posters in public sites across the Greater Glasgow area and also had adverts on bus sides. The launch took place on Ash Wednesday with a “bread and water” reception held in the illustrious setting of the Italian restaurant Bella Napoli in the heart of Shawlands. The event received coverage from a wide variety of media, including prime time national news coverage on BBC and STV along with press features in a number of newspapers and magazines including the Glasgow Herald as well as radio and online.
The programme had expanded dramatically with events happening in all nine deaneries across the vast geographical expanse of the Archdiocese and now included a broad range of styles and genres. The music programme opened at St Andrew’s in the Square with a variety show “Pilgrim” directed by Erne Parkin, based upon the Beatitudes and showcasing the music that would take place throughout the Lentfest programme. It was a programme which featured Polish concert pianist Alexander Kudajczyk; Gospel male-voice choir Father’s Song; popular Christian singer-songwriters John Wilson and Garry Brotherston; the University of Glasgow Madrigirls; a new ensemble of RSAMD music seniors called “Unexpected!”; dancer, Kaye Smith; country/blues singer-songwriter, Martin Jones; jazz saxophonist, Steve Nelson; and folk music led by Erne Parkin and the Cross Border Band.
AGAP Theatre’s second production, “Feet of Clay”, written and directed by Stephen Callaghan, was the first to tour all nine deaneries. It opened in the James Arnott Theatre at the Gilmorehill Centre in the University of Glasgow after a preview performance at St Philip’s Ruchazie. The play, “a contemporary fusion of the parables for our time” seamlessly wove elements from various parables, including the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan and the Unmerciful Servant into a continuous narrative thread in a fast-paced production laced with humour, intrigue and a profound exploration of human relationships and the need for forgiveness.
Lentfest 2008 was also the springboard for the first Poetry and Music Café, led by poets Br Stephen Eric Smyth and Mary Hanrahan. The music programme included a weekend of chant workshops by James MacMillan and Rev Gerard Byrne of the Schola Glasguensis, a screening of Glasgow gangster film “Man Dancin’” with seminar led by producer, Norman Stone, and screenwriter Sergio Casci, and an exhibition of artwork based upon the Beatitudes, at St Patrick’s Church, Anderston, at the opening of which, Scottish music star Eddie Reader sang a duet with Australian hymnwriter and minstrel Peter Kearney.
Our schools programme included a series of drama workshops based upon the Beatitudes, which helped young people from Turnbull High School, Bishopbriggs, to devise their own theatre production, “Blessed Are You!” and perform it for a local audience.
