Community

Irish voices to be embodied at the Fiske

By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT – Actor, teacher and tour guide Stephen Collins returns to the Fiske Free Library Tuesday, March 26, for an hour-long performance to make Irish eyes smile. His one-man show, “Irish Voices,” samples literary works of great poets and writers from Saint Brigid to Frank McCourt. 

Collins began his career at UMass in Boston, studying literature, where he noticed that the Norton Anthology of English Literature had a suspiciously high proportion of Irish writers. 

“I took courses with Mary Curran,” said Collins, “and I fell in love with Irish literature. I particularly loved James Joyce.” 

However, only much later in life did Collins take the leap of faith to do something with it. He worked as a salesman for decades. “I was in a pretty aggressive sales career, and I was miserable,” he said. 

“I looked at what made me happy: performing, and thought, ‘Yeah, but you can’t make a living at it.’” 

Now in his 60s, Collins makes a living at it. His first one-man show was to embody Walt Whitman, which he started in 1998. He also portrays Robert Frost, James Whistler, and Herman Melville, and he teaches literature. “I love my life better than I ever have,” he said. “A typical day for me is I teach a class and I do a performance, or I do two performances.” 

“Irish Voices,” his newest show, is a departure from the older ones because it’s not getting into one particular character. 

“I don’t use an Irish accent for the entire show,” said Collins. He’s been to Ireland three times, and both his grandparents are from there. “I think I have a credible Irish accent. I’ll probably wear a tweed sports coat and a turtleneck.”

The show wanders from W.B. Yeats to Seamus Heaney to James Joyce and Frank McCourt, with humor and sorrow mixed in. “P.T. Barnum said ‘leave ‘em laughing’,” Collins said. “I do a funny 10th century poem by Saint Brigid at the end, and it does get people laughing.” 

This will be Collins’ fourth visit to the Fiske Free Library. Even though it’s a smaller venue than most of the ones he plays at, he said, “I like getting in my car and driving up there, and I have friends in the area.” 

“I’m very thankful to the Claremont community for hosting me four times,” he said. 

Collins shares a name with another Stephen Collins, a Hollywood actor who’s appeared on several TV shows. The other Stephen Collins has a checkered past, and although at various times the visiting Stephen Collins has been urged to change his name, or add his middle initial (J.), he has no plans to do so. 

“This is the name my parents gave me, and I quite like it,” he said.

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