Gaiety hands Anna top acting honour

ANNA MANAHAN was delighted yesterday to receive recognition for her acting talents. Her handprints are immortalised on the forecourt of Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre, a distinction she shares with two other legends.

Anna said: “To be part of the Gaiety Theatre, to have the imprint of my hands on the forecourt of the theatre beside Maureen Potter and John B Keane, is indeed a very special honour. The Gaiety is the queen of theatres in Ireland. It is the highlight of an actor’s career to play the Gaiety,” she said.

Gaiety executive director John Costigan said: “We are delighted Anna agreed to have her handprints taken for the Gaiety Theatre Plaza.”

Anna has had a long association with the Dublin venue. She trained at Ria Mooney’s Gaiety School of Acting. Her distinguished career spans several decades, with critical acclaim here and abroad. After the Gaiety’s refurbishment, she is back in her old stomping ground, playing in Auntie & Me, with Risteard Cooper.

When the late John B Keane was penning Big Maggie for the stage, he visualised Anna Manahan as the one woman who would carry it off.

Apart from the Gaiety, Anna has performed with Phyllis Ryan’s Gemini Productions and all major Irish companies. She has also performed in radio dramas, television and films.

She won a Tony award for her performance in The Beauty Queen of Leenane on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Lovers in 1968.

Last year, she was awarded the freedom of Waterford. She’s fiercely proud of her roots there and never misses an opportunity to promote her native place. Receiving the award, she said: “This is the crown of my life”.

Anna left her imprint in Waterford, becoming only the second woman to be awarded this honour, after former President Mary Robinson. Earlier this year she was awarded a doctorate of letters from University of Limerick.