Ciaran O'Reilly used to spend a lot of time taking long motorcycle trips, but not anymore. Now he's driving's different vehicle-New York's Irish Repertory Theatre.

O'Reilly came from Virginia, County Cavan, in 1978 and co-founded the company with longtime friend an fellow actor Charlotte Moore 12 seasons ago. He now serves as producing director with Moore as artistic director.

"It's like having a baby. You can't go out anymore, says O'Reilly, who used to freelance to America Motorcycle magazine in between acting gigs.

The pair met in '81 while acting in a production of Hugh Leonard's Summer and struck up a friendship based on the desire to use Irish talent to produce Irish plays.

"We came up with a little TV Guide synopsis of what we wanted to do: perform plays professionally with a native understanding of the culture, using Irish actors, designers and directors," says the 42 year old thespian "We want to bring works of the classical Irish repertory to the stage, as well as more current works."

"We funded it ourselves from the beginning," says O'Reilly. "Our attitude was literally, "Let's put on show!" That adamantly committed and equally resourceful spirit came into play almost immediately. "At the time, Charlotte had a broken arm and was in constant pain," says O'Reilly. When I asked her to direct our first play, she just said, 'How can I direct? I need both hands for that.' So I just told her to use her left hand."

Moore began rehearsals, and in 1988 the Repertory opened its first season with Sean O'Casey's The Plow and the Stars, drawing an audience of 74. "We had marvelous houses. That confirmed that there was a void to be filled," says O'Reilly. "At the time, there was a massive influx of Irish immigrants, so we were in the right place at the right time."

In 1989, Joseph Papp invited them over to the Public Theatre to put on a benefit. Yeats. A Celebration, was a success and after that the team held benefits every year at the Public. A Beckett festival followed the next year and from there things kept moving along.

As O'Reilly puts it, "We were all over the place." Throughout the '90s, the company leased out theatres such as the 18th Street Playhouse, Tada!, the Actors Playhouse and other venues.

"We've been in every hole in the city, and in 1995 we built our own hole," he deadpans. O'Reilly and Moore found a building on West 22th Street that once contained a chemical warehouse in its ground floor and basement. Although they didn't have the necessary funds to buy the place, they considered it a find and signed a lease. "We went ahead; we weren't going to wait for the money; we knew we would have to raise it."

Free labor to build a main stage holding 140 seats on the ground floor and a lower house seating sixty was provided by technical students who were eager to learn construction skills. "Several construction companies donated the services of their carpenters and when it was all finished we had a 'hardhat night,' where the workers were given a free show in honor of their contribution," says O'Reilly.

With a solid backbone of traditional repertoire, such as the upcoming production of Brendan Behan's 1958 play, The Hostage, and a decent amount of more recent works, such as Frank McCourt's The Irish and How They Got That Way, the theatre strikes a balance that just might be the secret of its sustained success.

"You can go off and do a lot of experimental work and new things that are very interesting and nobody will come, or you can do both plays that please the audience and plays that challenge the audience," confides O'Reilly. "I would like to do more of the newer things."

The theatre's seasonal budget increase is impressive, leaping from $100,000 in 1988 to $1.4 million in 2000. "We're like a commercial theater. Although we continue to be a not-for-profit organization, our earned income is more than our unearned," he asserts. Of working with Moore, O'Reilly says, "It's a great partnership. We share duties. Both of us pick the plays and cast the shows." They put on four or five plays a year with eight-week runs that are produced almost exclusively in-house and the majority of their funding comes from a healthy box office, as it has since the beginning.

Even with continued growth, O'Reilly stands by the theatre's nonprofit status. As he says, "The more money you take in, the more expenses there seem to be.

"If you looked up the definition of not-for-profit in the dictionary, my picture and Charlotte's picture would be next to it." I And so the fundraisers carry on. In early June, the Repertory held a benefit called "Song of the Century" at the Broadhurst Theatre. The show chronicled the Irish contribution to Broadway and film in the 20th Century starring Gabriel Byrne, Rosemary Clooney, Sinead Cusack, Mile O'Shea and Eric Stoltz, among others.

The Irish Repertory is located at:132 W. 22th St. New York, NY 10001

-TR