Download Report

ulster.ac.uk/culture
Drama End
of Year Show
Derry~Londonderry
21 May 2015
ulster.ac.uk/culture
Welcome
This first-ever showcase of the work of students and
staff in Drama demonstrates the high quality of the
teaching at Ulster and the ways in which our work
reaches beyond the University into the community, the
creative industries, and other sectors.
We enjoy fruitful partnerships with
employers across Northern Ireland and
beyond, drawing, among other factors,
on the successes of our own alumni.
The courses we offer provide a strong
basis of employability for our graduates
in theatre and related fields and as a
foundation for careers in many other
areas. Dr Matt Jennings’ work in support
of student engagement with employers
was recognised recently with the Students’
Union Award for Placement/Employability
Tutor of the Year.
The taught programmes offered by
colleagues in Drama are informed by
world-leading research, recognised by the
ratings achieved in the recent Research
Excellence Framework exercise. The strong
community of learning here saw the
Drama team named Team of the Year
at the recent Students’ Union Learning
and Teaching Awards. With buoyant
recruitment, Drama at Ulster has never
been in a stronger position to make a
real contribution to the growth of the
local culture and economy. Its new MA in
Contemporary Performance Practice adds
a further dimension to this critical role.
The Drama End of Year Show is part of
the Creative Platforms programme which
also includes the Music and Design End of
Year Shows and I would therefore like to
extend my thanks to Diamond Corrugated
for investing in the creativity of Ulster
University’s emerging cultural pioneers.
Professor Jan Jedrzejewski,
Dean of the Faculty of Arts
2.00
Exhibition 1:
La Tempete
2.00
Performance:
Oh, Ting!
3.00
Contemporary Irish Theatre
research presentations
4.00
Exhibition 2:
That’s Class
5.00
Performance and Health
research presentations
6.00
Refreshments
7.00
Performance:
Eye of the Storm by Charles Way
8.15
Presentation and Book Launch
Studio A
Café Space
Café Space
Recital Room
Studio A
Recital Room
ALL DAY
EVENT
Please note: All presentations and performances will
take place in the Foyle Arts Building, Ulster University,
Northland Road, Derry~Londonderry BT48 7JL
01
ulster.ac.uk/culture
Exhibitions
Exhibition 1: La Tempête
Exhibition 2: That’s Class
This exhibition was created as part of the
final year Independent Project module
by Emma Taylor. She writes, ‘My aim for
this project was to explore the challenges
that faced a costumier working with the
French avant-garde company, Théâtre
Du Soleil. This exhibiton is an exploration
of the representation of character and
non-character through costume and of a
design brief for The Tempest by William
Shakespeare.’ The exhibiton focuses on
exploring intercultural theatre, the impact
this has made on Emma’s design choices,
and provides a selection of sample pieces
of constructed costume.
That’s Class emerges from final year
students responding to advanced socially
engaged arts practices to which they
have been introduced in the module
Working Class Performance. This researchdriven module provides students with a
significant opportunity to extend their
critical and practical understanding of
a range of performance practices and
theoretical positions associated with
working class performance in historical
and contemporary performance
making practices. That’s Class draws on
methodologies of design, display, curatorial
practices and participatory arts to explore
issues of identity and class. The project was
developed to build and present a situated,
temporary exhibition at Vale Centre
Car Boot Sale in Greysteel and will be
temporarily re-homed and re-exhibited in
the School of Creative Arts & Technologies.
More than anything, the project hopes to
have some good conversations about class,
identity, and objects with everyone who
wants to get involved.
Originally from Comber, Emma attended
Grosvenor Grammar School in Belfast.
She has worked with both amateur and
professional theatre companies over the
past 7 years, including Bright Young Things,
the Grand Opera House and the Waterfront
Hall. She’s training as a digital marketing
assistant for Digital24 and planning to
undertake the Masters In Research next
year at Ulster.
02
Working Class Performance is coordinated
by Dr Paul Devlin. Paul’s work is
situated in both traditional academic
critical examinations of contemporary
performance issues and practice-asresearch. He publishes on issues connected
to performance and class, space,
memory, and post conflict societies. His
practice-based project Austins: Memory
and Place was funded and produced
for the City of Culture celebrations in
Derry 2013 and is referenced by the
AHRC project ‘Challenging concepts
of “liquid” place through performance
practices in community contexts’ as part
of Performing Places. His forthcoming
publications will feature in Post-Conflict
Performance, Film, and Visual Arts: Cities of
Memory (Palgrave, 2015) and A Cambridge
History of Irish Working Class Writing
(Cambridge University Press, 2016).
Presentations
Contemporary Irish Theatre
Performance and Health
Contemporary Irish Theatre looks in detail
at contemporary theatre practice in Ireland
on both sides of the Border, and places
it in a range of relevant discursive and
theoretical contexts. Students read from
the work of a wide range of contemporary
and canonical playwrights. This year
the module was primarily concerned
with violence in Irish theatre: comic
violence, spoken violence, and violence
performed on stage, as well as other
kinds of live performance like parades,
commemorations, and other public events.
This module provides students with the
opportunity to explore performance
as a means of enhancing wellbeing; of
challenging stigma and stereotypes;
and of promoting awareness of health
issues. Students examine specific selected
examples of therapeutic and performance
practices engaging with issues of health
and wellbeing. Practical exploration allows
students to engage with the formal
techniques from within, while independent
research and seminar discussion provides
the opportunity to contextualise and
analyse the practices encountered.
The module is coordinated by Dr Lisa
Fitzpatrick. She has published widely on
contemporary Irish theatre, post-conflict
theatre, and violence in performance.
Her work has been funded by the British
Academy and by the Canadian High
Commission, and her current project is on
gender, violence and the postcolonial.
The module is coordinated by Dr Matt
Jennings. Matt has worked extensively in
professional theatre and applied drama
contexts. He is developing collaborative
research projects in the field of arts
participation and health, particularly with
Ulster’s Faculty of Nursing. His extensive
experience of working with community
groups, children, young people, older
people, people with learning disabilities,
people with mental health issues and
health professionals has informed his
research, practice and teaching. He
also provides training and professional
development for youth and community
workers, health care providers and applied
drama practitioners.
03
ulster.ac.uk/culture
Performances
These performances come
out of the module Theatre for
Young Audiences.
The only module of its kind on the
island of Ireland, Theatre for Young
Audiences aims to expand students’
understanding of performance to focus
on the specific demands of creating work
for young audiences. It develops a range
of critical and theoretical perspectives
and practical skills that enhance the
capabilities developed in earlier parts of
the programme. The aim is to produce
practitioners who can integrate theory and
practice in all that they do.
The module is coordinated by Dr Tom
Maguire. He teaches and researches into
contemporary performance, particularly
in British and Irish theatre. Tom co-edited
Theatre for Young Audiences in the
UK: a critical handbook (2013) and his
monograph Performing Story on the
Contemporary Stage was published
by Palgrave MacMillan in 2015. He
helped bring the All-Ireland TYA Event,
The Gathering to Magee in 2014. He
has recently completed a project with
CAHOOTS NI on the inclusion by design of
child spectators with visual impairments in
the production of The Gift by Charles Way.
The technical aspects of all practical work
in Drama are supported by the work of
Adrian O’Connell. Having returned to
education, Adrian graduated with a First
Class Honours degree in Drama from Ulster
and is currently working part-time on a
doctoral research project.
Oh! Ting.
Eye of the Storm by Charles Way
This is a specifically devised original
performance for Early Years Audiences. It
has already been shown to local children in
nursery and reception classes. It engages
children by creating a strong empathetic
bond with characters who model creatively
how to negotiate their relationships
through learning to share and to accept
their differences .
This play is based on characters from
Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Aimed at
a teenage audience, it focuses on the
processes of how finding an authentic
identity behind the social mask is
critical to coming of age. It addresses
too the difficulties parents face in
letting their children discover the world
for themselves.
Cast and Production Team
Cast and Production Team
Megan Keenan
Performers
Megan O’Kane
Louise Conaghan
Megan Keenan
Prospero
Stephen Hall
Robyn Lorimer
Miranda
Ashleigh McCracken
Ashleigh McCracken
Director
Rachel Cruikshank
Ariel
Ryan Aspinall
Colleen McGivern
Choreographer
Harriet Scott
Trinculo
Joe O’Hagan
Design
Eileen McMaster
Stage Manager
Rachel Simms
Stephano/Stephanie Lynn Murphy
Production Manager Clodagh Clarke
The Drama Class
of 2015
Ryan Aspinall
Cherie Bell
Clodagh Clarke
Sarah Conaghan
Rachel Cruickshank
Stephen Hall
Robert Irwin
Emma Kennedy
Eileen McMaster
Lynn Murphy
Joseph O’Hagan
Jodie Peden
Andrew Renshaw
Stage Manager
Robbie Irwin
Costume
Robyn Lorimer
Design
Cathy Ross
Rachel Simms
Director
Laura Young
Emma Taylor
Choreographer
Sara McBride
Cathy Ross
Harriet Scott
Laura Young
in collaboration with BA (Hons)
Dance students
Sara McBride
Bruno Machado
Jade Morrow
Megan O’Kane
Paige Lee-Timms
04
Ulster University’s Drama
End of Year Show is part of
Creative Platforms in
partnership with
Showcasing the creativity of
Ulster University’s emerging
cultural pioneers
ulster.ac.uk
StudyAtUlster StudyAtUlster StudyAtUlster © Ulster University