Behind the scenes of 565+

Over the next few weeks, we take a 'behind the scenes' look at some of the productions participating at this year's Festival. Today we look at the extraordinary story behind 565+.

Following the success of her sell-out show Victor and Gord, Úna McKevitt continues her practice of making theatre from everyday life, and illustrates how the celebration of theatre can enable us, the audience, to express our longings and needs with dignity and humour, redemption and forgiveness. Below is an excerpt by Director Una McKevitt from the 565+ Blog.

"The idea for this show was formed as a response to Generation 2009, an initiative by Project Brand New in association with The Bealtaine Festival, a celebration of creativity in older age. Project Brand New's approach is to celebrate this creativity through the collaboration of older participants with artists from, usually younger, generations.

I had shown my first work as a Director, Victor and Gord, as a work in progress in Project Brand New in January of that year and it struck me that I knew a woman of a certain age who loved the theatre and who, if the opportunity arose, would get more involved; Generation was the perfect opportunity. I invited Marie over to my house and we wrote our application. In the past 4 years we had spent a lot of time together attending plays and discussing theatre and what it meant to both of us. I was particularly struck by how Marie had a compulsion to attend the theatre, her appreciation of it seemed to go beyond that of a regular theatre goer. Marie doesn't just like the theatre, she needs it. This need became the basis of our appliction and continues to inform our process.

Marie and I researched and rehearsed together for three weeks before the incubation week in Project Arts Centre run by PBN. That week PBN matched us with an artist from London, David Berridge, who we had an immediate affinity with. David's initial interest was in the huge collection of programmes Marie had amassed and in presenting these as part of our design; as an artist he has a specific interest in scores and notations and during the week David worked with Marie filling sheet after sheet with her words which we presented on the stage for people to read after the performance. David also bravely agreed on the first day, despite never having performed before, to join Marie in the piece and both made their stage debut that week. We also benefitted greatly from the input and advice of our PBN mentor Dee Roycroft who gently nudged me out of the director's seat and into the performance on the final day of rehearsals." 

 To read the rest of this post please visit the 565+ Blog


565+ is at Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival Sept 30 - Oct 3rd at Project Arts Centre, with previews on Sept 28 & 29.

More Info on 565+

Book Tickets for 565+


Úna Mc Kevitt is part of Project Catalyst, a Project Arts Centre initiative.
565+ is supported by Irish Theatre Trust and Project Arts Centre.

Behind The Scenes of 'The Silver Tassie'

It's the last few days of Druid's technical rehearsals for their production of Sean O'Casey's 'The Silver Tassie' prior to a run at The Town Hall Theatre, Galway. Never fear, for you can also catch 'The Silver Tassie' as part of Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival Oct 5th - 10th at the Gaiety Theatre.

Here is a behind the scenes peak at the final preparations as well as interviews with the creative team.




Book tickets now.

Blogosphere abuzz with Tim Crouch's 'The Author'

The blogosphere is abuzz with reviews on Tim Crouch's 'The Author' at the Edinburgh Fringe. Performed within its audience, it tells the story of another play: a shocking and abusive play featuring a highly original and terrifyingly seductive journey into the horror of our mediated world.

Chris Goode, a member of the cast of 'The Author' has been keeping a daily blog documenting his experiences throughout the Fringe. This provides possible audiences with extra context prior to attending the show, or as The Guardian writes 'if you wait until afterwards, it allows the show to continue to resonate and grow.'

As Pony-Pie writes 'It’s not something to describe in any concise way here – it is an experience of and for the spectator,' so keeping that in mind, we'll keep this post short and let you read some of the reviews;

'Thompson's Bank of Communicable Desire' (Chris Goode's Blog)
Big On Glasglow ****
Theatre Notes

Tim Crouch's 'The Author' is at Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival October 12th - 17th at Project Arts Centre.  

Book Now

Box Office Opens Tomorrow!

Are you ready?
The long wait is finally over. From tomorrow morning at 9.30am the official Festival Box Office will be open. You can book online via dublintheatrefestival.com, or in person talk to the Niamh, Sorcha, Bernie or any of our box office team at the Festival Box Office based here at 44 East Essex Street in Temple Bar.

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Festival Launch Video

On July 28th, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival was officially launched at Civic Offices,Wood Quay, Dublin 8.



View the Full Programme for 2010.

Dublin, a Living Portrait

Over the next few weeks Matthew Thompson, UBDTF 2010 Campaign Photographer, will be profiling the Dublin Loves Drama campaign. Here is part one in a series of blogposts..

Like many good ideas, this was born in Library Bar of the The Central Hotel, unlike many such ideas, this one came to fruition. I had been called by Alvin Perry, Catherine Lennon and Annemarie Harrington of the Fresh design team to ask what I could bring to the 2010 Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival campaign when it was at pitch stage, it was worth a shot and with a meeting of minds this became the premise of the shoot.

I spent a week in late May with Fernanda Parente my assistant on foot in Dublin City Centre asking random strangers would they be interested in the project, to my joy and relief almost all asked agreed to our escapade.

Blog 1

“So allow me to be honest and tell the truth about our age and its People”. - August Sander

A frozen conversation, decontextualised and re-played, a shard of time and place. The parallels of the photographic portrait and theatre appear at first to be clear. It seemed apt now more than ever to take an honest portrait of Dublin. A city seemingly in dire need of re-definition. The physical city as a definition seemed inappropriate, whose is it anyway? What appeared were more pertinent was her citizens, the real actors of our human drama. If theatre is a living portrait of our society, then portraits reflecting the diversity of its players only seemed right. Direct and honest photography was what we felt would have the greatest impact in a society saturated and numbed with artifice.

It is not only about how a story is told or what a photograph represents but equally telling how it is understood. Though the absence of smiles or any masks of expression. The viewer is free to understand the situation their own way, through their personal experience.

Three dramatic words would be starkly juxtaposed against an apparent emotional vacuum. “Despair, Resentment, Hope" Two teenage girls sit on the public stage after school in Meeting house Square and confront our viewer. Who is judging whom, whom is under scrutiny? Has the obvious relationship been reversed?

The double portrait echoes the iconic classical Grecian theatrical masks. On a practical aural level they would amplifying the actors voice and on the visual one exaggerate a characters’ emotion but our idea was not to define but rather to suggest, allow the viewer to de-cloak the situation. Theatre and the photographic portrait equally facilitate self examining. Through identifying with our actor /subject we are encouraged to empathize with or reject their moral character. Through this process we come to a more concrete or clearer self awareness, like getting to know yourself through the lens of someone else.

Over the following weeks I will take selection of our encounters and try to convey what was happening at the time, the general chaos and that when a special moment arrives should be captured there and then.

Hope you enjoy.

Matthew UBDTF 2010 Campaign Photographer
http://www.matthewthompsonphotography.com/

View More Images From the Dublin Loves Drama Campaign on Pix.ie