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Current Artist in Residence
PAMELA MCQUEEN

This year we are pleased to have dramaturg and creative producer Pamela McQueen in residency with us at Smock Alley.

Previously Pamela has successfully delivered 2 years of the Baptiste Programme with us. This valuable Arts Council support allows us to deepen and expand the scope of our working relationship.

Pamela’s residency will see her working across several projects at the theatre. Firstly she will provide an expanded dramaturgical service to the artists of the Scene +Heard Festival. This will see a new wrap around dramaturgical support to selected artists both before and after the festival. Her work will be individual and in group settings. You might also spot her chairing some post show festival discussions with key personalities that have made Scene +Heard the fabulous festival it is today.

We are delighted to launch a new way to support theatre making artists this year with the support of Pamela’s residency. Collaborate and Play are three funded workshop development weeks in our Boys School, open for application in March. Pamela will help the artists plan their new work development, offer live response to the floor work and support reflexive analysis post workshop for the three selected artists/groups.

Finally, Pamela will be taking time to adapt a post modern reworking of Alicia le Fanu’s play ‘Sons Of Erin’. This adaptation brings the playwrights voice back from the archive, becoming a narrator in her own text. We are particularly delighted to explore a rediscovery of this neglected female playwright as her father, Thomas Sheridan, was a renowned actor manager of the original Smock Alley Theatre. We are pleased to be bringing one of the Sheridan artists back home to Dublin. Smock Alley will support 15 actors with director Conor Hanratty and designer Maree Kearns to workshop Pamela’s adapted text at the end of her year in residence.

This Residency has been awarded in partnership with producer Kate Ferris who will act as mentor and project supervisor to Pamela throughout the year.

In response Pamela said: “This is a unique opportunity to expand my dramaturgical practice and learn new skills in a multi-disciplinary arts venue that puts the artist and their process at the heart of everything they do. I particularly appreciate learning by shadowing Lucy Ryan, Cliona Dukes and Caoimhe Connolly, three exemplary producers, with valuable mentoring from Kate Ferris. It feels positively luxurious to be able to plan a full active year embedded with artists. Many thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland and DCC Arts Office for the real privilege of being able to spend time with Alicia Le Fanu’s words in her home theatre. “

Pamela is program creator & dramaturg for both, the diversity playwriting project The Baptiste Project with Black Irish theatre makers in Smock Alley Theatre and the Mavens Programme & Mavens Lab for female playwrights at the Mill Theatre, Dundrum. for female playwrights.

In 2022, as co-chair of Dramaturgs Network Ireland, she ran Dramaturgy Now, a  dramaturgy mentorship program  partnered with Irish Theatre Institute and Smock Alley Theatre. This program was funded with a Theatre Resources grant from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Recently, Pamela was dramaturg for the site specific audio drama called ‘Bliss’ by Emily Gilmore Murphy produced by Mermaid Theatre Company on Bray seafront  & ‘The Whispering Chair’ by Tara Lovett produced by Livin Dred at Cavan County Museum.  Pamela was dramaturg for ‘Bang’ by Michelle Read in Dublin Theatre Festival 2021, on ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ with The Abbey Theatre, (2017 & 2018) and  the bilingual ‘Scotties’ by Frances Poet & Muireann Kelly, National Theatre Scotland & Theatre GuLeor (2018).

She is currently development dramaturg of the trilingual Theatre GuLeor/Fishamble New Play Company /Teatre Gen site specific piece Teach/Taidgh/Ty for 2024.

Pamela was selected for the Dublin Theatre Festival 2020 research residency Unacknowledged Loss with Barbara Raes. With a Dublin City Council bursary, she participated in the International Dramaturgy Lab in 21. She was mentored in disability arts dramaturgy by Jonathan Meth of the Crossing the Lines festival supported by an Arts Council of Ireland bursary 2021.

Pamela was New Play Dramaturg at The New Theatre, Temple Bar 2017-2020, Associate Dramaturg of the Tron Theatre, Glasgow from 2008-2011 including the Olivier award winning Roadkill by Cora Bissett & Stef Smith (2011). She holds an M.Litt in Dramaturgy & Playwriting from the University of Glasgow.

Previous Artists in Residence
KATE FERRIS

Kate is a Dublin based theatre producer and curator working with Olwen Fouéré and Sonya Kelly. Kate curates ‘Young Radicals’ a new strand of work with young people at Dublin Fringe Festival and has previously partnered and co-produced with the Abbey Theatre, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Dublin Theatre Festival, The Ark, Other Voices, Soho Theatre (UK), Dublin Dance Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival and Music Town. She has toured work extensively throughout Ireland and internationally.
Within her role with ‘Young Radicals’ with Dublin Fringe Festival Kate pioneered the co-commissiong network TRACKS established in 2017 with Cork Midsummer Festival and Baboró Children’s Festival for Children, Galway; all three festivals commission and present new work by Irish artists for young audiences.
In 2016 Kate was a core committee member of #WakingTheFeminists; and since 2018 Kate has been leading on WIT (Women In Theatre), a nation-wide workshop series partnering with The Lir Academy and the Abbey Theatre encouraging young teenage women to consider a career in technical theatre.
Kate has sat on the boards of Youth Theatre Ireland and Girls Rock Dublin. In 2019 – 2020 Kate was the curator of talks at the Dublin Theatre Festival, organising and hosting public events. Kate’s Smock Alley Theatre Artist in Residence is supported by Dublin City Council and The Arts Council.

Previous Residencies
FIGHT2FLIGHT THEATRE

 

 

Fight2Flight Theatre Company’s aims are simple:

To create, develop and present original plays to debut in Smock Alley Theatre.

Fight2Flight are committed to being a company that supports and employs the best of Irish talent across all disciplines in theatre to work on our productions.

We aim to pay the Equity Minimum to all members of the company with a rough parity for all involved involved on an equal or pro-rata basis.

We aim to create a repertoire of new plays that can be toured nationally and internationally, bringing the Smock Alley Theatre and Fight2Flight brand to audiences new and existing in and outside the Dublin area.

We aim to further develop the profile of Smock Alley as the “Go To” venue for exciting new and original plays.

Our productions in Smock Alley in 2020 seeks to develop a style that is unique, exciting accessible and recognisable, whilst keeping the core ambition of bringing new work to a growing Dublin audience. Fight2Flight are a company that committed to growing year on year together in partnership with Smock Alley.

The Fight2Flight team for 2020 are :

Peter Gowen, Actor, Writer, Director.
David Herlihy, Actor.
Eoin Winning, Lighting Designer
Sarah Foley, Set and Costume Designer
Irene Buckley, Composer.
Donal Gallagher, Director.
Medb Lambert, Designer

All of these creative professionals are highly distinguished artists and have agreed to work on our first two productions in Smock Alley Theatre for our 2020 residency.

The first play The Chronicles Of Oggle is a revival with Asylum Productions. The play was originally produced by The Everyman Cork

SONYA KELLY

We are really delighted to announce that Sonya Kelly has joined Smock Alley as Resident Artist. Throughout the residency, Sonya will be utilising Smock Alley’s theatre space and technical facilities to develop two new pieces of work, one for an adult audience and another for a young audience. Sonya will be working on a monthly basis with a group of emerging playwrights, sharing what she has learned about writing for theatre.
Sonya Kelly’s Smock Alley Theatre Artist in Residence is supported by Dublin City Council and The Arts Council.

Sonya is an Irish writer for theatre and TV. Her debut play The Wheelchair on My Face produced by Fishamble won a Fringe First Award Edinburgh Fringe 2012 and received a Critics Pick New York Times. Sonya’s second play How To Keep An Alien produced by Rough Magic won Best Production at Dublin Fringe 2014 before touring both nationally and internationally to Brisbane Festival, Traverse Edinburgh, Soho Theatre London, The Irish Arts Center New York and New Zealand. Sonya’s third play Furniture was developed and produced by Druid at Galway International Arts Festival 2018, toured Ireland in 2019 and received the Stewart Parker Award and an Irish Writers Guild Award for Best New Theatre Script. She is currently working on a new play with Druid and a number of TV projects with BBC Scotland, Wildfire Films, Green Pavilion and Treasure Entertainment.

TONNTA MUSIC

tonnta is a music company and vocal ensemble dedicated to new music.

Led by vocalist and composer Robbie Blake, tonnta champions interdisciplinary creation of music performance

tonnta’s sound is vibrant and dynamic and its work brushes against the worlds of contemporary dance, theatre and live art.

tonnta believes in creating experiences for all. We prioritise making performances and events that are fully accessible.

RISE PRODUCTIONS

 

Rise Productions are an award-winning Irish theatre company, telling stories across various platforms and media.

Their debut show Fight Night won both the Best Actor and the Bewley’s Little Gem award at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2010, and was nominated for Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2012.

In November 2011, Rise Productions unleashed its groundbreaking Irish Theatre Podcast on an unsuspecting public. For 52 weeks straight, the series sought to “support, promote, and celebrate all that’s great about Irish Theatre.” These weekly conversations granted unprecedented access to some of the most influential figure in Irish Theatre, creating the most comprehensive archive of Irish Theatrical voices ever compiled.

GLASS MASK THEATRE

Dublin based theatre company directed by Rex Ryan, committed to the work of exceptional Irish and International playwrights.

Glass Mask Theatre commit to presenting plays that thrill our audiences. Electric Theatre. We commit to the playwright and will stage work, new and classic, from Irish and International playwrights who possess a fire and commitment to the stage.