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Drama / Film / Music / ATRL

 

 

Calling Our Alumni! Special Alumni Coffee Morning on 23rd August 2013

On Friday 23rd August at 10.30am, special Alumni Coffee Meetings will be taking place all over the TCD campus for Trinity's Alumni Weekend. Re-live your student days by visiting your School for a special alumni coffee morning. Celebrate your lifelong connection to Trinity by taking a trip down memory lane with old friends and academics. See old faces and hear about some of the latest news and developments on campus, or make it an introduction to new faces in the School of Drama, Film and Music. Network with the best and brightest creatives in the worlds of film, theatre and music. We would love to hear from all of our alumni, both the ones whom we see from time to time, as well as those who would like to reconnect. Last year over 500 alumni took part in the Alumni Weekend and we hope to see the same passion and enthusiasm this year!

There will be a number of events to take part in over the Alumni Weekend including: Special Coffee Mornings, Family Fun Day, Party In The Pav- Tapas Night, Tours and Reunion Banquet. To find out more, visit the Alumni website and book your place at the School of Drama, Film and Music Coffee Morning. We hope to see you then!

To reconnect with us via social media you can find us at:

Facebook: Trinity Drama, Film and Music

Twitter: @DfmTCD

Connect with us and let us know what you're doing, we would love to hear from you!

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Prof. Brian Singleton public lecture: 'The Eurovision Song Contest and the Performance of Europe'

On Wednesday 12th June at 6.15pm, Prof. Singleton will give a free public lecture titled 'The Eurovision Song Contest and the Performance of Europe' in the Trinity Long Room Hub. This is a jointly organised lecture by the IIIS and the Trinity Long Room Hub. It is part of a lecture series which is an associated event of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the series will run from January to June. For more information please visit the Long Room Hub event page. Prof. Singleton recently attended the ESC in Malmo, Sweden where he chaired an international Conference on ESC research.

Ahead of the Conference Prof. Singleton also has written article featured in the Irish Times Magazine of 11th May 2013 titled From Dana to Jedward: Our Eurovision Economy. Please click the link to read. Prof. Singletons tweets while he was in Malmo were also readable at the following link: @eurovisionern

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Registration is open for the Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013

Registration is now open for the Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013, running from 11-16 August. Registration deadline is 10th June 2013.

Founded in 2011, the Samuel Beckett Summer School provides a unique experience for students, scholars and lovers of Beckett's works. Each year we invite the world's foremost Beckett scholars to present new lectures and seminars on all aspects of Beckett's works. The School appeals to a wide range of Beckett enthusiasts by providing the opportunity to experience, savour and study Beckett's works in the university where he began his intellectual life. The Summer School is different from an academic conference in that it is not purely a gathering by specialists for other specialists. Instead, we aim to engage and explore Beckett from a variety of different perspectives in order to examine and re-examine his evolving legacy and relevance. The aim of the Summer School is to look at Beckett in an open and pluralist fashion and to consider all of the numerous contexts of his work that are of interest both to the scholar and to the general reader.

The Samuel Beckett Summer School offers a full week of learning and is complemented by social and cultural events each evening. Each morning will feature one or two lectures by leading Beckett scholars. In the afternoons we run our week-long seminars. Each student chooses one of four seminars and stays with that seminar for the full week. Seminars include: Beckett's Manuscripts; a Reading Group (the specific texts change each year); Performance Workshop; and a seminar whose topic will change each year (past examples include 'Beckett and Deleuze' and 'Beckett and Irish Culture, 1929 - 1949'). The range of seminar topics is meant to reflect the diverse ways in which Beckett's works can be approached.

The 2013 confirmed list of faculty includes: H.Porter Abbott, Mary Bryden, Daniela Caselli, Peter Fifield, Nicholas Grene, Jonathan Heron, Nicholas Johnson, Ben Keatinge, Jim Mays, Barry McGovern, Mark Nixon, Sam Slote and Dirk Van Hulle.

In addition to the academic programme, we offer a range of activities, including social events, performances, field trips, an opening reception and a closing banquet. We encourage all our speakers to attend our social events and discuss Beckett in more informal settings. Some of our additional events are open to the public and some are exclusive to participants of the Summer School.

For full information visit www.beckettsummerschool.com or email info@beckettsummerschool or sbss@usit.ie to request a registration form.

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Biopolitics Conference Now Online

Juergen Barkhoff, Kira O’Reilly, Giorgio Agamben, Stephen Wilmer, Thomas Lemke.

 

The biopolitics conference titled Biopolitics, Society and Performance which took place last October 31st to November 2nd in Trinity's Long Room Hub is now viewable online. This conference invited you to reconsider the notion of biopolitics and its recent transformations in theory and the contemporary world. The term biopolitics was first defined by Michel Foucault in his book The Will to Knowledge and his lectures in the College de France. For Foucault, biopolitics means the technologies of political power that allow for the control of the human population as a biological species. He demonstrates how the population is controlled biologically as well as by disciplinary means, resulting in "a bestialization of man achieved through the most sophisticated political techniques."

Biopolitics has become a highly controversial philosophical concept today, elaborated by such leading figures as Giorgio Agamben, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Roberto Esposito, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Maurizio Lazzarato, Thomas Lemke, and Paulo Virno. Giorgio Agamben relates the term to the legislative aspects of power and the emergence of the totalitarian states of the twentieth century. For Agamben the inclusion of 'bare life' in the political realm constitutes the original nucleus of sovereign power. Thus, the political system has the power to decide not only who deserves to have 'human rights', but also which life counts as 'human' and worth living.

Many contemporary artists are concerned with the implications of biopolitics. Their work attempts to expose the control mechanisms that affect human behaviour and limit human rights, while exploring bioethical questions in relation to human tissue and genetic modification. Artists including Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at Symbiotica, Eduardo Kac and Kira O’Reilly explore bio-art practices and new frontiers of body art.

The keynote speakers are listed below, please click on the links to watch the videos.

• Prof. David McConnell- Welcoming speech
• Giorgio Agamben- 'The Archaeology of the Work of Art'
• Dr. Thomas Lemke- 'Biopolitics: Current Issues and Future Challenges'
  
• Rosi Bradotti- 'What is 'Human' about the Humanities today?'
  
• Oron Catts- 'Neolifism - Life removed from context'
  
• Ionat Zurr- 'Techno-scientific bodies and living tools'

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Exploring Artistic Learning Through Creative Collaborations and Dialogue - talk by Dr. Susan O'Neill

On Monday April 15th at 1pm in the Trinity Long Room Hub, Dr. Susan O'Neill will be speaking about artistic 'meaning-making', learning and reflective practice, how we can 'see learning taking place' and more. Her talk is entitled: 'Exploring Artistic Learning Through Creative Collaborations and Dialogue'. Dr. O'Neill is Research Commissioner for the International Society for Music Education (ISME) as well as a leading researcher into Music/arts practice in Canada where she lectures at Simon Fraser University. If you work in the arts in any form this is an unmissable talk! This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend. You can read more about Dr. O'Neill's work here.

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Design A Bookmark Competition launched by the Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013

The Samuel Beckett Summer School is pleased to launch their first Annual Bookmark Competition. The competition is open to students, artists and members of the public, and applicants are invited to design a bookmark inspired by renowned Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. The winning design will be printed as the official bookmark for the Samuel Beckett Summer School 2013, featuring on their promotional stand in Hodges Figgis book store this July. The winner will also receive a 50euro voucher for Hodges Figgis. The winning bookmark will be given to all of this year’s Summer School lecturers and scholars, ensuring their dissemination around the world! For more information, visit the Samuel Beckett Summer School website here.

Founded in 2011, the Samuel Beckett Summer School provides a unique experience for students, scholars and lovers of Beckett’s works. Each year they invite the world’s foremost Beckett scholars to present new lectures and seminars on all aspects of Beckett’s works. The School appeals to a wide range of Beckett enthusiasts by providing the opportunity to experience, savour and study Beckett’s works in the university where he began his intellectual life. The Summer School is different from an academic conference in that it is not purely a gathering by specialists for other specialists. Instead, it aims to engage and explore Beckett’s works from a variety of different perspectives in order to examine and re-examine Beckett’s evolving legacy and relevance. The aim of the Summer School is to look at Beckett in an open and pluralist fashion and to consider all of the numerous contexts of his work that are of interest both to the scholar and to the general reader. Applications to attend the 2013 Summer School are now open and details can be found on www.beckettsummerschool.com

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Drama News

'Voyage And Return' - 1 day Symposium with Dublin Theatre Festival

Inspired by the journeys of Irish theatre, old and new, Voyage and Return is a one-day Symposium presented in collaboration with Dublin Theatre Festival on Saturday 28th September as part of The Gathering Ireland 2013. The Symposium comprises distinct morning and afternoon events:

Morning Event: begins at 9.00am. Located in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute. A series of new papers responding to ideas of Irish theatre, diaspora and international exchange. Academics from Ireland and abroad will respond to the changing performance of a nation as it is watched from near and far. Registration for the seminar is open to all, and will be of particular interest to academics and students. Speakers include Melissa Sihra, Patrick Londergan and Jesse Weaver among others. Tickets for this event are €15 and booking is via the Dublin Theatre Festival website.

Afternoon Events: 2.00pm and 4.00pm respectively. Located in the Edmund Burke Theatre, Arts Building. 'Neither Here Nor There' - a panel of Irish theatre artists whose careers have taken them abroad discuss the complexity of Irish identities on world stages. 'Special Guest Lecture: Fiona Shaw' - Fiona Shaw, one of our most celebrated actresses, will speak on the theme of theatre and the Irish diaspora. A graduate of UCC and RADA, Shaw’s award-winning career has spanned the globe, encompassed several artforms and helped to reimagine the canon from Synge to Shakespeare. Both of the afternoon events are free to attend, however advance booking is advised, via the Dublin Theatre Festival website.

For full information and booking please visit the Dublin Theatre Festival website.

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Dr. Nicholas Johnson Receives Provost's Early Career Teaching Award

(Left) Prof. Luke O'Neill, Dr. Christopher Nicholas, Dr. Robert Armstrong, Dr. Nicholas Johnson & Dr. Zuleika Rodgers (Right) The Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast, Ms. Jade Concannon, Academic Practice, Dr. Christopher Nicholas, Dr. Robert Armstrong, Dr. Zuleika Rodgers, Dr. Nicholas Johnson, Prof. Luke O'Neill & Prof Veronica Campbell, the Dean of Graduate Studies

 

Congratulations to the Drama Department's Dr. Nicholas Johnson on receiving the Provost's Early Career Teaching Award. The Provost’s Teaching Award Scheme is designed to recognise and reward those who have made an outstanding contribution in the pursuit of teaching excellence. The prestige of the award reflects the value which Trinity places on promoting teaching as a scholarly activity and the importance placed on enriching the learning opportunities of its students. The scope of the initiative is broad, covering all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment, and seeks to provide recognition for excellent teaching, reward teaching staff who are creative in their approaches to teaching and learning and who use a variety of mechanisms to achieve their learning outcomes, share best practice across College and encourage teaching staff to consider other approaches to course design, delivery and assessment, reaffirm that curriculum development, teaching, learning, assessment and evaluation, are important activities in College requiring high level expertise, and encourage teaching staff to reflect critically on their teaching practice. Dr. Johnson was put forward for this award by student nomination and the nominating student(s) had this to say about him:

'In the world of theatre, confidence is arguably the most vital for the aspiring director, playwright or actor.  Dr Johnson instils his students with the creative lifeblood of confidence, filling them with the belief necessary to pursue their creative and academic endeavours….. Dr Johnson deserves to be rewarded for his extraordinary work in the drama department, his inspirational teaching, and the confidence and self belief he has instilled in students..'

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Prof. Christine Poulter's 'The Talking Shop' at Stamsund International Theatre Festival, Norway

This 4-8th June 2013, Drama Professor Christine Poulter will facilitate The Talking Shop for young theatre goers during the Stamsund International Theatre Festival in Lofoten, Norway. The talk shops are aimed at children and teenagers attending theatre peformances, encouraging them to talk about their impressions of the production afterwards. The words and ideas about the performances and festival itself written on notes by the young theatre goers will make their way to the shop walls and to the world via an online daily blog. Here, photos, filmed interviews and the written word will be uploaded to engage an international audience as well as other festival followers in Lofoten. Facilitated by Prof. Christine Poulter, The Talking Shop crew are all teenagers from Stamsund, moving quickly to collect audience comments and transform them into questions ready to use in interviews with the companies and artists.

Stamsund International Theatre Festival is international performing arts festival. The festival takes place in a small fishing village in the Lofoten Islands in the North of Norway, transforming it for a few days into a showcase for renowned performances from all over the world. In addition to traditional theatre spaces, it develops factory spaces from the fishing industry as venues for the performances, as well as making use of the village's streets, squares and mountains. The venues are tailored to suit the specific productions presented. The Festival aims to inspire the artists to work in dialogue with the place.

Stamsund International Theatre Festival presents around 40 performances each year, and draws a mixed audience - artists from all over Europe joining the local audience. The festival is also a networking arena for Norwegian contemporary theatre.

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Dr. Nicholas Johnson Delivers Annual Samuel Beckett Lecture in Tel Aviv

Images: (Left) Dr. Nicholas Johnson and Ms. Sawshan Shomali with students of Bethlehem University, following Dr. Johnson's acting workshop in the West Bank, Palestine.

(Right) Professor Linda Ben-Zvi (Tel Aviv University), Dr. Nicholas Johnson (TCD), H.E. Breifne O'Reilly (Irish Ambassador to Israel), and Sheilah Harris (Cultural Attache for Embassy of Ireland in Israel), following Dr. Johnson's delivery of the annual Samuel Beckett Lecture in Tel Aviv.

 

The Drama Department's Dr. Nicholas Johnson delivered the Annual Samuel Beckett Lecture at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 18:15, in the presence of H.E. Breifne O'Reilly, Ambassador of Ireland.

The annual event was sponsored by the Embassy of Ireland, Culture Division, Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, and Tel Aviv University Department of Theatre Arts and was free and open to the public. H.E. Breifne O'Reilly, Ambassador of Ireland to Israel; Prof. Raanan Rein, Vice-President; Tel Aviv University; Prof. Hannah Naveh, Dean of the Faculty of the Arts; Prof. Gad Kaynar, Chair, Department of Theatre Arts; and Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi, Beckett Society of Israel opened the evening with greetings.

Dr. Johnson presented: 'A Samuel Beckett Laboratory: Praxis, Pedagogy, and Performance.' Dr. Johnson's lecture explored a number of practical and philosophical issues surrounding the living legacy of Samuel Beckett in performance, based on work at the new Samuel Beckett Laboratory at Trinity College, which offers practice-based research using performance as a methodology to research Beckett's texts. The lecture pointed toward the future of Beckett's theatre-ideas through emerging digital, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and experimental practices.

While in the Middle East that week, Dr. Johnson also undertook audition workshops for students of Tel Aviv University Department of Drama on 21st May and carried out workshops at Bethlehem University in the West Bank on 23rd May.

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Congratulations to Three School Alumni as they are Appointed Positions in The Lir Academy

This April 2013 the Lir has appointed four of Ireland's foremost theatre artists to lead its new postgraduate design and directing programmes, three of which are alumni of the School of Drama, Film and Music.

Following a competitive international search Annabelle Comyn has been appointed Resident Director at The Lir. Annabelle will lead on the new Master in Fine Art (Theatre Directing) and will also contribute to the training of Stage Management and Technical Theatre students as well as directing a graduate production on the three-year Bachelor of Acting (Hons) degree. Annabelle Comyn is universally regarded as one of Ireland's leading theatre directors, and is a graduate of Drama and Theatre Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Her recent work includes the sell-out Festival hit The Talk of The Town by Emma Donoghue in a co-production with Hatch Theatre Company (where Comyn is the founding Artist Director), Landmark Productions and Dublin Theatre Festival; the highly successful and critically acclaimed production of The House by Tom Murphy (for which Comyn won the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Director) and the critically and commercially successful production of G.B. Shaw's Pygmalion, both produced on the main stage of The Abbey Theatre. Annabelle has previously contributed to directing and acting programmes at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, University College Dublin and NUI Maynooth.

Another graduate of Drama & Theatre Studies from 2002, Wayne Jordan has been appointed as The Lir's Associate Resident Director. Jordan will contribute to the teaching on the Master in Fine Art (Theatre Directing), lead a second year project on the Bachelor of Acting (Hons) each year and direct an annual third year graduate production on the acting programme. Wayne Jordan's recent work at The Abbey Theatre, where he was associated artist from 2010 to 2012, includes Alice in Funderland, The Plough and the Stars and Christ Deliver Us!. His production, of Ibsen's The Enemy of the People is currently in rehearsal at The Gate Theatre where he also directed Celebration for the 2010 Dublin Theatre Festival.

The Lir's resident design team will be completed by the hugely talented and renowned Lighting Designer Sinead McKenna, also a graduate with a BA honours degree in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin. McKenna's recent designs include Pageant (Cois Ceim), Zoe's Play (The Ark), Opera Briefs (The Lir/RIAM) and Alice in Funderland at The Abbey. Her design for Ladies and Gents (Semper Fi) won an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Lighting Design, an award she has been nominated for three times. Sinead Mckenna will teach the Lighting Design Workshop on the MFA, make a significant contribution to the technical training on the Stage Management programme and will design at least one graduate acting production each year.

The new appointees will also be joined by one of Ireland's most acclaimed and experienced designers, Monica Frawley in the position of The Lir's first Resident Set and Costume Designer.

Commenting on the appointments The Lir's Director Loughlin Deegan said "attracting working artists of this calibre is not only an indication of the quality of training that will be available to young directors and designers at The Lir; it also copper fastens the ever-growing connections between The Lir and the industry it aims to support. I look forward to witnessing firsthand the significant contribution that all four artists will make to theatre training in Ireland and to the education of future generations of directing and design talent".

In keeping with the ethos of The Lir all four artists will continue to work professionally whilst contributing to the training at the National Academy of Dramatic Art. The new Master in Fine Art Stage Design and Theatre Directing programmes will commence in September 2013. These new degrees will complement the existing Master in Fine Art Playwriting programme which is led by Graham Whybrow, former Literary Manager of London's renowned new writing theatre The Royal Court.

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Drama Graduate stars in Short Film to be screened at 2013 Cannes Court Metrage

Drama graduate Ross Flannery stars in a recent short film, The Square of the Cube which is to be screened at the 2013 Cannes Court Metrage - Short film corner.

Shot on location in his home town of Wicklow, Dublin and Kildare, the film is a comedy about a maths teacher, Simon whose only achievement in life is also his greatest failure, and his quest to put it right. Written by Paul Marks (BBC writer of Casualty & Doctors) and directed by Kirsten Cavendish, the cast includes Ross Flannery, Melissa Nolan, Liam Cunningham, Geraldine Plunkett, Steve Gunn, Ciaran Dwyer, Richard Wall, Niamh Algar and Michelle Beamish.

Director of photography is John V. Fante (Star Trek, Ghost Busters, Jungle Book) & music by Jason Donaghy. The Cannes Film Festival runs from 15th - 26th May.

Ross came to Trinity in 1994 from Wicklow where he managed The Abbey Cinema and since then performed in Last Appache Reunion, A Black Comedy, Waiting for Godot, 12 Angry Men, Abigails Party and The Cherry Orchard. Having travelled around the world in 2002, Ross has worked predominantly in the Irish film industry as locations assistant on King Arthur, Black Water Lightship & The Whistleblower, PA to Timothy Hutton (Turning Green), Brian Cox (The Take) and production assistant on Paramounts Honeymooners, Speed Dating, Holy Water, Get Rich die Trying, Dragnet, The last Furlong, Single Handed, Marley & Me and The Guard.

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Two Drama Students Elected to Scholarship for 2013

We are very proud to announce that two students of the School of Drama, Film and Music have been elected to Scholarship for 2013: Lydia Fischer Dooley (Drama & Theatre Studies) and Aine Tyrell (TSM Drama/English Literature). This is a fantastic and prestigious achievement for both students so we would like to congratulate them and wish them the very best in their studies. Trinity College Dublin was founded as a corporation consisting of the Provost, the Fellows and the Scholars. Scholars are elected annually on Trinity Monday. Scholarship or research achievement of a high order is the primary qualification for Fellowship, coupled with evidence of the candidate's contribution to the academic life of the College and an effective record in teaching.

Traditionally, the election of new Fellows and Scholars is announced by the Provost on Trinity Monday (8th April 2013) at 10.00 a.m. from the steps of the Public Theatre. Two Honorary Fellows, five Professional Fellows, ten New Fellows and ninety Scholars were elected this year. Trinity College has always had its Scholars, students who are selected on merit and given certain benefits during their time in College. At present Scholarships are awarded in all courses to students showing outstanding achievement in a set of non-compulsory exams that are typically taken in their Senior Freshman year. Benefits include free rooms on campus from October to June, the waiving of fees and registration charges, and the right dine on Commons for free. A previous Scholar of note was Samuel Beckett (1926).

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Pan Pan Theatre presents All That Fall - a Beckett Radio Play at the Samuel Beckett Theatre

The atmospheric stage and seating for All That Fall, left, and the cast of voices, right

 

Dates: Special price IETM previews 11-13 April, regular shows 15 - 20 April. Performances at 4pm, 7pm, 9pm daily
Tickets: 20 euro/ 15 euro conc.
Booking: www.tcd.ie/Drama/samuel-beckett-theatre/events/#Beckett / Tel. 01 896 2461

'A life of unending misery in a world devoid of God, now that’s funny.'

The Samuel Beckett Theatre is delighted to announce that it will play host to Pan Pan's acclaimed production of Beckett's radio play 'All That Fall' this April 2013. Fresh from its acclaimed New York run at BAM, Pan Pan's Beckett sensation, 'All That Fall', has been selected for the IETM Conference in Dublin as part of Ireland's European Presidency and will continue for a subsequent run at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Building on its international success, it has also been selected for the Edinburgh International Festival in August.
'All That Fall' is a multi-layered composition of voices that can be experienced as a black comedy, a murder mystery, a cryptic literary riddle, or a quasi-musical score, but that gains from being experienced in Pan Pan's uniquely atmospheric, theatrically tuned listening chamber. This production has already toured the globe, winning numerous awards and gaining praise for its innovative production design. Directed by Gavin Quinn and designed by Aedin Cosgrove, both alumni of Trinity College Drama Department, this production is sure to be a feast for the senses and an unmissable experience. The cast of voices includes: Andrew Bennett, Phelim Drew, John Kavanagh, Nell Klemencic, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Robbie O'Connor, Joey O'Sullivan, David Pearse, Daniel Reardon and Judith Roddy.

What the press have said:

“Gavin Quinn’s radical production goes further in honoring the spirit of Beckett’s wish, situating the play in the realm of pure imagination.” - The New York Times
‘Pan Pan’s production of Samuel Beckett's 1957 radio play, All That Fall, is a refreshingly disconcerting experience.’- The Irish Independent
‘Pan Pan under its director Gavin Quinn has given the play a masterly production ... Designer Aedin Cosgrove has provided a deeply unsettling ambience’.- Emer O’Kelly, The Sunday Independent

To hear a recent feature on the upcoming production by RTE Lyric FM's Culture File, click here.

 

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At The Hawk's Well: After Yeats - 2nd Year BA Drama Production at the Samuel Beckett Theatre

Dates: Tue 2nd - Thurs 4th April, at 7.30pm daily
Tickets: 8 euro/ 4 euro conc.
Booking: www.tcd.ie/Drama/samuel-beckett-theatre/events/#Yeats / Tel. 01 896 2461

'At the Hawk's Well: After Yeats' is a second-year BA ensemble production that reimagines Yeats and propels the ancient history and myths of Ireland into modern culture. Youth takes on age and engages with questions among our place in the modern society in relation to the past. The constant flux between the old and new both in form and content is manifest in this production, a breathtaking piece of theatre, which is compelling to watch. You are sure to be drawn in by the myriad of artistic elements that introduce the play into this century. This fresh perspective on Yeats results in an enchanting piece of theatre.

To view the work in progress leading up to this dynamic production, visit the At The Hawk's Well: After Yeats Tumblr page

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Film News

 

Dr. Ruth Barton to speak at UCC Conference Ireland and Cinema: Culture and Contexts

This three-day international conference in UCC Cork will facilitate discussions, presentations and debates across a wide spectrum of subjects in the broadest definition of the field of Ireland and Cinema. The conference will have in attendance highly-respected key note speakers from the field. On Saturday 20th April our own Film Studies lecturer Dr. Ruth Barton will deliver a keynote talk titled Retrieving Rex: how Irish was the cinema of Rex Ingram?. Other speakers include Prof. Brian McIlroy (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), Prof. Martin McLoone (University of Coleraine) and Prof. Diane Negra (University College Dublin). This conference runs from Thursday April 18th to Saturday April 20th 2013.

 

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Prof. Kevin Rockett & Dr. Ruth Barton to present Public Film Lectures for Trinity Week 2013

This year's Trinity Week running from the 8th to 12th April has the theme of The Irish Diaspora: Social, Cultural and Economic Perspectives and will be proudly hosted by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

On Tuesday 9th April from 1 - 2.30pm Professor Kevin Rockett will give a lecture titled Irish Migration and American Cinema. This lecture, with film extracts, will explore representations of the Irish in American cinema from it's beginnings to the present. Venue: Neill/ Hoey lecture Theatre in the Long Room Hub.

On Friday 12th April from 1 - 2.30pm Dr. Ruth Barton will give a talk titled Maureen O'Hara, between Ireland and Hollywood. Using clips from her films, this talk will consider how Maureen O'Hara played the feisty Irish colleen not just in The Quiet Man but across a range of Hollywood productions. Venue: Neill/ Hoey Lecture Theatre in the Long Room Hub.

On the 9th and 10th of April there will be a Cinemobile located on Front Square, screening Films of the Diasporic Irish - a selection of films about Irish migration to the USA, Britain and Australia, including, Amarilly of Clothes Line Alley (1918), Ned Kelly (2003), Philadelphia Here I Come! (1970), Kings (2007), In America (2002) and Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970). For the full film schedule, visit: www.tcd.ie/trinityweek

 

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Short film Broken Song wins Michael Dwyer Discover Award and Audience Award at JDIFF

Documentary Broken Song has been awarded the Michael Dwyer Discover Award at this years Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The award, now in its third year, is named after the late journalist and film critic Michael Dwyer, who founded the Federation of Irish Film Societies, now known as Access>Cinema. Broken Song, directed by Claire Dix, follows a young soul singer and two rappers from the Ballymun and Finglas areas as they use music in a bid to escape their troubled pasts. Nodlag Houlihan produced with Richard Kendrick shooting. The film was funded by the Reel Arts Scheme and screened at the IFI in February.

 

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Film Produced by Film Studies Lecturer Nodlag Houlihan Premiered at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

 

Broken Song is a documentary about members of Dublin hip hop collective Street Literature that was premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2013.

Filmed in Finglas and Ballymun and offering an unsentimental look at the lives of young people in Dublin's working class suburbs, Broken Song follows soul singer Willa Lee and rappers GI and Costello over the course of a year. Exploring themes of redemption, atonement for the mistakes of the past and the struggle to find and articulate meaning in an often chaotic world, the film is a raw and beautiful portrait of these truly outsider artists. The voice, and even the face of an angel can hide a troubled past.

"When we first filmed with Willa Lee it was on the eve of a sentencing hearing for a serious charge that had been hanging over him for three years," says director Claire Dix. "None of us knew if he would get a prison sentence - if that would be the last chance we'd have to film with him. It was a fairly intense few days for all of us." Like many kids from his background Willa went down the wrong path early in life. "He's one of the lucky ones in that he found something in his music to pull him back from that but he's still struggling to make things right, not just with the legal system but also with his conscience." It's a heavy weight for a nineteen year old and - as we see during the course of the documentary - Willa's path to redemption is by no means clear or easy. Like many of his musical collaborators in Street Literature, the struggle to make sense of his past and the often violent and chaotic world around him finds expression in his songwriting. "That's the story we really wanted to tell," says producer Nodlag Houlihan, "the poetry that they've created out of that darkness, something that is truly a 'street' art and that they've made completely their own."
Broken Song was produced by Nodlag Houlihan a part-time lecturer in the department of Film Studies. Film Studies graduate, Ken Waide worked as a camera-trainee on the shoot where he assisted Director of Photography Richard Kendrick (Ken has since gone on to gain further camera department credits including one for RTE's criticallly acclaimed Irish Pictorial Weekly). Directed by Claire Dix, Broken Song was funded by the Reel Arts Scheme; an initiative set up by the Arts Council to allow filmmakers make creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries, on an artistic theme.

 

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Dead Money Directed by Film Studies Lecturer Matt Leigh Nominated for Best Factual Programme

RTE’s primetime show Dead Money has been shortlisted in the 2013 Irish Film & Television Awards. Nominated in the category of Best Factual Programme, the six-part series was directed and filmed by Matt Leigh a part-time lecturer in the Film Studies department. The show proved hugely popular during its initial run in March and April 2012 and has since been repeated twice. The assistant editor and data-wrangler for the series was Film Studies graduate, Edward Stalley.

Dead Money focused on the work of Massey & King, a probate research firm owned by brothers Kit and Steven Smyrl. Each episode of Dead Money followed the search for next-of-kin to an unclaimed estate. The Smyrl brothers' investigations uncover the lives of the deceased's ancestors and relatives. These personal histories are set against the backdrop of some of the most fascinating periods in history - from the bitter conflict of Ireland's Land War to the chaos of the Russian Revolution. The beneficiaries, usually long lost relatives, have stories of their own to tell - some harrowing, some entertaining - and fractured families are linked together once more by the brothers' findings.

Organised by the Irish Film & Television Academy, this year's IFTA's mark the 10th Anniversary of the Awards which promise to be an unforgettable occasion, celebrating Ireland's outstanding film and television productions in 2012 and reflecting upon a decade of exceptional Irish art, creativity and entertainment.

 

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Music News

Call for Papers! Music In The 21st Century

The Music Composition Centre (Music Department, Trinity College Dublin) in association with the New Music Dublin Festival 2014, invites composers, musicologists and practitioners to an International Conference & Festival entitled Composition in the 21st Century that will take place in Dublin in March 2014 (conference 5-7 March & festival 7-9 March). The Conference will offer a forum to discuss aesthetic, technical, practical and economical issues affecting composers of different musical genres today.

Keynote speaker of the Conference & Festival will be distinctive, radical and uncompromising internationally acclaimed composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Interested parties should email a proposal of 300 words max (for a paper or a performance of 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion) that addresses one of the following aspects of composition:

Contemporary Composition
Contemporary Opera
Experimental Music Theatre
Improvisation
Sound Art
Mixed Media
Film Music
Electronic Music
Traditional Music
Popular Music
Writing for Amateurs

In addition, all proposals should include:

The full title of each paper
The full name, contact details and institutional affiliation (if any).
A short curriculum vitae for all proposed speakers (maximum 150
words per speaker)

For any further enquiries and for the submission of proposals please email Evangelia Rigaki (Director of Music Composition Centre) at rigakie@tcd.ie
Deadline for the submission of proposals is Monday 9 September 2013 (the selected proposals will be announced within four weeks).

For further information please visit:
http://www.tcd.ie/music-composition/composition-21st-century/ or http://www.newmusicdublin.ie/about/

Download the .PDF file with info here: Music In The 21st Century (1.91MB)

 

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I Hear A New World - Graduate Showcase of TCD M.Phil Music and Media Technologies

Date: 3rd May at 8pm

Venue: Samuel Beckett Theatre

Tickets: 10 euro/ 8 euro conc. Book online at www.tcd.ie/Drama/samuel-beckett-theatre/events/#MMT

The Trinity College M.Phil in Music and Media Technologies has left an indelible mark on Ireland's creative landscape since its inception in 1996. Established by composer Donnacha Dennehy along with Trinity's Dr. Dermot Furlong, the course encourages interdisciplinary innovation in its students who are exposed to a broad range of creative tools, from orchestration and composition to software programming and signal processing. Past students include Lyric FM Composer-in-Residence Linda Buckley, Choice Music Prize-winner Julie Feeney and members of some of the Irish music underground's most noted acts including the Jimmy Cake, the Redneck Manifesto and Somadrone. The teaching staff on the course has featured godfather of Irish electroacoustic music Roger Doyle and electronic music pioneer Donnacha Costello. I Hear a New World, the 2013 MMT graduate show, will feature composition, installation, audio visual performance and more.

 

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Music Department Welcomes New Adjunct Professors: Roger Doyle & Rolf Hind

Adjunct Professors Roger Doyle, left, and Rolf Hind, right.

 

This year the Music Department is very proud to welcome two world renowned composers as our Adjunct Professors.

Roger Doyle is known for his pioneering work as composer of electronic music. He has worked extensively in theatre, film and dance, in particular with the music-theatre company Operating Theatre, which he co-founded. Babel, his magnum opus was released on a 5-CD box set in 1999. It contained 103 pieces of music. Recent work includes a series of soundtracks for imaginary films - a cinema fior the ear. He is a member of Aosdana, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists.

Rolf Hind is a pianist and composer, who speaks nearly six languages, practises yoga daily and loves reading, travelling, eating and meditation. He has played and written throughout Europe, Asia and North America, produced over 30 CDs, and played at the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall. You can find some of his work on www.rolfhind.com

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What Next? Lecture by Welsh Musicologist and Writer Paul Griffiths

The Music Composition Centre is delighted to welcome accomplished musicologist and writer Paul Griffiths to Trinity College to give a lecture on his works on March 28th at 6pm in the Long Room Hub. The lecture is free and all are welcome to attend.

Paul Griffiths was born in Bridgend, Wales, in 1947. He studied biochemistry at Oxford, and joined the editorial team of The New Grove in 1973. Around the same time he began writing on music for various London papers; he was chief critic of The Times of London (1982-92) and The New Yorker (1992-6), and wrote regularly for The New York Times (1996-2003). His first book, A Concise History of Modern Music, came out in 1978 and was soon translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, Finnish and Welsh. His other books on music include studies of Boulez, Cage, Messiaen, Ligeti, Davies, Bartok, Stravinsky, Barraque and the string quartet, as well as the Penguin Companion to Classical Music (2004) and A Concise History of Western Music (2006), of which the latter has also been widely translated. Among his fictional writings are novels - Myself and Marco Polo (1989 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize), The Lay of Sir Tristram (1991), let me tell you (2008) - and several librettos, among them The Jewel Box (Mozart, 1991), Marco Polo (Tan Dun, 1996), What Next? (Elliott Carter, 1999), there is still time (Frances-Marie Uitti, 2003) and The General (Beethoven, 2007). He has given lectures and courses on various musical topics and on libretto writing, invited by institutions ranging from the Munich Biennale to Harvard University. In 2002 he was made a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, in 2008 a Member of the Welsh Academy, and in 2011 a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Manorbier (Wales) and New York with his wife, and has two sons.

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ATRL News

Structured PhD Programme - Applications open

The Digital Arts and Humanities programme (DAH) is an innovative inter-disciplinary structured PhD programme coordinated by an all-Irish university consortium, funded through Cycle 5 of the Government's Programme for Research
in Third-Level Institutions. The programme is open for registration with Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, National University of Ireland, Galway and National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Teaching resources are also provided by the Royal Irish Academy and the Northern Ireland universities Queen's University Belfast and University of Ulster.

DAH opened last year as the world's largest digital arts and humanities doctoral programme with 46 students. We are creating the research platform, the structures, partnerships and innovation models by which fourth-level researchers can engage with a wide range of stakeholders in order to contribute to the developing digital arts and humanities community world-wide, as participants and as leaders. Further information about the programme is available in this pdf document (950KB) or on the website: www.dahphd.ie.

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