School News
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.
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. Broken Song was produced by Zucca Films and was aired in the Irish Film Institute on the 19th of
February at 6.10 pm.
World Renowned Cultural Theorist Giorgio Agamben to Speak at TCD Biopolitics Conference
Details:
Giorgio Agamben lecture
6 - 7.30pm, 31 Oct 2012
Tercentenary Theatre, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Pearse St, Dublin 2
Full details of the conference and venues at: http://biopoliticstcd.wordpress.com/programme/
The renowned philosopher and cultural theorist from Italy, Giorgio Agamben, will be giving a public keynote address as part of a major three-day conference, Biopolitics, Society and Performance organised by the School of Drama, Film and Music and co-hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin (31 October to 2 November 2012. Agamben's keynote address, The Archaeology of the Work of Art, takes place on 31 October.
The Italian philosopher and author is widely known for his criticism of the "War on Terror" and for developing such concepts as "Homo Sacer", someone who can be killed with impunity because he is regarded as worthless by the state, and 2State of Exception2, whereby the state determines who is worthy of living. He also caused a sensation when he refused to travel to the USA to give a lecture in 2004 because of having to give up his biometric information, which he regarded as equivalent to being tattooed by the Nazis.
The author will be joined at the conference by other world-leading participants who will give keynote addresses. They include the sociologist Thomas Lemke from Germany, who will open the conference with his talk Biopolitics: Current Issues and Future Challenges (10am, Wednesday 31 October at Trinity Long Room Hub) and feminist theoretician Rosi Braidotti from the Netherlands who will give her talk What is ‘Human' about the Humanities Today? (6 pm, 1 November at Trinity Long Room Hub).
The conference theme of "biopolitics" addresses a major concern today about how life is being regulated, tackling such diverse topics as CCTV surveillance cameras, the rights of asylum seekers, the prevention of AIDs, environmental controls, organ transplantation, genetic modification, and stem cell research among other issues. The conference aims 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. For Foucault, biopolitics means the technologies of political power that allow for the control of the human population as a biological species. Biopolitics has become a highly controversial philosophical concept today. 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 2bare 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.
For more information see the conference website: http://biopoliticstcd.wordpress.com/programme/
or contact Prof Steve Wilmer, swilmer@tcd.ie or Caitriona Curtis, curtisc@tcd.ie.
About the keynote speakers
Giorgio Agamben is Visiting Professor of Philosophy at University of Paris 8 and is the author of many books, including Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford University Press, 1998), Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive (Zone Books, 1999), State of Exception (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and The Kingdom and the Glory (Stanford University Press, 2011).
Rosi Braidotti is currently Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University and founding Director of the Centre for the Humanities. Her publications have been placed in continental philosophy, at the intersection with social and political theory, cultural politics, gender, feminist theory and ethnicity studies. Her work has been translated into a total of 19 languages.
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher, curator, and Director of SymbioticA, the Centre for Excellence in Biological Arts, within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. In 1996, he founded the Tissue Culture and Art Project to explore the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression. His work is part of the New York MoMA design collection and has been exhibited and presented internationally.
Thomas Lemke is Heisenberg-Professor of Sociology with a focus on Biotechnologies, Nature and Society at the faculty of Social Sciences of the Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main in Germany. His research interests include social and political theory, sociology of organization, biopolitics, social studies of genetic and reproductive technologies. His book, Biopolitics, An Advanced Introduction, was published in 2010 by New York University Press.
17 Oct 2012
Drama Graduate receives the Rooney Prize
The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for 2012 has been awarded to Nancy Harris in recognition of her achievement and outstanding promise as a dramatist. The announcement was made by the Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Patrick Prendergast, at a recent reception in the Provost's House. Previous winners of the Rooney Prize include Bernard Farrell, Neil Jordan, Frank McGuinness, Deirdre Madden and Anne Enright.
The Rooney Prize is awarded annually to a young Irish writer who shows exceptional promise. It has existed since 1976 through the generosity of Dr Daniel Rooney, President Emeritus of the Pittsburgh Steelers, USA and the current Ambassador to Ireland of the United States of America, and of his wife Mrs Patricia Rooney. The Rooney Prize is administered in the Oscar Wilde Centre, School of English, Trinity College, Dublin and its committee is chaired by Dr Terence Brown.
Nancy Harris was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (Drama Studies and Classical Civilization, 2002) and the University of Birmingham. Her play No Romance was premiered at the Abbey Theatre Dublin in March 2011. A new play, Our New Girl was premiered at the Bush Theatre London in January 2012, where one of her earlier plays Little Dolls was first performed in 2008. She has written an adaptation of Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata and has also written for radio and television. In 2011 Nancy Harris was the Pearson Playwright-in-Residence at the Bush Theatre, London.
The chair of the Rooney Prize committee, Dr Terence Brown, comments: 'Nancy Harris has an ear keenly attuned to how the fracture lines in relationships are opened in apparently innocent conversations. Critics and audiences have been impressed by her psychological insight and by her sharp wit.'
October 2012
Drama Graduand Receives Directing Bursary
Congratulations to Drama graduand Marc Atkinson who has received the Jennifer Johnston Theatre Directing Bursary from the multi-award-winning novelist and playwright. The bursary is awarded to a TCD undergraduate student of Drama, specialising in Theatre Directing. Marc will be availing of the bursary to study the working methods of Catalan company La Fura dels Baus later this year.
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Special Guests at End of Year Film Studies Workshop
Lord David Puttnam and filmmaker-in-residence Lenny Abrahamson in conversation at a workshop with the film studies undergraduates, May 2012
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New M.Phil in Music Composition
The School of Drama, Film and Music has launched a Masters course in Music Composition. The aim of the M.Phil is to provide high quality training for Composers in the theoretical and practical aspects of music composition.
Trinity College has a time honoured record in music composition, dating back to the first Professorship in music in 1764, which in recent times has expanded to include a focus on bridging the gap between the normal acoustic environment of concert music and the cutting-edge developments in music technology.
The Department of Music is now home to composers Donnacha Dennehy and Evangelia Rigaki.
Dennehy is also the artistic director of the acclaimed Crash Ensemble (supported by the Arts Council of Ireland) and Rigaki was recently commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland to compose an Opera (alongside poet W.N. Herbert).
The Music Department has recently launched the Music Composition Centre at Trinity College, which is a platform for composition-related masterclasses, talks from international leaders in the field, workshops and concerts.
In addition to Rigaki and Dennehy, three new adjunct Professors of international standing have been appointed in the area: Gerald Barry (Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, Intelligence Park etc.), Bill Whelan (the composer of Riverdance, The Seville Suite etc.), and Kevin Volans (White Man Sleeps, Hunting Gathering etc.).
Furthermore, the Avalon Ensemble has commenced a three-year residency within the Music Department. This forms the first of many residencies of instrumental groups that will be hosted in the music department.
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Sharjah National Theatre Visits the Samuel Beckett Theatre
Pictured above: Sharjah Minister of Culture, Abdullah Al Laaouis, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan TD, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Ireland, Mr. Khalid Nasser Rashid Lootah, and Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin, Brian Singleton.
The School of Drama Film and Music, in association with The Lir - National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin, recently hosted a reception in honour of the visit to the Samuel Beckett Theatre of Sharjah National Theatre from the United Arab Emirates, accompanied by the Minister of Culture & Communication of the Government of Sharjah. Following the reception the National Theatre performed their celebrated play Nimrod written by his Excellency Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah. Also in attendance at the event was Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
Members of the Board of The Lir, Professor Michael Marsh and Harry Crosbie
Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gealtacht chatting with Professor Steve Wilmer, Head of the School of Drama, Film and Music and his wife Marja Wilmer. Also in the picture (right) is Louglin Deegan, Director of The Lir - National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College.
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Seventeen Drama, Film and Music Students on Dean of Students' Roll of Honour
Congratulations to all Drama, Film and Music students who have been recognised for their volunteering. The Roll of Honour serves to recognise the learning gained by students outside the classroom through extra-curricular voluntary activity and to acknowledge students' civic engagement, both within the College community and outside the College environment. The recipients names can be found in the Roll of Honour Document (MS Word 13KB).
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Four Drama, Film, and Music Students Elected Scholars
Congratulations to Alexandra Ellen Greenfield (Drama & Theatre Studies), Dylan Coburn Gray (Music), Justin Edward Murphy (Film Studies & English), and Stephen O'Brien (Music) who have been elected Scholars of Trinity College.
For more information on scholars please go to the communications website.
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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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Film Studies lecturer Matt Leigh's documentary airs on RTE
In Ireland, community and public health nurses make almost 10,000 house-calls every day. The Nurse, a new six-part series for RTE, goes with them.
The Nurse is a gripping and intimate documentary series that follows the daily lives of six nurses, their patients and their communities. From Inishbofin Island to Inner City Dublin, Castleknock to Coolock, Cavan to Clare, these community nurses work at the frontline of the health service. The commitment and humanity they show is matched by the courage, resilience and good humour of their patients. This series is all about life, from cradle to grave: an honest and touching portrayal of real people and real struggles all across Ireland.
The Nurse, produced for RTE by Mairead Tucker and Directed by Matt Leigh, was shown on RTE1 in January 2012 and past episodes are available to watch on www.rte.ie/player.
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Professor Kevin Rockett, President Michael D. Higgins and Emer Rockett at Aras an Uachtarain
Following the publication by Four Courts Press of their two books, Magic Lantern, Panorama and Moving Picture Shows in Ireland, 1786 - 1909 and Film Exhibition and Distribution in Ireland, 1909 - 2010, the authors, Kevin Rockett, a Professor in Film Studies, School of Drama, Film and Music, Trinity College Dublin, and his wife Eme were invited by President Michael D. Higgins to visit Aras an Uachtarain on 26 January 2012. In 2004, President Higgins had launched the first of the Rocketts' books in this trilogy on picture-going in Ireland, Irish Film Censorship: A Cultural Journey from Silent Cinema to Internet Pornography, which was awarded an American Library Association prize for Academic Excellence.
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Trinity Drama Graduates Nominated for Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards
Six graduates of TCD's Drama Department were among those nominated for Irish Theatre Awards when nominations were announced on on 14 January 2012. The Awards started in 1997 and have each year continued to reward excellence in Irish theatre, from actors, directors, to production, writing and design. The awards are open to all new plays performed by professional theatre companies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Three judges attend all eligible plays and compile a shortlist in each category.
BEST PRODUCTION
All That Fall by Samuel Beckett, directed by Gavin Quinn (BA Classical Civilzation/Drama 1991) for Pan Pan Theatre.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
* Aoife Duffin (Bachelor in Theatre Studies 2004) as Abigail Williams in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, directed by Conall Morrison for the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
Karen Ardiff (BA Drama/English 1989) as Aase/Green-Clad in Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, in a new version by Arthur Riordan, directed by Lynne Parker for Rough Magic Theatre.
BEST NEW PLAY
No Romance by Nancy Harris (BA Drama/Classical Civilization 2002), directed by Wayne Jordan (BA Drama & Theatre Studies 2002) for The Abbey Theatre.
BEST DIRECTOR
Gavin Quinn (BA Classical Civilzation/Drama 1991) for All That Fall by Samuel Beckett, produced by Pan Pan Theatre.
BEST DESIGNER: LIGHTING
* Aedin Cosgrove (BA History of Art/Drama 1989) for All That Fall by Samuel Beckett, directed by Gavin Quinn for Pan Pan Theatre AND Man of Valour by Michael West, directed by Annie Ryan for Corn Exchange, and performed at Trinity's Samuel Beckett Theatre as part of the ABSOLUT Fringe Festival 2011.
* Winner
January 2012
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Trinity College Dublin Graduates among IFTA Nominees 2012
Congratulations to all the graduates of the School of Drama, Film and Music who have been nominated for 2012 awards. Our graduates have received 8 nominations for acting, directing, producing and writing for Film and Television.
BEST FILM
Leslie McKimm (Drama/English 1991), Producer Stella Days
DIRECTOR FILM
Rebecca Daly (BA Drama/English 2001),
Director The Other Side of Sleep
ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE IN A FEATURE FILM
Aoife Duffin (Bachelor in Theatre Studies 2004) in Behold The Lamb
ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE TELEVISION
David Pearse (Diploma in Theatre Studies 1994) in Trivia
ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE TELEVISION
Ruth Negga (Bachelor in Theatre Studies 2002) in Shirley
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE TELEVISION
Tom Vaughan Lawlor (BA Drama/Classical Civilization 2000)
in Love/Hate
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE TELEVISION
Ruth Negga (Bachelor in Theatre Studies 2002) in Misfits
CHILDREN'S/YOUTH PROGRAMME
David Horan (BA Drama/English 1999), Writer: The Importance of Being Whatever
For full details of the IFTA nominations, see:
http://www.ifta.ie/nominees/index.html
Adjunct Appointments in the School of Drama, Film and Music
January 2011
Distinguished writers, publishers, composers and experts in creative technologies will be joining Trinity College Dublin as adjunct professors and lecturers as part of Trinity’s new Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture Initiative. A stellar cast, including three of Ireland’s leading composers, award winning playwright Michael West, novelist Terry Pratchett, and Disney Research Director, Jessica K. Hodgins, will be giving master classes to Trinity students and engaging in collaborative research among other activities as part of their new adjunct professorships and lectureships over the next three years. The public will also have an opportunity to benefit as each of the new adjuncts will be variously giving public inaugural lectures, readings and performances this year.
The appointments are part of a major initiative launched by Trinity last year to spearhead a dynamic new approach to the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture. Promoting the generation of new ideas, connectivity and programmes across the Arts and Sciences, and between the City and Trinity, a new appreciation of creative practice within the university is at its core (www.tcd.ie/catc).
Commenting on the initiative and the invaluable contribution these artists and experts will make in their new roles, Provost, Dr John Hegarty, said:
“The Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture initiative at the heart of Dublin City, with Trinity as its catalyst, is about promoting dynamic new connections, ideas, and graduates equipped to re-imagine and re-design the future. Alongside our existing distinguished adjuncts and our new artists in residence, the appointment of this sizeable new cohort of creative practitioners and scholars from the arts and creative industry sectors is a significant step forward as it creates a formal space in the curriculum that is about valuing and developing the practitioner.”
“These adjunct appointments will bring the world of academia and creative practice closer together while at the same time reinforcing the great traditional values of the university. There is enormous potential benefit for Dublin city and Ireland in forging the new connections promoted under our creative initiative. This is but a first step.”
Trinity’s adjunct appointments are in title only and are reserved for distinguished people outside the university who can bring their expertise to bear on its activities and in turn have access to a community of scholars and ideas.
MUSIC COMPOSITION:
The recently established Centre for Composition and Contemporary Practice (School of Drama, Film and Music) is building on Trinity’s tradition in composition and music technology to consolidate its position at the cutting edge of contemporary music. It will benefit hugely from the expertise of the following leading Irish composers as adjunct professors in music composition:
Gerald Barry internationally regarded for a series of groundbreaking operas, including The Intelligence Park to the most recent, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. He is at present finishing The Importance of Being Earnest for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Kevin Volans received international prominence with his string quartets White Man Sleeps, Hunting Gathering and Songlines. His music has been promoted by some of the major performing groups of our time, such as Kronos Quartet and the London Sinfonietta, and has been performed at most of the major international venues.
Bill Whelan known throughout the world for Riverdance and other landmark compositions such as The Seville Suite and The Spirit of Mayo. He has also enjoyed a hugely successful career as a producer and arranger, and as a composer of film music.
DRAMATIC ARTS:
The School of Drama, Film and Music provides the largest number of programmes in the Arts at Trinity with practice-based dimensions and has been forging links with the arts profession and cultural industries for many years. In 2011, the School will open the professional training conservatoire, the Lir, the National Academy of Dramatic Art, in collaboration with the Cathal Ryan Trust and RADA, as a centre of excellence for professional training in all the dramatic arts (acting, design, directing and writing), advancing the rich theatrical heritage of both Trinity and Ireland.
Michael West award winning playwright, will join the School as adjunct lecturer in Drama. Plays include Dublin by Lamplight, Foley and Everday and his latest play, Freefall, was voted the Irish Times Theatre Awards Best New Play 2009. Michael has also translated or adapted many texts including The Marriage of Figaro for the Abbey and Tartuffe for the Gate. He has written the libretto for Ahakista, an opera by Jurgen Simpson, which will premiere in January 2012 in Canada.
He will join the distinguished panel of existing Adjunct Professors in Drama:
Fiona Shaw leading Irish actor regarded as one of the finest classical actresses of her generation;
Michael Bogdanov award winning director and producer, co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company and also involved in the founding of the Wales Theatre Company;
Anne Bogart an American theatre director and a professor at Columbia University, heading the Graduate Directing Program;
Marina Carr leading Irish playwright, with plays translated and performed throughout the world. Her best known works include By the Bog of Cats, Portia Coughlan, The Mai, and Woman and Scarecrow.
ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE:
Michael Keegan-Dolan Theatre-Maker in Residence - instructing students in theatre movement, use of sound and music, choreography and how to devise their own pieces. He is the Artistic Director of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and has choreographed nine works including the internationally acclaimed Midlands Trilogy, Giselle, The Bull, James Son of James and most recently The Rite of Spring in collaboration with the English National Opera.
Selina Cartmell Arts Council Artist in Residence - is the Artistic Director of Siren Productions for whom she has directed Macbeth, Titus Andronicus, Fando and Lis and Medea. She has directed Marina Carr’s The Cordelia Dream at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Only an Apple, Big Love, and Woman and Scarecrow for the Abbey Theatre.
Adjunct Appointments in the School of Drama, Film and Music
Lenny Abrahamson Film-Maker in Residence - will be offering master classes to film students at Trinity. He is the director of Adam and Paul, Garage and the RTE TV series Prosperity and is now considered one of the leading young directors of Irish cinema.
Ensemble Avalon has been appointed as the Allied Pension Trustees (APT) Ensemble in Residenceat the Centre for Composition and Contemporary Practice, inpartnership with Dublin City Council, the Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Concert Hall. Ensemble Avalon is a fresh and dynamic piano trio featuring three of Ireland's finest internationally accomplished soloists and chamber musicians. As an ensemble in residence, Ensemble Avalon will interact with the student body both in structured courses and in organising performances.
Drama
Honorary Fellowship for Drama Professor
Professor Brian Singleton, the Samuel Beckett Chair for Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin and Academic Director of The Lir - the newly-opened Academy of Dramatic Arts at Trinity - has been conferred with an Honorary Fellowship of Rose Bruford College, one of the UK's leading Drama schools. For more information on The Lir please click The Lir Academy Link.
Drama Department students win top two prizes in TaPRA postgraduate research competition
June 2010
Two students of the School of Drama, Film and Music have won the top two prizes in the Theatre and Performance Research Association's (TaPRA) international postgraduate essay competition. Marcus Cheng Chye Tan and Aoife McGrath, both doctoral students supervised by Professor Brian Singleton, have won the first prize and the runner up prize respectively.
TaPRA is a research association based in the UK that was founded in order to foster and sustain research in all theatre, performance and related areas in British and Irish Universities and allied institutions. The jurors for this year's postgraduate awards were Marvin Carlson (CUNY, USA), Joanne Tompkins (University of Queensland, Australia), Paul Allain (University of Kent, UK) and David Bradby (Royal Holloway, UK).
Marcus is researching the performativity of sound in intercultural performance and his winning essay, Every Situation Has Its Rhythm: Acoustic Mimesis and Sonic Exoticism in "Tambours Sur La Digue", explores the ways in which the production Tambours Sur La Digue mimics musical traditions and forms and exoticises sonic signatures, consequently reifying the Orientalist spectacle in the performance. Aoife is conducting a socio-political analysis of Irish dance theatre and her runner up essay, Choreographing the Unanticipated: Death, Hope and Verticality in Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre's "Giselle" and "The Rite of Spring", questions seemingly hermetic narratives of oppression through an examination of the potential political efficacy of unanticipated endings.
Marcus and Aoife will be awarded their prizes in a presentation to be held at the University of Glamorgan during the TaPRA International Conference 2010.
- Theatre and Performance Research Awards
- New publications from Department of Drama staff
- Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards
Film
Congratulations to Film Studies lecturers Matt Leigh and Nodlag Houlihan on their recent success with their short film, ‘Blue Rinse’, which has been awarded Best International Short at the Asiana International Short Film Festival (AISFF) in Seoul, Korea. The AISFF is the largest international short film festival in Korea. Blue Rinse was selected from among 50 shorts competing in the international section of the festival, which were in turn selected from over 2000 entries.
Directed by Matt Leigh and produced by Nodlag Houlihan for Zucca Films, ‘Blue Rinse’ is a gentle portrait of an inner city Dublin hair salon catering to a senior clientele. Director of Photography on the shoot was Kate McCullough with original music by Hugh Drumm, the film was edited by Guy Montgomery.
Blue Rinse was funded by the Irish Film Board under the ‘Reality Bites’ Scheme and premiered at last years Cork Film Festival.
The film has already picked up the prize for Best Documentary the Sardinia Film Festival and received honorable mentions at the Chicago Irish Film Festival and the Sedicicorto Film Festival in Italy.
‘Blue Rinse’ has screened at a wide range of festivals at home and abroad. It was an official selection of the AFI Silverdocs Documentary Festival in Washington, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the Francedoc Festival in Paris. In the coming weeks it will also screen at Curta Cinema in Rio de Janeiro, Bilbao Festival of Short Film and the Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington.
Director Matt Leigh’s previous credits include the observational documentary series’ ‘Vets on Call 3’ and ‘Customs 2’ for RTE. He is currently putting the finishing touches to ‘The Nurse’ a 6 part series for RTE regional, which will air in spring 2012.
The award at AISFF was a Jury Category Award for Best International Short.
AISFF Weblink
Blue Rinse Weblink
Film Studies Student Wins BAFTA
Irish director Neasa Hardiman's ''Tracy Beaker Returns' has won the BAFTA for Best Children's Drama at this year's Awards at the Park Lane Hilton, London.
IFTA nominee Neasa Hardiman is Lead Director on both series of the BBC drama, developed from the novels by Jacqueline Wilson.
In the drama series, Tracy Beaker is twenty years old. She's impulsive, angry, but also strong, funny and loyal. She reluctantly takes a job as a care assistant at the same care home where she spent her own troubled childhood. There she meets other young people struggling like her, each with their own problems and grief. Each episode focuses on one of the home's denizens as they come to terms with their own past and try to map a better future.
'Tracy Beaker Returns' is Neasa Hardiman's first drama for children. "My intention was to take on serious subjects, to make a kind of "Play for Today" for children, leavened with some humour", Neasa says. "In the end, I think Neil Gaiman got it right when he said 'There are no such things as children's stories, there are only good stories and bad stories'."
Neasa's other recent credits include School Run (IFTA nominated feature drama for TV3), An Gaeilgeoir Nocht (IFTA nominated feature drama for TG4) and drama series Totally Frank for Channel 4. Neasa is a former Producer Director with RTE, where she made numerous documentaries and directed Fair City as well as designing the RTE logo.
Neasa is currently preparing her Doctorate in Film Studies under Paula Quigley. Her interest is in new iterations of genre cinema in relation to selected films by Katheryn Bigelow, Ang Lee and Jane Campion.
Series Two of Tracy Beaker Returns screens on BBC1, BBCHD and CBBC next January.
Film Studies student wins Undergraduate Award
October 2009
A student of Film Studies in Trinity, Ciara Barrett, was awarded one of just 41 gold medals at the first Undergraduate Awards of Ireland presented by President McAleese. The awards, which are open to undergraduates from Irish universities, aim to recognise and reward Ireland’s most innovative young minds. Of the 41 gold medals, 13 were awarded to Trinity students.
The winners were selected through an academic review process by 33 separate panels made up of leading figures from across Irish academia, the public, private and citizen sector. This year over 1,600 submissions were received made up of papers, essays and dissertations produced as part of normal course work during each academic year. In addition to receiving a gold medal for their submissions, each student's winning essay will be published in an annual journal.
During her presentation President McAleese said: “These awards encourage our top undergraduates to believe in the validity of their work and in their entitlement to a public place of respect within scholarly discourse.” President McAleese also acknowledged the role played by undergraduates in advancing Ireland’s ambition to be not just a smart economy but a just, decent and sophisticated society.
The Undergraduate Awards of Ireland was established on 29th October 2008 and in its inaugural year it received submissions from disciplines as diverse as chemistry, economics, linguistics, drama and business, to name but a few. The winners included 13 students from TCD, 11 from UCD, six from NUI Galway, five from UCC, three from UL, two from NUI Maynooth and one from QUB. They were each commended for their achievement at an award ceremony in the Royal Irish Academy.
Ciara graduated in 2009 and is currently pursuing post-graduate studies at TCD, studying for a Ph.D degree in Texts, Contexts & Cultures at the Long Room Hub research centre.
Music
TCD Postgrad Wins International Musicology Prize
April 2010
Postgraduate music student Seán Doherty was awarded one of the two top prizes at the inaugural Early Music Scholars Competition in San Francisco on 10 April.
Specialist US choral group The Chalice Consort have established this annual competition with the aim of bringing to light unpublished and unperformed music from Renaissance manuscripts. The specific character of eligible works will change from year to year: this time, the call was for a companion piece for a Mass by the early Tudor composer Thomas Ashwell.
Doherty's entry was an anonymous five-voice setting of the Eastertide antiphon Vidi aquam which he transcribed from a Tudor choir-book now in the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was one of five shortlisted items performed by the consort under guest directors Davitt Moroney, Jeremy Summerly, David Trendell and Geoffrey Webber.
A panel discussion followed each performance, with Doherty contributing via video from Massachusetts where he was on a research trip. The winning entries were chosen by audience ballot, and will feature prominently in the consort's forthcoming repertoire.
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