Archive 2019

Associate Professor Ruth Barton, Head of School, School of Creative Arts spoke to Natasha Waugh, an acclaimed short film director about the characteristics of Irish film and its preoccupations in this wide-ranging interview. Topics including gender and diversity representation in the film industry were also discussed in the context of Prof. Barton's expertise as author of Irish Cinema in the Twenty-first Century.

With the generous support of the Brigid Pike Whitfield Fund, Dr Farah Karim-Cooper will speak to staff and students about Racialising Mortality in Early Visual Culture and the Shakespearean Stage. This talk will focus on the representations of death that participate in the development of Renaissance ideals of beauty, virtue and racial superiority in Western Europe. It will pose questions such as: How are Early modern ideas of mortality shaped by encounters with non-white bodies and cultures? And how does Shakespearean tragedy allude to the iconographic polarities of racial distinction when staging death and dying?

Assistant Professor Nicholas Brown's major new vocal-choral performance work, Structural Cohesion (2019), was premiered at Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium in collaboration with Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. The work investigates various forms of rhetorical expression in relation to language, architecture and music. For instance, what is the relation between ethos and rhetoric in today's political campaigning? How do architects design buildings that enable focussed listening and yet remain connected to the outside world of everyday life? And in music, what was the role of rhetorical expressivity in the development of opera in the sixteenth century? The performance was realised in two parts during the evening of November 21st and was presented in site-specific fashion throughout the extraordinary architecture of the Concertgebouw. Maribeth Diggle and Natasha Lohan performed the principal vocal roles, accompanied by a chorus of specially trained voice students from the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.

As part of SCARF, a weekly forum on advances being made in research within the Creative Arts, the School was delighted to present Joe Salvatore, Clinical Associate Professor of Educational Theatre at New York University's Steinhardt School to Trinity's research community on 4th November 2019 in Trinity Long Room Hub, Arts and Humanities Research Institute. Prof. Salvatore provided an insight into the embodied exploration associated with verbatim performance using an overview of research done in this area within his institution. In 2017, Prof. Salvatore co-created Her Opponent, a verbatim re-staging of excerpts of the 2016 U.S. presidential debates with gender-reversed casting (Off Broadway Alliance Award nomination for Best Unique Theatrical Experience).

An article exploring how the School of Creative Arts and the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Arts address diversity issues written by Trinity alumnus Peter Crawley features insights from Assist. Prof. Melissa Sihra, Head of Discipline (Drama) and Loughlin Deegan, Director of the Lir. Image © Kevin Newcomen.

Assistant Professor Orla Flanagan who is currently serving as Director of Research and lectures in the Department of Music has been awarded First Prize and the Grand Prix at the International Baltic Sea Choir Competition 2019 with her choir Mornington Singers. The choir, which includes many Trinity music graduates, was selected to represent Ireland at this prestigious high-level competition in Latvia along with choirs from Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Turkey.

Three short stories written by Nigerian author Melatu Uche Okorie provide the inspiration for This Hostel Life, an installation opera composed by Assist. Prof. Rigaki that will be performed in Dublin's Christchurch Cathedral on 26th and 28th September 2019. Rigaki's imaginative use of the unique space of the crypt in Christchurch Cathedral will create an installation of immersive live opera in which members of the audience are free to travel between the various stories. Tickets are available online via Irish National Opera's website https://www.irishnationalopera.ie/whats-on/current-upcoming-productions/this-hostel-life

Neasa Hardiman, a doctoral graduate of Film, continues to carve a path for Irish filmmakers through her latest creation Sea Fever which has captivated audiences as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's Discovery strand. Sea Fever is an emotionally rich, dream-like, devastating thriller. Set on a trawler in the deep Atlantic, it’s a story about taking responsibility for ourselves, for our actions, our community and our world.

Postdoctoral researcher Dr Néill O'Dwyer and Assist. Prof. Nicholas Johnson in Drama launched a pioneering production of augmented reality drama in the CHQ vaults in Dublin on 6th September 2019. Part of an inter-disciplinary team of researchers, Dr O'Dwyer and Assist. Prof. Johnson helped develop the third and final part of a two-year practice-based research trilogy, wherein the text has been reinterpreted for 1) webcast - Intermedial Play, 2) virtual reality - Virtual Play and 3) augmented reality - Augmented Play. This research presented a ground-breaking milestone for V-SENSE, a leading computer science research group at Trinity; Volograms, a domestic SME leading VR, AR and Mixed Reality technologies for the creative cultural industries; and the Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies based at the Trinity Long Room Hub, whose partnership was pivotal in the production, translation and dramaturgical direction of Beckett's Play.

Assistant Professor Nicholas Brown (Music) premiered a new installation-performance, On the Division of a String (2019) at Open Circuit 2019, a showcase of live sound art presented by the Orpheus Institute, Ghent. On the Division of a String (2019) is a six-channel installation-performance for monochord and electronics. It forms part of Nicholas Brown's ongoing series of works that investigates issues in medieval music theory. For further info and a video recording, visit: https://vimeo.com/377372042

Calling all postgraduate students! Once you have joined the School of Creative Arts by registering officially, come and meet your fellow postgraduate students and researchers. All postgraduate students are welcome to our annual Postgraduate Welcome Reception scheduled for 6th September 2019 at 5pm in the Samuel Beckett Theatre Foyer.

The School of Creative Arts recognises the loss of Gillian Hanna, a gifted actor, translator and founder of the feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment. This gifted English dramatist studied in Trinity before there was a Department of Drama, graduating with a First in Modern Languages in 1967 after performing in numerous student productions including as Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Working in the Gate, the Liverpool Everyman and Newcastle University Theatre, she formed a collective of female actors in 1975 with other actors, working to ensure that theatre reflected the lives of women more fully. A range of roles in theatre followed as well as television and film acting credits. Gillian Hanna is survived by her civil partner Diane Gelon and her extended family. Photo credit - http://www.unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/monstrous-regiment/

Assist. Prof. Melissa Sihra, Head of Discipline (Drama) will join award-winning playwright, Marina Carr, in a specialist 3-hour playwriting workshop for monologues as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Lady Gregory-Yeats Autumn Gathering. Over the course of the weekend (27th-29th September), Assist. Prof. Sihra will chair lectures delivered by eminent academics including Emeritus Prof. Nicholas Grene (Trinity), Lucy McDiarmid (Marie Frazee-Baldassarre Professor of English at Montclair State University) and Emeritus Prof. Anthony Roche (University College Dublin).

Assoc. Prof. Ruth Barton, Head of School, and Dr Denis Murphy will hold a workshop to discuss issues arising out of Ecologies of Cultural Production and to share initial findings with the broader public on 2 September in Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. Ecologies of Cultural Production is a research project based in Film Studies within the School of Creative Arts. The focus is on career construction in film, television drama and theatre exploring how people enter the fields of filmmaking, television drama and theatre-making and how they build and develop their careers in Ireland. The event will run through the morning of 2 September and will conclude with a lunch. The launch of the initial findings will be preceded by moderated panels comprised of industry and academic speakers. The event is free of charge but registration on Eventbrite is required for admission.

With a focus on Women in Irish Film, the annual Dublin Feminist Film Festival will take place at the Light House Cinema, Smithfield, this August. Co-organised by Assist. Prof. Jennifer O'Meara, the festival's programming manager, this year's line-up ranges from a dance film double bill to an afternoon on women in Irish animation, including a screening of Louise Bagnall's Academy Award nominated Late Afternoon (2017) alongside other animated shorts. Bagnall and other directors will be in attendance to discuss their work. To accompany the festival, a video providing a selected timeline of women in Irish film can also be viewed via the Dublin Feminist Film Festival 2019 website.

The annual 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. Featuring leading artists and academics, a varied public programme of events aims to give audiences a rare insight into the life and works of Samuel Beckett. Tickets are now available for all public events.

From 22nd to 27th July, the Samuel Beckett Theatre will host The Sleepwalkers, a co-production between Dublin Youth Theatre and Pan Pan Theatre. The performance will ask the question: what does it mean to be awake? Tickets are €18/15 and are available now. Photo credit - Ros Kavanagh

On July 10th, the Douglas Hyde Gallery, in collaboration with Science Gallery, will present a rare screening of Lina Wertmüller's Love and Anarchy (1973). The screening, inspired by the influence of the film on the current DHG exhibition by Cynthia Girard-Renard, will be preceded by a short talk by Assistant Prof. Jennifer O'Meara. Tickets for the screening at the Science Gallery's Paccar Theatre are free and all are welcome.

The School of Creative Arts is proud of its students and graduates who continue to think outside the box and create an innovative future for all during their studies in Trinity and after graduation. Emma Tracey, a graduate of English and Film from the class of 2010, has co-founded an innovative disruptive tech company that allows systems developers take control of how they are recruited by identifying the work and conditions that drive their decisions to take on jobs. Honeypot, a collaboration with Kaya Taner of Applift, launched in 2015 and has now been acquisitioned by XING, a major European career social network, in a move valued at €57m that guarantees goal-dependent investment.

The School of Creative Arts warmly congratulates Associate Professor Ruth Barton on the launch of her new work Irish cinema in the twenty-first century on 30th May 2019 in the IFI. An accessible, comprehensive overview of contemporary Irish cinema, this book is intended for use as a third-level textbook and is designed to appeal to academics in the areas of film studies and Irish studies. It covers works by established auteurs such as Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, as well as new arrivals, including the Academy Award-winning Lenny Abrahamson. Professor Barton discusses the book in greater detail on Arena, the daily arts and popular culture show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 - click this news item to download the podcast of her interview.

George Jackson, a graduate of the Department of Music (BA and M.Litt.) will conduct the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra on Friday 10th January 2020 in the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Joined by a Musician-in-Residence from the School of Creative Arts, Martin Johnson (cello), Jackson will conduct a programme including works composed by Boydell, Ina Boyle and Stanford.

It's that time of year again when we are ready to release a new batch of playwrights out into the world at the annual Advanced Playwriting Showcase at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on Wednesday 22 May at 3pm!
Our writers have been working non-stop all year and have now completed their full-length plays. Meet the Bard and an array of woodland furry-friends, take a trip into Hades with Orpheus, go back in time to meet a family's love and loss through the generations, have a face-off with the rising far-right in Dublin and its borders, learn how to form a sustainable girl-band, meet a character who is surviving a difficult past, enter the wacky and addictive world of pyramid selling, witness an unforgettable dinner-party in a leafy SoCo suburb! Our new playwrights are: Kiah Ronaldson, Ben Moore, Maia Purdue, Alice Murphy, Kirsty Murphy, Nathan Patterson, Ollie Bell and Marcus Bateson. All are welcome to attend this free event.

This year's annual showcase of compositions by Trinity College Dublin's MPhil & PhD composers, presented in association with the National Concert Hall, will take place on 22nd May at 7pm in The Studio, National Concert Hall. Original compositions from students will be performed by the newly-formed new music ensemble PARABASIS which comprises members of the Department's musicians in residence: Richard O'Donnell (percussion), Bill Dowdall (flutes), Fintan Sutton (clarinets), Sebastian Liebig (violin) and Martin Johnson (cello). The concert also features two compositions that will be performed by the Cork Choral Festival's 2019 Choir of the Year, the Mornington Singers. New works composed by the following composers will be showcased - Richard Berger, Kai Chung Fung, Meg Collins Stoop, Hannah Hiemstra, Nathan Hoctor, Aoife Kavanagh, Manos Markantonis, Ultan O'Brien, Satyajeet Prabhu, Vikentia Psaila, Vasco Riberio Da Costa and Lindsey Vincent.

Jake Martin provides a detailed look at Fleabag and the rise of the 'swear-y priest' as a modern phenomenon in film and tv in an article in America the Jesuit Review. America Media is the leading provider of editorial content for thinking Catholics and those who want to know what Catholics are thinking. America Media leads the conversation about faith and culture by producing excellent, unique, relevant and accessible content across multiple platforms.

Ruth Barton, Associate Professor in Film Studies and Head of School, School of Creative Arts at Trinity College Dublin, spoke to Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 about the career of screen legend Doris Day, whose death was announced on 13th May 2019. She discusses how the actress was not only an icon of music and screen but of America itself.

Composer Roger Doyle who teaches in the Department of Music in the School of Creative Arts has been recognised for 'singular and sustained distinction in the art' by his election to the position of Saoi of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. Roger has also recently composed 14 new works on his new album The Electrification of the Night available to download now.

The School of Creative Arts warmly congratulates the Mornington Singers conducted by Assist. Prof. Orla Flanagan who won Ireland's Choir of the Year award at Cork International Choral Festival 2019. About 5,000 choristers take part in this festival annually from all parts of the world. The Mornington Singers won with a final score from judges of 90.56% performing in the prestigious setting of Cork City Hall. The singers then promptly set Twitter alight with their rendition of I'm a Train composed by Albert Hammond on the 14.25 Cork to Dublin train home.

The School of Creative Arts heartily congratulates Hiram Harrington, a current student in the School of Creative Arts specialising in Film and Spanish who has won Film Script of the Year in the 2019 National Student Media Awards - SMEDIAS. This annual award recognises the most original, well-written, imaginative script showing the most insight to the cinematic form from all submissions received. The script describes the captivating story of a porn-addicted woman searching for her twin sister and the truth about her childhood disappearance after her reappearance in a porn video as an adult.

As part of this year's SILENCE themed Trinity Week, the Samuel Beckett Theatre screened Silence followed by a panel discussion with director Pat Collins, Assistant Professor Jennifer O'Meara, and author Ian Maleney (who examines Collins's film in his acclaimed new book, Minor Monuments). Tracing a return to rural Ireland by a sound recordist, Collins's film provides a complex mediation on the links between sound and silence, history and place.

As part of this year's SILENCE themed Trinity Week, this digital exhibition will display GIFs submitted by the Trinity and broader community on screens around campus. Named after their Graphical Interchange Format, short, silent and looping GIFs have become a central aspect of digital culture. Curated by Assist. Prof. Jennifer O'Meara (Film Studies), this interactive exhibition invites members of the College community to submit links or files of their favourite GIFs (to trinityweek@tcd.ie). Each day of Trinity Week (29 April-3 May) these GIFs will be grouped and displayed as looping "walls" around campus, inviting passers-by to reflect on the aesthetic and communicative power of this silent, micro-media format.

This year's annual showcase of compositions by Trinity College Dublin's MPhil & PhD composers will take place in the Studio, National Concert Hall on Wednesday 22nd May 2019. Original works from 12 student composers will be performed by the Parabasis Ensemble. This event is also the premiere concert by this newly-formed ensemble which comprises members of the Department of Music's Musicians-in-Residence cohort. These are Richard O'Donnell (percussion), Bill Dowdall (flutes), Fintan Sutton (clarinets), Sebastian Liebig (violin) and Martin Johnson (cello). This concert will also feature music performed by the Mornington Singers chamber choir. Early booking of tickets is advised for this unique event.

Head of Film Studies, Assoc. Prof. Ruth Barton discusses 'Irish cinema in the twenty-first century: what's left of the national?' in a recently published blogpost hosted by Manchester University Press. The blog post is available at http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/articles/irish-cinema-in-the-twenty-first-century-whats-left-of-the-national-by-ruth-barton/

Award-winning editor, writer and documentary director, Emer Reynolds, discusses her acclaimed film, The Farthest, with Associate Professor in Film Studies, Ruth Barton, and CONNECT Principal Investigator, Marco Ruffini, in the Trinity Long Room Hub on Friday March 22, at 6pm. Video available at https://www.facebook.com/trinitylongroomhub/videos/2563645690330748/

The School of Creative Arts Research Forum (SCARF) is delighted to host Dr. Gabriella Calchi Novati. Dr. Calchi Novati works at the intersections of performance studies, biopolitics, and psychoanalytic theory. Her essays on digital cultures, critical theory, activism and politics, film, theatre and contemporary art have been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. Dr. Calchi Novati earned her PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 2012, and she is currently a psychoanalyst in training at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. She will be presenting a talk on climate change, art and philosophy, entitled "Anthropocenic Subjugated Knowledge(s)": A Plea to Perform Politically, and Ethically Otherwise, open to all on 25.3.19 at 12-1pm in Trinity Long Room Hub.

Award-winning editor, writer and documentary director, Emer Reynolds, will discuss her acclaimed film, The Farthest, with Associate Professor in Film Studies, Ruth Barton, and CONNECT Principal Investigator, Marco Ruffini, in the Long Room Hub on Friday March 22, at 6pm.
The Farthest tells the inspiring story of NASA's Voyager space probes in the words of the men and women who designed and built the spacecraft. Interspersed with extraordinary imagery from the journey through space, The Farthest played at festivals worldwide, culminating in winning an Emmy in the category of 'Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary' in 2018. A celebration of the possibilities of scientific vision and of the humanity of those behind these experiments, including the creators of the 'golden record' made to enlighten possible alien encounters about life on earth, The Farthest is a testament to the potential of the human imagination.
The interview will include sequences from The Farthest alongside a discussion of the film. Tickets are available via Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/in-conversation-with-emer-reynolds-tickets-58432996666

Reality Baby, a short film written and directed by Nodlag Houlihan (Adjunct Teaching Fellow in Film) and produced by Matt Leigh for Zucca Films has been selected to première at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Reality babies are lifelike newborn baby dolls given to teenagers to care for - they cry and feed and wake through the night, just like a real baby. This short documentary follows a group of friends as they take on the responsibility of looking after these infants. The School of Creative Arts congratulates all involved in the project and hopes audiences enjoy this unique story. Tickets for showings in New York are available on the Tribeca Film Festival website. Photo © Matt Leigh, reproduced with permission.

Colleagues, students and friends are warmly invited to the launch of Marina Carr: Pastures of the Unknown written by Assist. Prof. Melissa Sihra, Head of Drama, School of Creative Arts that will take place on Thursday 14th March at 5pm in the Abbey Theatre. This book locates the theatre of Marina Carr within a female genealogy that revises the patriarchal origins of modern Irish drama. The creative vision of Lady Augusta Gregory underpins the analysis of Carr's dramatic vision throughout the volume in order to re-situate the woman artist as central to Irish theatre. This book reconnects the severed bridge between Carr and Gregory in order to acknowledge a foundational status for all women in Irish theatre.

Playing The Game 2nd edition, a long-awaited new edition, written by Assist. Prof. Christine Poulter, Department of Drama, is an essential resource for directors, drama teachers, and students of Drama, Theatre and Performance at all levels. In this practical guide, Assist. Prof. Poulter shares what she has learned from her students over the years, and opens up the language of the book to the worlds of youth work, healthcare, the prison service, 'customer care', management training, and secondary school education. The School of Education are proud to host a launch for this edition as part of Drama Davis Conference 2019, celebrating the life and contribution of David Davis to Drama and Theatre Education on Saturday March 9th at 1.40pm in the School of Education, Arts Building.

All are invited to the album launch of To the Northeast, an album that celebrates the works of Limerick-born composer John Buckley on Wednesday 6th March from 6.30pm in Trinity Long Room Hub. The Mornington Singers conducted by Assist. Prof. Orla Flanagan, Department of Music will perform choral works from the album. Professor Harry White will be a guest speaker.

The School of Creative Arts is proud of all the hard work done by colleagues across all Disciplines and linked conservatoires that have resulted in Trinity being ranked in 42nd place in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2019 for Performing Arts. The School congratulates staff and students across Trinity that contribute to excellence in provision of education in Classics, English, Engineering, Pharmacy & Pharmacology and Nursing who also placed in the top 50 as well as 14 subjects who were ranked in the top 100.

The School of Creative Arts is proud to present a discussion between director John Butler (The Stag, Handsome Devil, Papi Chulo, etc.) and Assistant Prof. Conor O'Kelly discussing the intersection of the autobiographical and the universal in filmmaking.

Assist. Prof. Nicholas Brown's interactive sound installation, Chit-chat (2017) is currently being exhibited at the Scenkonstmuseet, Stockholm (February 16 - August 18 2019). The work transforms the sound of a human vocalization into a bird call. It is on show as part, of Science Gallery Dublin's touring presentation of its 2017 summer exhibition, Sound Check.

OTMEN [Breath] for pianist and optional audience participation has been composed by Assist. Prof. Rigaki as a commission from the Ministere de la Culture Luxembourg. Rigaki's original composition will be premiered on Saturday 26 January at 8pm as part of the international 'Festival De Piano Debussy +' in Luxembourg. The piece will be performed by celebrated pianist Cathy Krier.

Congratulations to Assoc. Prof. Ruth Barton (Film Studies) & Assoc. Prof. Simon Trezise (Music), Trinity's two most senior academics in their fields, on the publication of Music and Sound in Silent Film, From the Nickelodeon to The Artist (Routledge 2019). This brand new collection of essays, all individually commissioned, explores the multitude of functions filled by music in the rapidly changing context of the silent film era, as the concept of cinema itself developed. Examples are drawn from around the globe and across the history of silent film, both during the classic era of silent film and later uses of the silent format. With contributors drawn from film studies and music disciplines, including Assist. Prof. Nicholas Brown, Ussher Assistant Professor in the Department of Music, Music and Sound in Silent Film offers an essential introduction to the origins of film music and the cinematic art form. It is also a confirmation of the School of Creative Arts' commitment to excellence in interdisciplinary research.