A FRAGILE GRIP ON REALITY

A FRAGILE GRIP ON REALITY – a two day workshop with Quarantine An exciting opportunity to take part in a workshop with Quarantine, one of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies, led by Artistic Directors Richard Gregory and Renny O’Shea. This two-day workshop will be hosted by Project Arts Centre on 3 & 4 February 2010. The workshop will form an introduction to Quarantine's theatre practice, examining their work through discussion and video presentation. The workshop will also include a number of practical sessions based around series of task-based exercises, exploring themes such as: •    The impossibility of authenticity: developing performance material based on personal experience;

•    Exposing your self: honesty, fragility & generosity in performance;

•    On permeability: making theatre where the roles of performer and audience can be blurred, exchanged or even removed...

•    Connecting the personal and the political The workshop is open to all and Quarantine are keen to work with a mix of experienced artists, performers, theatre makers and people who have never done anything like this before... If you are interested in participating in the workshop email us and tell us a bit about yourself and why you would like to take part. Applications should be emailed to info@projectartscentre.ie with 'Quarantine' in the subject line, no later than Monday 25 January 2010. The cost of participation is €50 and places are limited to 15. More information on Quarantine is available on their website. Quarantine is quite simply a marvel, a company that's right at the forefront of British theatre.....immensely touching, totally human yet also intellectually rigorous in their examination of the nature of performance and the raising of questions about what makes theatre seem real and reality so strongly theatrical...

Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, October 2009 ***** ‘intimate, life-affirming, utterly magical and unmissable.

Noeleen Dowling, The Irish Times, on Susan and Darren, Dublin Fringe Festival September 2008

Richard Gregory is founder and Artistic Director (with Renny O’Shea) of Quarantine, since 1998. Richard has directed Make-believe, Old people, children & animals, Susan & Darren (with Renny O’Shea), Grace, Butterfly, White Trash, Domestic Science (with Renny O’Shea), Geneva, Frank and see-saw for Quarantine. He curated (with Renny O’Shea) Coming and going, a large scale project for Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008, developed with artists, academics, activists and ‘ordinary people’ from Liverpool, Marseille, Istanbul, Naples and Gdansk. Susan & Darren won ‘Best production’ award at last year’s Absolut Fringe Festival. He is currently developing When you thought you were..., a wake for a living person; Like me, a piece made with people who work as lookalikes and Between us, we know everything, a festival exploring everyday life. Richard was also Associate Artist at Leicester Haymarket Theatre (2002-2003). From 2000 - 2001, he was Associate Artist at Contact, Manchester. From 1995-1998 he was Associate Director with Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne and Associate Director at Contact Theatre, 1991-1995. Richard was a facilitator on the inaugural MAKE workshop for international theatre makers held at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annnaghmakerrig in 2009.

Renny O’Shea has worked with Quarantine since 2000.

Work for Quarantine includes EatEat, Rantsoen (a co-production with Victoria in Gent, Belgium), Domestic Science (with Richard Gregory), Susan & Darren (with Richard Gregory) and Something a Taxi Driver in Liverpool said... She curated Coming and going with Richard Gregory. She has recently made The Soldier’s Song – an installation made with and about currently serving soldiers, and is currently developing a project for National Theatre Wales in 2011 and exploring an ongoing collaboration with Beijing-based artists, Rania Ho and Wang Wei. In 2005, Renny made the sound installation Playing Field connecting school students in Manchester, Eritrea and India.  She worked with Enrique Vargas and Teatro de Los Sentidos over 3 years at LIFT London, Modena and Rimini Italy. Quarantine were Fellows in Theatre at the University of Manchester from 2005 – 2007.  The company won Arts Council England’s art05 award for outstanding achievement.