MAKE 2014 participants announced!

MAKE is an initiative of Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre and Theatre Forum for the purpose of generating new performance work.

Emily Aoibheann

Dublin born and based artist/ aerialist/ performer/ writer/ director; previously a musician and academic; working primarily as a contemporary circus and performance practitioner, director, producer; exploring apparatus in movement and dynamic sculpture; co-founder/co-director of PaperDolls Performance Company; moving towards film-making in 2014; teaching and practicing aerial acrobatics, contortion technique, Shibari self-suspension and creative facilitation.

Recent work: BUNK (2013), Constellations/ Constellations II (2012/2013), Papaveraceae (2013), In Rainbows (2013), A Letter to Mina (2012).

www.emilyaoibheann.com/ youreournarcissus.blogspot.com

www.paperdollsperformance.com

Amy Conroy

Amy is a Dublin based writer and actor, she founded HotForTheatre in 2010. Her debut play I (Heart) Alice (Heart) I, premiered in Dublin Fringe 2010, winning her the Fishamble New Writing Award, nominations for the Stewart Parker Trust Award and a Zebbie Award. I (Heart) Alice (Heart) I was programmed in the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre, the Irish Arts Centre New York, LÓKAL Festival Iceland, Glasgay Festival Glasgow, and Queer Theatre Festival Croatia. It was broadcast on RTE Radio One, has been translated and performed in Poland and Iceland and published by Oberon.

Her second show Eternal Rising of the Sun, premiered in Dublin Fringe 2011 and transferred to the Dublin Theatre Festival 2012. Both I (Heart) Alice (Heart) I and Eternal Rising of the Sun had three month sold out run in Australia and New Zealand, and a fifteen-venue tour of Ireland. Amy’s third show Break premiered in Dublin Fringe Festival 2013, and played to over three thousand people in it’s first run, HotForTheatre plan to tour Break in 2014.

Radio plays include Hold This and Offering for RTE Radio One.

Vickey Curtis

Vickey is a theatre maker, writer and spoken word artist from Dublin. She has written and performed in a series of short plays at the International Dublin Gay Theatre festival from 2007 – 2012.

In 2009 she devised a theatrical piece about her lifelong friendship with Aine McKevitt directed by Una McKevitt called Victor & Gord. The critically acclaimed production was presented at Project Brand New and Queer Notions, and went on to tour the Dublin Fringe Festival, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Electric Picnic, the Pavillion Theatre, and at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Currently, Vickey co-curates a spoken word evening called Come Rhyme With Me, which acts as a fundraising mechanism for Dublin LGBT resource centre, Outhouse. Come Rhyme With Me has toured First Fortnight, Electric Picnic, the Body and Soul festival, and GAZE Dublin International LGBT Film Festival.

Vickey works in RTÉ. She currently resides in Carrigstown as a production assistant.

Clare Daly

Clare is a performance maker who’s practice is concerned with dance and choreography and the possibilities of the live encounter. She challenges conventional perceptions of dance by questioning modes of presentation and assumptions of virtuosity and is interested in the condition of the body in performance. Clare’s work has been presented at various platforms and festivals around Europe including, Fabbrica Europa Festival, Florence and LAPSody – International Conference and Festival of Live Art and Performance Studies, Helsinki. She holds a BA in Dance Theatre from Laban, London.

As a performer she has worked with influential artists such as Lea Anderson, Matteo Fargion, Josiah McElheny and Tino Sehgal.

Ruairí Donovan

Ruairí is re-imagining himself and the world around him.

He is a choreographer, curator and dramaturg. Donovan has been making dances in Ireland since 2008 and holds a joint honors B.A in Drama & Theatre Studies and English from University College Cork. Donovan is from County Cork and is concerned with the need for roots and queering representations of the dancing body. Donovan has performed for Mårten Spångberg (SE), is touring internationally with Keith Hennessy (USA) as a co-creator and ensemble member of TURBULENCE (a dance about the economy) since 2011 and is engaged in an ongoing research with collaborator Siriol Joyner (Cmyru) entitled CELTIC RADICAL exploring notions of cultural identity infused within the minority languages Cymraeg and Gaeilge. Recent work includes Divine Love Electric with Hana Lee Erdman (TanzTage, Sophiensaele Berlin), The Need For Roots (Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff), BUNK in collaboration with PaperDolls (Project Arts Centre), WITCHES (Cork Midsummer Festival) and MANIFESTO (Glasgow BUZZcut Festival).

Donovan has curated a week long, multi disciplinary, residential event and professional symposium, called Solstice over three years which was awarded the Charlemagne Youth Price by the European Commission. In 2013 he presented a micro festival called HOME, investigating performance and intimacy with artists presenting work in their own homes in Cork City. Donovan has completed a year long residency with Daghdha Dance Company and was awarded the prestigious DanceWeb scholarship at Impulstanz, Wien. Donovan completed the first Node Residency with Queer Performance incubator THEOFFCENTRE, San Francisco, USA.

His work has been supported by the CCC Arts Office, Arts Council Ireland, Culture Ireland and Youth In Action. He is a member of Jardin D’Europe, the European network Y.P.A.L. and is a proud board member of Corcadorca Theatre Company and the Theatre Development Center @Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

Shaun Dunne

Shaun is a Dublin based writer and performer. As well as graduating from the Abbey Theatre’s New Playwright’s Programme, he is also a recent graduate from the Rough Magic’s Seeds initiative. Having obtained his BA in Journalism from DCU, Shaun is mostly interested in making work that talks about Ireland today. He is the writer in association for Talking Shop Ensemble and their most recent collaboration, Death of the Tradesmen was awarded both The Fishamble New Writing Award and The Inaugral Lir Revival Award. It was also nominated for Spirit of the Fringe and Entertainment.ie’s “Best Theatre Production of 2012 Award.

Shaun’s latest play I’ve to mind her made its debut as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 2013. Other work includes I am a Homebird (Project Cube 2011), Good Kids Drink Milk (Wexford Opera Festival 2012) and Do You Read Me (Fringe 2012).

Cathy Gordon

Cathy’s multidisciplinary practice has spanned the gamut from intimate one-on-one performances to large-scale participatory spectacles. Her seminal piece, ON MY KNEES – a public divorce ceremony (2007), marked her departure from experimental theatre/dance performance and her foray into durational performance and new media. Since then, her work has encompassed the “social” vibrating between two approaches to performance, that of theatre and visual arts histories.

Recent highlights include a commission for National Eisteddfod in Wales, commission of Little Big Man Remix (by The Contrary Collective), premiere of Moles Dancing at Chapter Art Gallery (Cardiff), and mini-tour of Movie Monster across Western Canada.

She is the winner of the Ken McDougall Emerging Director Award, a Harold for her contribution to the Independent Theatre community; a three-time Dora Award nominee for Best Space Design and Best Production; two-time nominee for the K.M Hunter Award for choreography; and 2005 nominee for Canadian Comedy Awards.

www.cathygordon.com

Sonya Kelly

Sonya is an actor and a writer who has worked with a many Irish theatre companies. She is a cast member of R.T. E.’s The Savage Eye.

Her solo show, The Wheelchair on My Face, a look back at a myopic childhood, directed by Gina Moxley and produced by Fishamble, won a Scotsman Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012. The show toured to over forty venues from 2011 to 2013 finishing in a month long run at Theaters 59E59 in New York where it received a Critic’s Pick in the New York Times.

She is a regular contributor to the arts show, Arena on RTE Radio 1.

Liz Kinoshita

Liz was born in Toronto, Canada and moved to Europe in 2002 to further study and work. She studied in P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, Belgium from 2004-2008.

Since graduating she has worked with various Belgian companies, such as: ZOO/Thomas Hauert in Accords, You’ve Changed, and MONO, with tg STAN in Nusch and The Tangible, and with choreographer Eleanor Bauer/GoodMove in A Dance For The Newest Age (the triangle piece) and Tentative Assembly (the tent piece).

Liz collaborated with the Congolese theatre-maker Ornella Mamba, which resulted in the performance Article 0.0. Liz created a children’s performance in Andenne, Belgium via the Centre Dramatique de Wallonie pour L’Enfance et la Jeunesse. Recently she has worked with Tino Sehgal in This Variation, Matija Ferlin in The Other At The Same Time, and with Claire Croizé in Chant Éloigné. She is presently preparing for her upcoming creation VOLCANO to premiere in November 2014.

Stewart Legere

Stewart Legere is an artist from Halifax, Canada. As a theatre maker, he is a frequent collaborator with Zuppa Theatre Co. He was awarded the Robert Merrit Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for their show Penny Dreadful (2007), and the Mayor’s Award for Emerging Theatre Artist (2009). Also with Zuppa, he has appeared in 5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world) at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, and The Attaining Gigantick Dimensions. His twitter themed performance project #wereweherewewere was a crowd favourite during Halifax’s 2011 Nocturne: Art At Night.

His solo show El Camino or The Field of Stars debuted in the 2011 Queer Acts Theatre Festival, then ran at Toronto’s Videofag in 2013. He was voted Best Male Actor in Halifax’s The Coast Magazine’s annual “Best Of” issue for 2011 and 2012. As a musician, he is a vocalist with orchestral pop outfit The Heavy Blinkers, and is also set to release his debut solo album Sing With The Birds Who Stay; Quiet The Station Today, in the fall of 2014.

Fiona McGeown

Independent Theatre Director and Actor, Fiona McGeown initiated her new company Painted Bird Productions in 2012. She was a core ensemble player with Sligo’s Blue Raincoat Theatre Company for 15 years. Her theatre credits include, At Swim Two Birds, The Third Policeman, Rhinoceros, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Only Jealousy of Emer, The Cat and the Moon, At the Hawks Well, On Bailes Strand, The Strange Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, Still Life, Hamlet, A Murder of Crows, Translations, Sharp as a Razor, The Important Show, The Bear and many more.

Fiona studied Corporeal Mime with Corinne Soum and Steven Wasson at L’Ecole de Mime Corporeal Dramatique and Theatre De L’Ange Fou in London. Fiona is creating a new work for Cork Midsummer Festival 2014. The project uses archival material relating to the death of a young woman in 1939 in Cork City. Set in an era when contraception was criminalised, the piece draws on hidden aspects of Irish women’s history and hopes to contribute to current discourse on sexuality and women’s reproductive choices.

Pat McGrath

Pat has made a small living appearing in many films and playing in most of the theatres and halls throughout Ireland as well as Spain, Poland, London and Finland with companies such as Co-Motion and The Passion Machine.

Pat’s Film and TV work includes Life of Crime, Game of Thrones, Love/Hate 3, Moone Boy, Titanic – Blood And Steel, Roy, The Tudors, Crushproof, Ella Enchanted, Father Ted, Spy Game, Angelas Ashes, Ballykissangel, Batchelor’s Walk, The Butcher Boy, The Clinic, Evelyn, The Crooked Mile, Waterloo Dentures and Starfish. Pat has also worked extensively as a community artist on many different projects throughout Dublin.

At the Edinburgh Festival 2000, Pat won a Herald Angel for his performance in Pat McCabe’s Loco County Lonesome. In 2013 Pat wrote and appeared in Small Plastic Wars during the Fringe and was nominated for two Fringe Awards (but didn’t win any so we won’t dwell on that).

Tassos Stevens

I’m a theatre-maker, an ex-psychologist, and miscellaneous other hats. I’m founder, co-director and an artist frequently representing Coney, which makes all kinds of live and responsive play involving the audience. Work I’ve helped make for Coney includes A Small Town Anywhere, The Loveliness Of Lower Marsh, Futureplay, the BAFTA-winning Nightmare High for Channel 4 Education, and RSVP with DYT in the Dublin Fringe Festival. I wear many hats in projects, any of: direct, write, design interaction, produce, wrangle, etc.

I sometimes work outside Coney, as a solo theatre-maker with pieces Jimmy Stewart… and Solo Two (in development), and also made the iPhone game Papa Sangre. Before Coney, I was a theatre director, winning the first James Menzies-Kitchin award, and produced ROAR, a platform for developing new work and new artists on the London fringe. I drink a lot of posh tea.

www.allplayall.net • www.coneyhq.org • @tassosstevens

Eleanor Tiernan

As well has being one of Ireland’s fastest rising comedy talents, Eleanor is in demand as an actress. On TV she has appeared Headwrecker’s for Channel Four, The Savage Eye, Maeve Higgins Fancy Vittles, Irish Pictorial Weekly forRTE and Moone Boy for SKY. Her court reporter Ursula McCarthy sketch fromIPW that many internet users were convinced was real went viral. In theatre, she has played parts in Help, That’s Deep and City West Side Story all of which she also co-wrote. She played Mary in a nationwide tour of John Breen’s Alone It Stands staged by Verdant Productions.

“Eleanor Tiernan is far and away the best comic actress I have seen on stage.” – Hot Press Ireland on That’s Deep

“The stand out turn is Eleanor Tiernan who boasts a magnificent curl in her lip and snarl in her voice”. – Liam Fay, Sunday Times on Irish Pictorial Weekly

Greg Wohead

Greg is London-based writer, performer and live artist originally from Texas. He makes theatre shows, 1-to-1 performances and audio pieces. Some of his work so far has been based around ideas of place and identity. He likes work that’s personal and generous, and he tries to make it with that in mind. He has just made The Ted Bundy Project, a Flying Solo International Commission by Contact and MC Amsterdam. The Ted Bundy Project is a solo performance about American serial killer Ted Bundy and the relationship between attraction and repulsion.

Greg has previously shown and developed work in the UK and internationally with Contact, FUEL, The Orchard Project, Bristol Old Vic Ferment, Battersea Arts Centre, Wales Millennium Centre, and The Yard, where he is an Artistic Associate.

gregwohead.com

THE MENTORS

 Annie Dorsen is a writer and director who works in a variety of fields, including theatre, film, dance and, as of 2009, algorithmic performance. Most recently, her algorithmic Hamlet project, A Piece of Work, has been seen at On the Boards (Seattle), Brooklyn Academy of Music (NYC), Parc de la Villette (Paris) and others. In 2010, Hello Hi There premiered at the streirischer herbst festival (Graz), and was presented at Black Box Teatre (Oslo), BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) and PS122 (New York), among others.

She is the co-creator of the 2008 Broadway musical Passing Strange, which she also directed. Spike Lee made a film of her production of the piece, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and screened everywhere from the Tribeca Film Festival to subsequently screened at South by Southwest Film Festival and The Tribeca Film Festival, and was released theatrically by IFC in 2010 before being broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances. Also in 2010, she collaborated with choreographer Anne Juren on Magical (premiere at ImPulsTanz Festival Vienna) and with Ms. Juren and DD Dorviller on Pièce Sans Paroles (brut Vienna and Rencontres Choréographiques Internationales Seine-St-Denis, Paris). She has collaborated often with musicians, including Questlove of The Roots on Shuffle Culture (BAM), Laura Karpman and Jessye Norman (among others) on Ask Your Mama, a setting of Langston Hughes’ 1962 poem (Carnegie Hall) and with the string quartet ETHEL, on Truckstop, also at BAM.
Her pop-political performance project Democracy in America was presented at PS122 in spring 2008. Her short film, I Miss, originally the centrepiece of Democracy in America, has screened at American Film Institute Festival (AFI Fest), SXSW Film Festival, The New York Film Festival’s “Views From the Avant-Garde” and the Nantucket Film Festival.
Stewart Laing is Artistic Director of Untitled Projects, which he formed in 1998.

www.untitledprojects.co.uk

Untitled Projects makes large-scale theatre using cultural history as a device to navigate our collective present and possible futures. The company continually re-assesses how theatre can manifest itself: blending landscape, biography, novel, video, lecture, music, documentary, installation, interview, science and playwriting. Based in Scotland we look beyond our borders for our narratives and inspiration

Other directing work includes The Maids for the Citizens’ Theatre, Les Parents terribles for Dundee Rep, Home: Stornoway for the National Theatre of Scotland and 10 Plagues for the Traverse. He has also designed and directed opera in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and internationally. He recently designed Richard Jones’ production of Peter Grimes at La Scala, Milan. Stewart won a Tony Award in 1998 for his design work on the musical Titanic.

“Scotland’s most playful and inventive theatre genius, Stewart Laing.”
The Scotsman
Florian Malzacher is an independent curator, dramaturge and writer. He is artistic director of Impulse Theater Biennale in Bochum, Cologne, Düsseldorf & Mülheim/Ruhr in Germany (since 2012), as well as a freelance dramaturge/curator e.g. for Burgtheater Vienna. 2006-12 he was co-programmer of the interdisciplinary arts festival steirischer herbst in Graz (A) where he also co-curated the 170 hours non-stop marathon camp “Truth is concrete” on artistic strategies in politics (2012).
After graduating at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen he worked till 2005 mainly as a freelance theatre journalist for major daily papers (Frankfurter Rundschau, taz etc.) and international magazines (Theater Heute, Ballett Tanz, Didaskalia, Camera Austria etc.). His latest publications include books on Forced Entertainment and Rimini Protokoll as well as on Curating Performing Arts.
He is a founding member of the independent curators’ collective Unfriendly Takeover in Frankfurt and has collaborated as a freelance dramaturge with artists like Rimini Protokoll (D), Lola Arias (ARG), Mariano Pensotti (ARG) & Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA). He (co-)curated e.g. the 4th & 5th International Summer Academy at Mousonturm/Frankfurt (2002 & 04), the Dictionary of War (2006/07) as well as the series “Performing Lectures” (2004-06) in Frankfurt/Main.
He taught among others at universities in Vienna, Frankfurt and Berlin and is member of the advisory board of DasArts – Master of Theatre, Amsterdam (NL), of Theaterkommission Zurich (CH) as well as an advisor to Schillertage Mannheim.
Florian Malzacher lives in Berlin.