Make Group
MAKE is an artist development programme and residency initiative of Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre and Theatre Forum. It is open to artists for the purpose of generating new performance work outside of the traditional writer-led model at all career levels.
The 12th MAKE residency will run from Jan 11 – 15 and like many things currently, MAKE will be different this year with all artists working from home. Our mentors are Andy Field, Mojca Jug, and Ragnheiður Skúladóttir and our participants are Osaro Azams, Dan Colley, Cal Folger Day, Lauren Jones, Shirley Keane, Sinéad Keogh, Fiona Linnane, Liam McCarthy, Colm McCready, Duffy Mooney, Julie Morrissey, Chinedum Muotto, Ciara Ní Éanachain, Eva O’Connor, Triona Walsh, Darren Yorke.
MAKE mentors
Andy Field
Andy is an artist, writer and curator based in London. He has created performance work on his own and with a variety of collaborators since 2007. Andy creates formally unusual projects that invite us to consider our relationships both to the spaces we inhabit and the people around us. A key strand of Andy’s practice involves making work in collaboration with young people, with the aim of enabling children to meaningfully participate in the civic discourse of the cities and towns in which they live. Alongside his artistic practice Andy has written for a number of publications and is the co-director of the artist-led project Forest Fringe. In 2012 he completed a practice-based PhD with the University of Exeter, exploring the use of public space in the New York avant-garde performance movements of 1960s and 70s.
Mojca Jug
Mojca was born in Ptuj, Slovenia. She finished her primary and secondary education in Ptuj and from 1995 to till 2000 studied Special education at Faculty of education in Ljubljana. In June 1998 she started to work in Bunker as coordinator and administrator of the first edition of international festival of contemporary performing arts Mladi Levi.
She has worked for Bunker ever since and her major preoccupations within Bunker are:
- coordinating and artistic programming of Bunker’s venue, Stara elektrarna (an old power station)
- co-programming and producing the festival Mladi levi
- mentoring younger staff and volunteers
- in the past years she was also the producer of Betontanc, Sanja Nešković Peršin, Jette Ostan Vejrup, Lyrical moments in the city…
She was also the executive director of production house Fičo balet (2003 – 2005) and is producing a cycle of contemporary piano concert by Milko Lazar , as well coordinating a jazz program in café Repete, Ljubljana.
Her programming work extends beyond Bunker and is invited as a curator and programmer to numerous festivals and platforms.
She lives and works in Ljubljana.
Ragnheiður Skúladóttir
Ragnheiður was born and raised in Reykjavík. She finished her BA in theatre and multimedia at the University of Iowa in 1991 and her MFA at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1996. Following her studies she moved to New York City where she lived and worked for four years. In 2000, following a 13 year stint in the U.S, she moved back to Reykjavík after being offered the position of Dean of Department of Theatre and Dance at then newly founded Iceland Academy of the Arts. Ragnheiður worked at the Academy until 2011, initiating new programs in contemporary performance practices and contemporary dance. In 2008 she co-founded the LÓKAL International Theatre Festival, an annual event that presents new local and international work in the field of theatre and performance. She was artistic director of the Akureyri City Theatre from 2012 to 2015 and manager of Iceland Dance Company 2016-2019. She is currently the director of Festspillene i Nord-Norge / Arctic Arts Festival. Ragnheiður has years of experience as teacher and mentor (at IAA, University of Syracuse, Academy for Scenekunst in Fredrikstad, MAKE Ireland). She has also worked with various artists/groups as a producer and served as a critical friend (Kviss búmm bang, Dance for Me, Room 408, Shalala, Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir).
MAKE participants
Working individually (8 people): Osaro Azams, Dan Colley, Cal Folger Day, Lauren Jones, Sinéad Keogh, Colm McCready, Julie Morrissey, Chinedum MuottoWorking in groups (8 people)
Trio – Fiona Linnane, Shirley Keane, Triona Walsh Trio – Liam McCarthy, Duffy Mooney Darren Yorke Duo – Eva O’Connor, Ciara Ní Éanachain
Osaro
Amanda Azams is a Nigerian woman who started out living in Ireland as an asylum seeker. Sixteen years later, with a background in Community Development, performing and with an Irish Citizenship, she enjoys organising social events through her group ‘Fried Plantains Collective’ as a way to get to know the people in her city. Amanda has recently produced two sold-out music gigs ‘BLACK JAM’ in collaboration with Dublin Fringe Festival and is singing at Irish Writer Centre’s ‘Soapbox’ on Culture Night 2018. Previously, she has performed at THIS IS POP BABY’s sold out show ”Mouth Of A Shark”, a play about the similarities between gay foreigners who seek safety in Ireland, and Irish people who leave out of fear.
Dan Colley
Dan is a theatre maker with a particular focus on devised ensemble work, theatre-for-young-audiences and outdoor spectacle. For seven years he was director of Collapsing Horse theatre for whom he directed Monster/Clock, Human Child, Distance From the Event, Bears in Space, The Aeneid, Conor; at the end of the Universe, The Water Orchard, Requiem for the Truth, and their final production A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings which was nominated for four Dublin Fringe Festival awards including Best Production . Dan has also directed Me Michael, and a short piece as part of Fourteen Voices From a Bloodied Field for the Abbey Theatre and Danse Macabre, a large-scale processional street theatre piece for Macnas. Dan was awarded the Arts Council’s Next Generation Bursary Award in 2016, he is theatre artist in Residence in the Riverbank and is a member of the Project Arts Centre.
Cal Folger-Day
Cal is an American composer and performer based in Dublin, Ireland. During the summer of 2020 she made ZOONOSIS, a new commissioned musical for Dublin Youth Theatre, directed by Tom Creed. The Woods and Grandma, a verbatim pop-opera about Lady Gregory, won the Little Gem award in the 2017 Dublin Fringe, and an RTÉ Lyric FM documentary on the piece was nominated for the Prix Italia, Prix Europa, and New York Radio Festivals. A live studio soundtrack was mixed and mastered by Forest Christenson (Dunsink, Blade Runner) in Los Angeles, and it’s been produced in Coole Park for Culture Night and at the Dunsink Observatory as part of the Festival of Curiosity. As a songwriter, Cal has performed with Angel Olsen, Jeffrey Lewis, St. Lenox, and the comedian Jena Friedman.
Lauren Jones
Lauren is a writer and theatre-maker. She makes work using technological conceits to deepen audience immersion and interrogate the meaning of the performing body onstage. Viva Voce (Dublin Fringe 2018, nominated for a Fishamble New Writing award) cast an animated light sculpture as the second performer in a solo show. Fetch (Dublin Fringe 2019) used binaural technology as a transportation device to tell a story about travel in the anthropocene. Lauren is currently working on a DUETS project with Eoghan Carrick for 2021 examining the divorce of self from image in the digital age. Work in print has been published by The Irish Times, IMAGE magazine, Banshee literary journal, Rogue Collective, and The Dublin Review.
Sinéad Keogh
Sinéad is an emerging multimedia performance installation artist and curator with a MA in Fine – Art from NCAD (National College of Art and Design) in Dublin. Through the use of synesthetic installation, the artist balances ideologies of intensification of the senses leading to immersive and often emotional experiences communicated through dance, character performance and synched video to sound. The core of these experiences lies between simultaneous storytelling and experimental abstraction exuding surreal fantasy. Keogh’s practice undertakes conceptions of gothic resplendence, fantasy narratives, desire and gender presentation / manipulations as a form of gender alchemy. Catalysts for Keogh’s practice include the Irish landscape, Greek mythology, folklore and queer feminist histories. Keogh has had many exhibitions in Dublin institutions such as The Broadcast Gallery, IMMA, and The Lab and exhibited internationally in New York, Italy and New Zealand. Keogh has made work for festivals such as BIFPA and The Bram Stoker Festival. Keogh is also the founder, director and curator of Soul Noir: Festival of the Dark Arts, a Dublin based festival for the gothic arts (2017 – present). www.sineadkeogh.net
Colm McCready
Colm is an actor based in County Antrim who trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Lyric Drama Studio, and Queen’s University Belfast where he was the recipient of the Sir Tyrone Guthrie Award. His theatre credits include Stand Up Guy (No Touching Theatre Festival), Queen Margaret, Speed the Plow, Mosquitoes (Mountview), Dark of the Moon, Doctor Scroggy’s War (Lyric Theatre Belfast). His television credits include BBC’s My Left Nut, and The Windermere Children. Currently, he is developing Werking Title, a queer clowning lip-sync extravaganza with creative partner Alex Powell, debuting at the NEON Festival 2021 (Southwark Playhouse).
Julie Morrissy
Julie is a poet, academic, and critic from Dublin. Her collaborative, mixed-media practice includes animation, moving image, and performance. She is the John Pollard Newman Fellow in Creativity at University College Dublin. Her first collection Where, the Mile End (2019) is published by Book*hug (Canada) and tall-lighthouse (UK). She is a recipient of the Arts Council ‘Next Generation’ Award, and her work has been published in The Manchester Review, Irish Times, Winter Papers, Poetry Ireland Review, and exhibited in the TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, 2020. Her website is www.juliemorrissy.com
Chinedum Muotto
Son of Ngozi Akamelu – Truly, I am my mother’s son.
Conjures magic through various creative means as (He/She/We) takes us on journeys concertedly to places known & unknown. (He/She/We) invites the utilization primarily of voice and body as means through which we as people can re-establish ourselves and respective communities beyond space & time.
(He/She/We) seeks to work with communities globally by using the arts to disrupt the daily narratives around social injustices. In 2019 (He/She/We) have been privileged to showcase our body of works at the Royal Irish Academy as part of The IASIL 2019 panel questioning diversity within the Irish Literary arts, (He/She/We) also secured the Create and Carlow Arts Festival Artist Residency and curated poetry that was featured as part of Black History Month at Facebook Dublin. Previous works have seen (Him/Her/We) work with communities in USA, Germany, Netherland & Ireland, primarily targeting youths, creating spaces to reflect, learn and be otherwise. Towards the end of 2019 (He/She/We) were commissioned by Facebook Dublin and The Embassy of Ireland (London) respectively to engage with their community of choice and produce creative pieces from those interactions.
Fiona Linnane, Shirley Keane, Triona Walsh
Fiona Linnane
Fiona is a composer specialising in Opera and vocal music. In 2020 she was recipient of the Art Council of Ireland Music Bursary Award. Current projects include ‘No.2 Pery Square’, a site responsive opera in collaboration with Limerick based production company Opera Workshop (funded by the Arts Council of Ireland Opera Commissions Award 2020). She was awarded the Limerick City and County Council Individual Arts Bursary 2018 and 2019, for work in opera and art song. Works include short operas ‘Off Tuskar’ and ‘Bay of Fundy’; comic arias ‘Songs of the Meteorologist’ and Art Songs ‘Songs from Kate O’Brien’ (in collaboration with poet Mary Coll).
Shirley Keane
Shirley is the founder and artistic director of Limerick based Opera Workshop. Since its inception in 2017 she has written and directed numerous productions that have ranged from collaborative community projects, devised concerts, small regional tours to challenging site-specific works. Shirley produced and directed ‘Abandoned’, comprising short contemporary operas by Limerick composer Fiona Linnane and Canadian composer Sophie Dupuis, at The Old Sailor’s Home, Limerick and worked with Hands in Harmony Deaf Community Choir on a collaborative music and performance project.
Having had training in both theatre and opera, at Rose Bruford College, Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, Shirley is a performer whose experience ranges from traditional and contemporary opera roles to mainstream theatre. Shirley has written, produced and directed projects that involve community groups and professional artists and which incorporate any number of elements from spoken word to orchestral works. She has devised site specific projects at venues such as the Royal Festival Hall and the Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, London.
As a performer, director, and facilitator Shirley has worked with companies as diverse as Opera Theatre Co., Opera Holland Park, Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre, Glyndebourne Opera, Live Music Now, Accademia Solti Te Kanawa, Newham Young Peoples’ Chorus, Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Co., Theatre Venture, East End Opera and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Through Opera Workshop, Shirley runs a number of artist CPD workshops and programmes in association with the Mid West Vocal Academy, including the most recent workshop for the company on-line, Off The Page. Shirley is also engaged on the National Concert Hall’s, Young Women Conductor’s Programme, with conductor Alice Farnham.
As live performances were put on hold in 2020, Shirley turned to film. She produced and directed a number of short filmed opera scenes in association with Limerick based, Honest Arts, including the first set of scenes from ‘No 2 Pery Square’ (supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Limerick City & County Co Arts Office) and Songs of the Meteorologist (supported by Creative Ireland and LCCC Arts Office) both by composer Fiona Linnane. Shirley is currently leading on the development of the site specific opera ‘No 2 Pery Square’ for a future live production at the landmark, Limerick Civic Trust maintained Georgian House.
Tríona Walsh
I am a Limerick born Soprano who moved to Perth in Western Australia with my family as a child. I studied ‘Classical Vocal Performance’ at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), before continuing my studies at the University of Western Australia and more recently at the Cork School of Music. During my performing career I have featured in recitals, operatic productions and as a concert soloist as well as chorus member in a number of productions for organisations including The Australian Opera Studio and Opera Ireland.
Since returning to Limerick, I have been an ensemble member of Opera Workshop Limerick. In 2019, as part of our production Abandoned, I created the role of ‘Woman One’ in Fiona Linnane’s chamber opera, Off Tuskar. I have also appeared in The Countess’ Salon at No 1 Pery Square, Opera, What the Fuss? At the Irish World Music Academy and the touring show The Trouble with Virtue. One of the highlights of my work with Opera Workshop Limerick was our collaboration with Hands in Harmony Deaf Community Choir in 2019. In 2020, I participated in an Arts Council funded ‘Research and Development’ project entitled No 2 Pery Square, a collaborative project between the Opera Workshop Ensemble and composer Fiona Linnane. Due to restrictions and complications relating to COVID19, the project made a dramatic and exciting pivot, reinventing itself as an Operatic short film. During the changing performance environment which was necessitated in 2020, I also found myself creating and producing videos and online sessions for early childhood music education in my capacity as a Musician Educator with Music Generation Offaly/Westmeath and Music Generation Tipperary. www.trionawalshsoprano.com
Liam McCarthy, Duffy Mooney Darren Yorke
Liam McCarthy
Liam is a writer and drama facilitator. He has worked, in various capacities, for several theatre companies and festivals in Ireland and abroad. As a playwright, he has participated in Druid Theatre’s FUEL programme, Corcadorca’s SHOW festival, Branar Tiny shows, and “Words, Words, Words” at The Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. His play Mam and Love and Woo (a commission from Belltable) was recently awarded the Wilde Irish Writer Bursary from Dublin Fringe. Liam works as Engagement and Participation Coordinator at The Ark Children’s Cultural Centre, supporting The Ark team to deliver inclusive and participative arts experiences to children.
Duffy Mooney-Sheppard
Duffy is a contemporary visual artist & storymaker who specialises in creating work for and with children. A recent graduate of the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, she has exhibited her work at home and abroad, most recently at Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Italy, 2019), Candid Arts Centre (London, 2019).
She has many years of experience leading arts events, programs and creative workshops for young people. This year, she devised and delivered a significant number of online workshops for families and schools with The Ark, Dublin City libraries & festivals nationwide. In response to the covid-19 crisis, she founded Little Islands Online Art Club where she presents weekly stories and art workshops from her studio.
In her work, she values young people’s capacity to think, question, make connections and imagine. Her stories spring from the liminal spaces and magical realism of folkloric story telling of the past to present. In these stories humans, animals, dreams and reality playfully explore the deep mysteries of the human condition.
Duffy was awarded the Arts Council Young People, Children and Education Arts Council Bursary and Literature Project Funding to continue to develop and produce innovative artwork and stories for children in 2021. www.DuffyDraws.com
Darren Yorke
Darren is an improviser who enjoys a rich interdisciplinary arts practice (both onstage and behind the scenes). He has dedicated the last 5 of his 10 years’ professional experience to making things happen in Ireland with Impro — the unique philosophy, spirit and style of improvisational theatre he practices. From 2014-2016, held the position coordinator for their education division and outreach programmes. While immersed in Vancouver’s thriving improv scene throughout, learning and adopting from different schools, he trained extensively in Vancouver TheatreSports™ style of improvisation and performed regularly with the company ensemble. More recently, Darren has been sporting several of his favourite hats in Dublin with his company Grand Stretch — delivering life-enhancing impro training, producing directing, and performing in impro shows since 2017. As a freelance musician, he also composes, sings and plays multiple instruments.
Darren’s training includes work abroad with Keith Johnstone, Steen Haakon Hansen & Patti Stiles, Armando Diaz and with the Olivier Award winning SHOWSTOPPER! The improvised musical. Closer to home, he collaborates with Anna Newell on her theatre adventures for young audiences (most recently in BLUE!), and has trained with Theatre Lovett (Theatre for Young Audiences) and Annie Ryan of Corn Exchange (Commedia dell’arte).
At the moment, as Ireland’s leading member of the International Theatresports™ Institute, Darren is proudly developing Keith Johnstone’s world-renowned show formats for Irish audiences and looks forward to a time when it is safe to fill our playhouses with them again. In the meantime, ways to play are taking shape with Focus Impro.
Ciara Ní Éanachain & Eva O’Connor
Ciara Ní É
Ciara is a spoken word artist, activist, and broadcaster who writes and performs bilingually. She is DCU’s Writer in Residence 2020, and an Irish Writers Centre ambassador. Ciara is the founder of REIC, a monthly multilingual spoken word event. She has performed across Ireland and internationally in New York, London, Brussels, and Sweden. Her work has been published in a variety of journals including Icarus and Comhar and she is a recipient of the Cill Rialaig Residency through Listowel Writers’ Week. She is a cofounder of LGBTQ+ arts collective Aerach.Aiteach.Gaelach, and her first project with the group was selected for The Abbey Theatre’s 5×5 2020.
Eva O’Connor
Eva is a writer and performer from Ogonnelloe Co. Clare. She runs Sunday’s Child theatre company with Hildegard Ryan. She makes work for stage, screen and radio. Her plays include My Name is Saoirse, Overshadowed (now a series on BBC Three) Maz and Bricks ( produced by Fishamble and directed by Jim Culleton) Afloat, and MUSTARD (Winner of a Fringe First and the Lustrum Award at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019).