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Audiences Northern Ireland

Northen Ireland Theatre Association

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All-Ireland Arts Conference 2012 Belfast, June 14—15

Theatre Forum Ireland

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Connect All-Ireland Arts Conference 2012 Belfast, June 14—15 Lyric Theatre 55 Ridgeway Street Belfast, BT9 5FB

Our Funders

through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Our Sponsors

About The Partners

Audiences NI Audiences NI is the audience development agency for Northern Ireland. A strategic delivery partner of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Audiences NI is a membership based agency working with a wide range of clients, across all artforms, in the Northern Ireland arts and cultural sector to increase, broaden, maintain, understand and diversify audiences. As an agency we work with over 100 arts organisations annually through specific audience development projects such as Test Drive the Arts NI, which is the largest audience development project in Ireland, and Classical Arts NI, while also delivering core services such as e-marketing on a sector-wide basis.

Our annual training programme includes full day, half day and bite size events, seminars in partnership with the Arts Marketing Association, ThinkTANK master classes and an annual conference. Our market intelligence is unique in Northern Ireland and provides a wealth of sectoral reports, audience mapping and bespoke research. Audiences NI is uniquely positioned to understand the challenges and specific needs of the sector and as such can also offer audience development, research and one-to-one marketing consultancy.

Audiences NI exists to help its members find new audiences and develop a productive and life-long relationship with existing audiences and customers.

Studio D The Carnegie Building 121 Donegall Road Belfast, BT12 5JL

+44 (0)28 9043 6480 info@audiencesni.com www.audiencesni.com

Audiences NI receives financial assistance from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland & the National Lottery.

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through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

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Northern Ireland Theatre Association

Old Museum Building College Square North Belfast, BT1 6AR

info@nitatheatre.org www.nitatheatre.org

NIta receives financial assistance from the Arts Council Northern Ireland & the National Lottery.

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About The Partners

Northern Ireland Theatre Association (NITA) is the representative body for professional theatre in Northern Ireland. NITA’s members are drawn from a wide section of the theatre community in Northern Ireland and include theatres and arts centres; professional theatre companies; arts festivals and individual directors, actors and producers.

NITA provides a collective voice for the theatre sector, undertaking promotion and lobbying on behalf of its members as well as delivering sector-specific training, providing excellent networking opportunities and disseminating a wide range of sector-relevant information. We deliver dynamic and coherent advocacy for theatre to participants, politicians and the public, and drive development of the industry.

As well as being a voice for the sector, NITA aims to raise the quality and profile of theatre, act as a ‘think tank’ for the sector, drive innovation and creativity, be a passionate and proactive advocate for the theatre industry and champion the benefits that we know theatre provides to our region and its people.

through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

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About The Partners Connect

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Theatre Forum Ireland

15 Bachelor’s Walk Dublin 1

About The Partners

Theatre Forum is the voice of the performing arts in the Republic of Ireland. Counting theatres and arts centres around the country; professional theatre, dance, opera and street arts/ spectacle production companies; and the main arts festivals among its membership, Theatre Forum acts on behalf of these members with government, state and semi-state agencies and elected representatives. We research and disseminate information on various topics. We are the exclusive providers of research on audience benchmarking, pay and conditions in the industry and funding trends (both local and national).

Theatre Forum organises training and professional development courses and seminars throughout the year. Flagship courses include The Next Stage in collaboration with Dublin Theatre Festival and MAKE in collaboration with Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and Project Arts Centre. We also organise a number of topical and networking events each year.

Via our website, www.theatreforumireland.com, Theatre Forum provides invaluable resources to the performing arts sector, including factsheets and model contracts, an opening night clash diary, an industry employment page, a barter page, members’ notice board and much more. In every way it can, Theatre Forum endeavours to support and drive the diverse sector it represents.

Thank you for your membership, which makes all of this possible. +353 (0)1 874 6582 info@theatreforum.ie www.theatreforumireland.com

Theatre Forum Ireland receives financial assistance from the Arts Council/An Chomairle Ealaíon.

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Maureen Kennelly Conference Curator

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About The Conference

On behalf of Audiences NI, Northern Ireland Theatre Association and Theatre Forum, I am delighted to introduce this programme to you. It feels truly exciting to be involved in this All-Ireland Arts Conference in Belfast at such an interesting cultural moment.

Like many others, I recall what now appear to be the halcyon 1990s days of north south touring. I have fond memories of seeing groundbreaking shows in packed theatres by companies such as Charabanc, Tinderbox, Prime Cut and others. Equally, when a tour was being planned, a call to OMAC and many other venues in the north was deemed essential. For a plethora of reasons, this situation has changed dramatically and we are keen to examine these, here at this conference. Work of extraordinary power and beauty demands to be seen on both sides of the border.

We are all too aware of the many challenges facing us, making for an altogether more urgent desire to connect. Yet in the midst of this current economic crisis, audiences have not deserted us and we have witnessed the recent opening of the landmark MAC and the redevelopment of the gorgeous Lyric, both of which will make for most welcome homes for our conference activities. In christening this event Connect, we are also referring to how we can connect with each other across all art forms; collapsing those distinctions surely can only serve to make quality, compelling work. We have so much to learn from each other.

Ultimately, this conference depends on the energy and passion that you can bring in order to make it a success. Please join us in Belfast for some thinking, talking, listening and imagining, and in the sure knowledge that meaningful connections will help ensure a positive future for us all.

Thursday 14 June Time

Activity

Location (Lyric Theatre)

12:00 – 13:30

Registration & lunch Backstage tours of the Lyric Theatre

Main foyer, Naughton Studio & Lyric café

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13:30 – 14:00

Northern Bank Stage

Welcome

14:00 – 15:15

Making ourselves relevant Ben Cameron

15:15 – 16:30

Afternoon parallels I

Northern Bank Stage

Option 1: North/south touring Emma Jordan, Vincent McCann, Jon Morgan & Tom Sherlock, chaired by Imelda Foley

Northern Bank Stage

Option 2: The rise & fall & rise again of the well-made play Jimmy McAleavey, Conall Morrison & Hanna Slattne, chaired by Jim Culleton

Naughton Studio

Option 3: Young people’s work Muireann Ahern, Liz Coman, Paul McEneaney & Lali Morris, chaired by Helen O’Donoghue

Ridgeway Room

Option 4: Audience development – where did it all go wrong?

Katy Raines & Kate Sanderson, chaired by Steven Hadley

Rehearsal Room

16:30 – 17:00

Coffee break & ponydance interventions

Lyric café & main foyer

17:00 – 18:00

Afternoon parallels II

18:00 – late

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Option 1: City arts strategies – Belfast & Dublin Ray Yeates & a representative from Belfast City Council

Naughton Studio

Option 2: Audience benchmarking Heather Maitland & Chris Palmer

Rehearsal Room

Option 3: Movement workshop Dylan Quinn

Ridgeway Room

Option 4: Vocal workshop Julie Feeney

McGrath Suite

Option 5: Conference speed dating

Lyric café

Evening programme Drinks reception at Belfast City Hall Followed by dinner at Ramada Encore, St Anne’s Square & evening party & entertainment with Duke Special at the MAC Sponsored by Tickets.com

Belfast City Hall Ramada Encore The MAC

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Friday 15 June Time

Activity

Location (Lyric Theatre)

09:30 – 12:00

Tea, coffee & scones will be served all morning

Lyric café

10:00 – 11:00

Morning parallels Option 1: How space influences artist & audience behaviour Alastair Hall, Rob Harris, John Tuomey & Jamie Vartan, chaired by Anne McReynolds

Northern Bank Stage

Option 2: Multi-disciplinary programming – some new approaches Rosemary Collier, Brian Irvine & Andy Eagle, chaired by Paul Fahy

Rehearsal Room

Option 3: Making immersive art Louise Lowe, Paula McFetridge & Tim Wilson, chaired by Carole-Anne Upton

Ridgeway Room McGrath Suite

11:00 – 12:00

Business is not a dirty word – the producer as entrepreneur Farooq Chaudhry

Northern Bank Stage

12:00 – 12:30

Coffee break

Main foyer & Lyric café

12:30 – 13.30

Ambitions & dreams – making it happen Helen Marriage

Northern Bank Stage

13:30 – 14.30

Lunch

Naughton Studio & Lyric café

14:30 – 15:30

Afternoon parallels

15:30 – 16:00

Option 1: The street is the canvas – transforming our landscape Verena Cornwall, Ali FitzGibbon, Kathy Hayes & Helen Marriage, chaired by Karl Wallace

Northern Bank Stage

Option 2: Connecting with audiences – how social media has changed the world Conor Roche, Matthew Caines, & Patrick Hussey, chaired by Steven Hadley

Naughton Studio

Option 3: Amateur/professional – how to bridge the divide Philip Crawford, Julie Feeney & Patricia McBride, chaired by Jo Mangan

Ridgeway Room

Closing session

Northern Bank Stage

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Option 4: Clinic with Jaimie Carswell How to make successful small-budget work from artistic & practical perspectives

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Afternoon Sessions

Thursday 14 June: Afternoon Making ourselves relevant

Afternoon Parallels I (4 options)

Northern Bank Stage 14:00 – 15:15

North/south touring

Despite vigorously run campaigns, the arts community needs to legitimise itself more to public funding bodies. Ben Cameron suggests “We must begin by asking, why must we exist today? Because we have a building is not enough. Because we have a history and awards and a reputation is not enough. What is it in the world that mandates the flourishing of the arts in our communities today?”

Ben will explore some ways by which we can make our case in a more convincing and effective manner.

Speaker: Ben Cameron

Northern Bank Stage 15:15 – 16:30 Up to the 1990s, there was a healthy exchange of theatre north and south and the work of stellar companies such as Charabanc, Tinderbox, Prime Cut, Rough Magic, Druid and others was well known to audiences on both sides of the border. This situation has now radically changed, making for a worrying lack of awareness.

Meanwhile, venues north and south are urgently appealing for more work. What created this situation and what practical measures can we suggest to re-ignite the touring circuit? Our panel comprises Emma Jordan of Prime Cut and Vincent McCann from the Marketplace Theatre Armagh. In addition, Jon Morgan of the Federation of Scottish Theatre will give an overview of some innovative schemes from Scotland, and music promoter Tom Sherlock will offer the music perspective on the topic.

Speakers: Emma Jordan, Vincent McCann, Jon Morgan & Tom Sherlock Chair: Imelda Foley

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Thursday 14 June: Afternoon Parallels I (4 options) The rise and fall and rise again of the well-made play Naughton Studio 15:15 – 16:30

Speakers: Jimmy McAleavey, Conall Morrison & Hanna Slattne Chair: Jim Culleton

Ridgeway Room 15:15 – 16:30

Audience development – where did it all go wrong?

Rehearsal Room 15:15 – 16:30

This session will provide a welcome opportunity to reflect on the place that quality work for young people should occupy in the arts landscape with some of the country’s foremost practitioners.

Should work for young people occupy a far more prominent role in current thinking? If we really care about audiences of the future we have to engage far more with those practitioners who make excellent work for young people. How can we better support and programme what they do?

Do venue programmers have a responsibility to commission and programme work for young audiences? Also, what might young audiences offer theatre makers new to this sector? These and other questions will be addressed.

For years arts organisations have tried to broaden and develop their audiences, but with what success?

Katy Raines and Kate Sanderson of Indigo suggest that old ways of tackling audience development might be dead and present a simple new way of marrying programme and audience for the future.

Speakers: Katy Raines & Kate Sanderson Chair: Steven Hadley

Speakers: Muireann Ahern, Liz Coman, Paul McEneaney & Lali Morris Chair: Helen O’Donoghue

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Parallel Sessions

After several years of devised work, cross art form work, verbatim and immersive theatre and the monologue form, are we witnessing the resurgence of the well-made play?

Is there a return to the tried-and-true effectiveness of the conventional dramatic form? What does this say about the current state of playwriting and about the desires of audiences?

And how does this reflect society’s current concerns? Our panel includes a playwright, director and dramaturg and they will discuss the issue while reflecting on their own recent experiences.

Young people’s work

Parallel Sessions

Thursday 14 June: Afternoon Parallels II (5 options) City arts strategies – Belfast and Dublin

Vocal workshop

Naughton Studio 17:00 – 18:00

McGrath Suite 17:00 – 18:00

How can city councils respond to the changing needs of the arts communities that they serve? What initiatives can they propose to ensure vibrant artistic landscapes for our growing urban populations? What are the pressing issues for the arts community that can be met by councils? Are there new ways in which we can work together?

It’s not all thinking and talking you know! Join celebrated singer/songwriter Julie Feeney for an engaging voice workshop. No experience necessary.

Conference speed dating Lyric café 17:00 – 18:00

Speakers: Ray Yeates & a representative of Belfast City Council

Come and meet some of your fellow delegates in our conference speed dating session.

Audience benchmarking

Evening programme

Rehearsal Room 17:00 – 18:00

Belfast City Hall, Ramada Encore and the MAC 18:00 to late

How different are audiences north and south? Has the recession had the same impact? What does this tell us about how to increase audiences across Ireland?

Heather Maitland and Chris Palmer present hard evidence about ticket sales and audiences in 2011.

Free Transport to Belfast City Hall for a reception hosted by Belfast City Council. Then on to the Cathedral Quarter with dinner at Ramada Encore.

Finally a move to the MAC to experience the building and a special performance with Duke Special in our designated conference club.

Speakers: Heather Maitland & Chris Palmer Movement workshop

Sponsored by Tickets.com Ridgeway Room 17:00 – 18:00 Get moving and have fun with Dylan Quinn of Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre. No experience necessary.

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Friday 15 June: Morning Parallels I (4 options) Multi-disciplinary programming – some new approaches

Northern Bank Stage 10:00 – 11:00

Rehearsal Room 10:00 – 11:00

We may need to radically rethink where people go to watch, interact with and take part in the arts. Would temporary venues entice younger audiences put off by formal settings?

How do designers and architects think about these issues and how can they work more collaboratively with artists and programmers in order to help create the optimum artistic experience?

The panel will consist of Rob Harris of Arup Engineering who led the acoustic and theatre consulting design teams for the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin, John Tuomey of O’Donnell Tuomey Architects who designed the Lyric and Jamie Vartan, award-winning set designer of Misterman (Landmark Productions/Galway Arts Festival) which has just finished a run at the National Theatre, London.

Most festivals and venues programme across a spectrum of forms. What does it mean to work in a truly cross art form manner? Boundaries are increasingly blurred between artistic disciplines and audiences often dip into different offerings. We need to inform ourselves about other art forms as distinctions between disciplines collapse in all sorts of intriguing ways. This session looks at a number of approaches to multidisciplinary programming from differing perspectives.

Speakers: Alastair Hall, Rob Harris, John Tuomey & Jamie Vartan Chair: Anne McReynolds

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Speakers: Rosemary Collier, Brian Irvine & Andy Eagle Chair: Paul Fahy Making immersive art Ridgeway Room 10:00 – 11:00 Site-specific, immersive theatre is currently setting the world alight, with major recent successes by companies such as ANU, Kabosh, Punchdrunk and the Vault Festival.

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Meet three of the finest practitioners working with the form who will talk about their approach to making this sort of work and about blurring the boundaries between social history, theatre and other artistic disciplines.

How can our model of theatre making embrace this exciting new phenomenon?

Our panellists will also offer some ideas to programmers on how to situate their work.

Speakers: Louise Lowe, Paula McFetridge & Tim Wilson Chair: Carole-Anne Upton Clinic with Jaimie Carswell McGrath Suite 10:00 – 11:00 Jaimie’s clinic will examine how dynamic small-scale work adds excitement, diversity, heterogeneity and imagination to the world of theatre. He will take a look at what kind of work is possible on a small scale and will offer tips on making successful small-budget work from artistic and practical perspectives.

Belfast 2012

Parallel Sessions

How space influences artist and audience behaviour

Friday 15 June: Morning Business is not a dirty word – the producer as entrepreneur

Ambitions and dreams – making it all happen Northern Bank Stage 12:30 – 13:30

Morning Sessions

Northern Bank Stage 11:00 – 12:00

Artichoke is one of the UK’s leading independent production companies working to transform landscapes and expectations through its unique way of realising the ambitions of artists and the dreams of the public.

In this session, Artichoke’s Helen Marriage will explore how she has managed to keep absolute artistic integrity, deliver standards of excellence and attract mass audiences. She will speak about her recent projects and about how to work successfully in remarkable locations with a wide range of partners.

Farooq Chaudhry has said in the past “You’ve got to be bold, ambitious and be profoundly passionate about what you’re doing. There is a sense sometimes in the arts that people expect handouts, patronage and subsidy but it really is no different to any other sector; you shouldn’t rely on that totally”.

Farooq will address what the producer can offer to artists and audiences and the wider cultural context. This session will offer an insight into his ground-breaking work with Akram Khan and suggest some ways in which arts practitioners can begin to think more like creative entrepreneurs.

Speaker: Helen Marriage

Speaker: Farooq Chaudhry

Put yourself in my shoes (Runs over the two days) Listen up for some intriguing interventions from practitioners Stephen Beggs and Jaimie Carswell about their burning issues.

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Friday 15 June: Afternoon Parallels (3 options) The street is the canvas – transforming our landscape Northern Bank Stage 14:30 – 15:30

Speakers: Verena Cornwall, Ali FitzGibbon, Kathy Hayes & Helen Marriage Chair: Karl Wallace

Naughton Studio 14:30 – 15:30 This panel will look at how social media engagement has begun to radically alter the way entire organisations now communicate with audiences. For years arts marketers have been talking about how audience development should be an organisation -wide process and now social media has facilitated this move.

Speakers: Matthew Caines, Conor Roche & Patrick Hussey Chair: Steven Hadley

Amateur/professional – how to bridge the divide Ridgeway Room 14:30 – 15:30 How do we break down the barriers between amateurs and professionals and galvanise the loyal audience for the amateur sector across all art forms?

The RSC’s Open Stages project began in 2011 with an aim to bridge this gap in the UK and bring professional and amateur theatre makers together.

This session will take a look at how professional arts practitioners can engage with the amateur sector in order to inform and influence them better and thereby increase audiences for professional work. Our panel comprises practitioners who have devised some interesting ways of blending aspects of both in recent and upcoming projects.

Speakers: Philip Crawford, Julie Feeney & Patricia McBride Chair: Jo Mangan

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Parallel Sessions

In the past, outdoor spectacle was often regarded as the poor relation of the arts and as an easy win with family audiences. However, in recent years outdoor spectacle is gaining recognition as an art form deserving of much greater profile and consideration. What are the especial challenges in making this work and how can it be better supported by programmers?

Connecting with audiences – how social media has changed the world

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Speaker Biographies

Speaker Biographies

Muireann Ahern is Joint Artistic Director of Theatre Lovett and has 20 years’ experience working in theatre for young audiences. For the past five years she was Theatre Programmer and Producer at The Ark where she most recently produced The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly (The Ark and Theatre Lovett). During this time, Muireann programmed the Family Season of Dublin Theatre Festival and The Children’s Season of Dublin Dance Festival. She has directed A Man in Half for Theatre Lovett. She previously worked with TEAM, The Department of Education, The Abbey Theatre’s Outreach Department and TG4. Muireann has been a lecturer in Drama at St Patrick’s Teacher Training College and is a regular speaker at other third level colleges. Muireann was a committee member of Assitej Ireland: a world network of theatre for children and is on an advisory panel with Common Ground. She was a member of the core working group on published Artists˜Schools Guidelines: Towards Best Practice in Ireland. Muireann also works as a freelance consultant and was guest speaker at Danish+, an international conference on quality in theatre for children.

She is a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatre Studies, TCD and holds a HDipEd. Stephen Beggs has been Manager of Bruiser Theatre Company since 2002 and Chair of NITA for the last two years. For the last four years he has been a mentor on the Lyric Theatre’s Pat & Plain project with primary schools. He is one third of comedy writing and performing team Those Who Can’t and also MC for Pigeon & Plum Vaudeville Circus Cabaret.

Directing credits include productions for The Beat Carnival, Belfast Community Circus, Skewiff Theatre Company, ponydance, Belfast Actors’ Studio, Block One Theatre Company, The Tyrone Guthrie Society and South Bank Playhouse.

Acting credits include roles in Cooking With Elvis (Bruiser), Blackness After Midnight (Titanic 100 Festival), Dinner, Flesh Dense and The Exorcism Of Mary Rose (Red Lemon), The Gathering (Theatre Abandon), Pride & Prejudice/Pick & Mix (Replay), What The Butler Saw and Nobody Here But Us Chickens (Rawlife), Santaland Diaries (C21), Chasing The Whale’s Tale (Sticky Fingers), Collectors (Trouble Joe), The Crucible and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyric Theatre), Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens (The Black Box, Belfast), All My Sons, Pride and Prejudice, The Dumb Waiter, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Our Town and Hay Fever (South Bank Playhouse). Radio work includes Stranded, It Ain’t What You Do, The Keepers and Don’t Make Me Laugh (BBC Radio Ulster).

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Matthew Caines is a Community and Content Coordinator and Journalist for the Guardian Culture Professionals Network. Alongside his editorial duties, Matthew’s role at the Guardian means he is responsible for creating, managing and engaging the site’s community through digital and social media channels.

Matthew, 24, has been working at the Guardian for eight months – since graduating he has been a freelance journalist and has been involved in several web startups.

He has an interest in new online and social media tools and what role they play in forming communities and interacting with users.

Since joining the Guardian Culture Professionals Network, Matthew has written several features on the digital arts. Some have focused on how organisations are using social media to engage audiences (via Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and foursquare) and others have looked at how museums and theatres are using digital tools to interact with their visitors in-house.

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Speaker Biographies

Ben Cameron assumed his current position as Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) in New York in 2006. In that capacity, he supervises a $13.125 million grants programme focusing on organisations and artists in theatre, contemporary dance, jazz and presenting fields. During his tenure, the programme has adopted a new three-tiered strategy focused on artistic creation, organisational innovation and national sector building; launched major new initiatives, including the $15 million Leading for the Future initiative in partnership with the Nonprofit Finance Fund, the EMC Innovations Lab for the Performing Arts, the Fund for National Projects and audience development initiatives for jazz and dance fields in cooperation with the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and Dance/USA respectively.

In 2011, the board allocated an additional $50 million to the arts programme above the annual arts budget for a new programme primarily designed to serve artists.

Previously, he served as the Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group (TCG) in New York City, the national service organisation for the American non-profit professional theatre. Before coming to TCG, Ben joined the Dayton Hudson Foundation in Minneapolis in 1993, serving as Senior Program Officer; subsequently, he joined Target Stores corporate headquarters as Manager of Community Relations, where he supervised a $51 million national giving programme, embracing grant giving, cause marketing programmes and volunteerism. From 1988–92, he worked at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he served as Director of the Theater Program from 1990–92, frequently representing the theatre community at various speaking engagements and conferences.

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Speaker Biographies

Jaimie Carswell is a performer, director and musician. He holds an MA in Playwriting Studies from the University of Birmingham and an M.Phil. from Trinity College Dublin. He completed the professional training degree at the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris and worked with their Laboratory of Movement Studies. Jaimie has created numerous pieces of style-based, devised new work for many different kinds of spaces (including MetroProject, a large-scale show on the Paris metro). Using many different styles he has toured his work throughout Ireland, Europe, the UK and the USA. His most successful creation is the multi-award-winning clown show Cirque de Légume, which recently returned from a month-long off-Broadway run in New York with an upcoming tour to Brazil, the UK and the USA in 2012. Recent work as an actor includes Pierrot 2000s with Carpet Theatre, The Honk Project with John Wright, A Spell of Cold Weather with Cahoots NI, Jimmy Gralton’s Dance Hall with Donal O’Kelly and Kíla, The Line (film) with Maria O’Connor and The Adventures of the Wet Señor for Benbo Productions. Jaimie was born in Belfast and currently lives in Sligo.

Farooq Chaudhry was born in Pakistan and graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1986. As a professional dance artist, he worked in a variety of dance mediums in various European countries, the highlight being his time as a company member of the Belgian modern dance company Rosas during the mid-nineties. In 1988 he received an Asian Achievement Award for his work as a dancer. He retired from dancing in 1999 after which he completed an MA in Arts Management from City University in London.

In 1999, Farooq teamed up with Akram Khan and they founded Akram Khan Dance Company a year later. As the company producer, he has played a key role in forming innovative business models to support Akram Khan’s artistic ambitions as well as offering creative support during the development of Akram Khan’s projects.

He is a regular speaker in arts management and cultural entrepreneurship courses around the world. He is also the Chair of Dance UK’s board and a member of the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Clore Leadership Programme. In February 2011, he became an honorary artistic advisor to Guangzhou Opera House in China.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged him in a list of the world’s top 100 cultural actors and entrepreneurs in 2008.

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Rosemary Collier was appointed Director and CEO of Kilkenny Arts Festival in November 2011. Prior to this she worked as the Head of Music and Opera at the Arts Council of Ireland with responsibility for the development and funding of both art forms nationwide. Rosemary holds a Masters in Business and Marketing from the Dublin Institute of Technology and previously worked as an Arts Officer with Louth Local Authorities from 2002–07 where she was instrumental in the development of the new state-of-the-art Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda. She also established the Drogheda Arts Festival and was involved in bringing a number of high-profile composers and music ensembles to Ireland including composers Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt, the State Choir Latvja and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

Rosemary graduated from Trinity College Dublin with an honours degree in Music, subsequently worked as a choral conductor and professional singer with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and toured extensively in the USA, Europe and Asia with commercial music shows.

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Speaker Biographies

Liz Coman is Adviser to The Arts Council of Ireland for Young People, Children and Education. She has over 12 years’ experience in working in the arts curating programmes for children and young people. Until her recent appointment, Liz worked as Assistant Arts Officer for Dublin City Council Arts Office, responsible for managing The Red Stables Artists’ Studios and developing and implementing programmes on a city-wide and neighbourhood level according to strategic need.

She worked as Education Officer in the National Gallery of Ireland and as Visual Arts Programmer at the Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children. She studied Museum Education at postgraduate level and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for two years, learning and absorbing the USa approach to formal and informal education.

Liz is passionate about encouraging children and young people to think critically about the world around them and three areas in particular inform her research – how dynamic collaborations between children and young people and artists align with the contemporary art world; education through the arts in formal and informal settings, particularly in relation to fostering lifelong learning from an early age; and how the arts can enhance learner centred literacy approaches.

Verena Cornwall is an international arts consultant, specialising in circus, street arts and spectacle/carnival. For the past seven years she has worked as an Adviser to the Arts Council of Ireland and for the last two as Creative Director for St Patrick’s Festival (SPF). SPF commissions and programmes multi-disciplinary work and reaches live audiences in excess of 700,000 per annum plus television broadcasts viewed by in excess of 900,000 people. The festival is a core partner in the EU commissioning consortia Meridians.

In addition to these roles, Verena works freelance for a number of clients on research and specific projects. These currently include: Jeunes Talent Cirque Europe as Western Pole Co-Organiser and Permanent EU Jury-Member; Circus Futures Showcase as Executive Producer; EU Project CASCAS as UK Project Leader through the Circus Development Agency. Verena sits on a diverse range of advisory committees and boards in the arts (from carnival through to opera).

Speaker Biographies

Philip Crawford is the Creative Learning Coordinator at the Lyric Theatre.

His initial interest in drama developed through the amateur movement and he then trained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

After 15 years as a teacher, Philip founded Happenstance Theatre Company, of which he is Artistic Director.

He is currently directing Dan Gordon’s The Boat Factory (All The Queen’s Men) which has toured across Northern Ireland and most recently featured as part of the opening festival of Titanic Belfast.

Previous directing credits include Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Lyric Drama Studio), Not About Heroes (NI Tour), Francis (UK and Italy), Dancing at Lughnasa (New Jersey), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Our Country’s Good and Translations.

Philip was Project Director for the Lyric’s hugely successful primary school project, Pat & Plain, which recently won the Theatre Management Association’s award for the Promotion of Cultural Diversity.

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Jim Culleton is the Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company for which he most recently directed Tiny Plays for Ireland by 25 writers, Silent by Pat Kinevane (on tour to over 20 Irish venues, internationally, winner of Fringe First and Herald Angel Awards at Edinburgh Fringe 2011), the multi award-winning The Pride of Parnell Street by Sebastian Barry (Irish tour, London, New Haven, Paris, Wiesbaden, New York), The Music of Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor at the Abbey Theatre, Forgotten by Pat Kinevane (on tour to over 60 Irish venues, eight European countries and to New York, Boston, Washington DC, Los Angeles), and Noah and the Tower Flower by Sean McLoughlin (Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania, New York).

He also directs for other companies, most recently Bookworms by Bernard Farrell for the Abbey Theatre (2010 and 2012 revival). Current projects include training, mentoring and development projects for Fishamble. Future Fishamble projects include Silent at the Abbey Theatre, New York and Los Angeles and a second production of another 25 Tiny Plays for Ireland.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Duke Special is an artist aptly named. Dynamic, musically ambitious and bracingly eccentric, with his inimitable style and lush musicality. Hailing from Belfast with a sound that is self-confessed hobo-chic, Duke Special – AKA the endlessly inventive Peter Wilson – is once heard, never forgotten. Blissfully at home in his own alluring genre of beautifully bruised romanticism, Duke Special inhabits a world unlike any other – a world filled with vaudeville-esque sensibility, sing-a-longs and addictive melodies.

Those who know him for the platinum album Songs from the deep forest, including the hit song Freewheel and other radio mainstays like Sweet sweet kisses and Last night I nearly died may be surprised by the breadth of his work. Duke Special’s immense creative talents have seen him involved in projects as diverse as writing the theme tune for Sesame Tree (the Northern Ireland edition of Sesame Street where he also got to sing with The Muppets) to writing the music for, and appearing in, Deborah Warner’s critically acclaimed 2009 production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children at London’s National Theatre. He then recorded an album of the twelve songs from the play, which was to form part of his ambitious project for 2010 – the release of a three CD box-set, The Stage, A Book & The Silver Screen. This box-set also included a five-track EP called Huckleberry Finn, the first ever recording of an unfinished musical written by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson based on the Mark Twain classic, and the album The Silent World of Hector Mann, featuring 12 songs based on The Book of Illusions by contemporary American author Paul Auster.

Andy eagle has been working in the professional arts sector in Wales for 20 years and has been Director at Chapter in Cardiff for close to one year. For 11 years, he was Director at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, a mid-scale receiving venue. Prior to this he was Head of Arts and Culture at Neath Port Talbot County Council and Head of Marketing at Swansea Grand Theatre. He therefore has experience of the commercial, local authority and not-for-profit charitable sectors. Chapter is a unique producing hub in Cardiff and at the forefront of artist support and development in Wales. It supports the development of original film production, theatre, dance and visual arts as well as the wider creative economy through housing 30 independent creative companies such as Earthfall Dance and Theatr Iolo in their buildings.

Speaker Biographies

Paul Fahy has been Artistic Director of Galway Arts Festival since March 2005.

Prior to this he worked as an artist and freelance publicist and curator and worked with Galway Arts Festival, Macnas, Baboró, Rough Magic Theatre Company and the actor Cillian Murphy.

He programmed and produced the 1998 and 1999 Cúirt International Festival of Literature and was one of the key visual arts curators for Galway Arts Centre from 1990–99 where he curated many Irish and international exhibitions including Joan Miró and Marc Chagall. He was the Consultant Programme Director with Kilkenny Arts Festival from 1999–2003. Since being appointed Artistic Director of Galway Arts Festival in 2005, the Festival has worked with many seminal artists and companies including Steppenwolf, Propeller, Stephen Petronio, Michael Clark, Hofesh Shechter Dance Company, The Royal Court, The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Australia’s Circa, Druid Theatre, National Theatre of Scotland and artists and musicians Joni Mitchell, Philip Glass, Bill Viola, Hughie O’Donoghue and David Hockney. Most recently the Landmark Productions / Galway Arts Festival production Misterman written and directed by Enda Walsh with Cillian Murphy enjoyed hugely successful runs at the 2011 Festival and in St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York in December 2011, and is currently enjoying a critically acclaimed, sell-out run at the Lyttelton, National Theatre, London.

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Belfast 2012

Ali Fitzgibbon has over 20 years’ experience as a producer in theatre, live events (in music, circus, indoor and outdoor events) and children’s arts projects both in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Among others, she has worked with Graffiti Theatre Company, the Everyman Palace Theatre, Old Museum Arts Centre, Lyric Theatre, Belfast Circus School and Replay Theatre Company. Since 2003, she has been executive and artistic director of Young at Art which coordinates the international Belfast Children’s Festival, a professional multi-artform eight day programme for under 14s. The company also commissions and produces a range of diverse projects in theatre, dance, visual arts and literature. She was a founding board member of the Irish Theatre Institute and acts as a consultant for a number of venues and local authorities on children’s programming. Ali is one of the four consortium partners who created the Land of Giants project.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Julie Feeney singer, composer, orchestrator and producer, is a winner of the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year (Ireland’s equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize). Combining her “mesmerizing stage presence and eccentric pop genius” (Hot Press) she takes an avant-garde approach to her innovative, one-of-a-kind sound, which, while rooted in classical music, straddles both the pop and theatrical worlds.

Returning directly from shows in Canada, she has also just performed 10 sold-out nights off-Broadway in New York at the Irish Arts Center. She tours Ireland in November on a very novel tour to be announced and she will also in 2012 compose her first opera commission due for production in 2013–14. She has just recorded her third album having crowd-funded to make it and smashing her target going to 115% after reaching 100% a week before the deadline. Her music is widely broadcast on TV and radio and The Observer recently commented that Feeney’s debut album, 13 songs, was “the blossoming of a major talent,” adding that “Feeney towers over her contemporaries.” The New York Times has called her music “charming, urbane and dreamy” and The Guardian simply said “the world will listen.”

Previously, Julie performed as a professional choral singer worldwide and has extensive experience as an educator in Ireland and abroad. She has worked as a movement actor, a model and composer for contemporary dance projects.

Speaker Biographies

Imelda Foley is former Drama Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

She took a career break in 2001 to produce Hurricane by actor/writer Richard Dormer – his one-man show about the life of Alex Higgins. Since then, she has been a freelance arts consultant working with local authorities and arts organisations on funding, strategy, business plans et al.

Having been the Arts Council’s first Community Arts Officer, she felt it a privilege to return to facilitation of community organisations in Derry and Belfast, working to deliver the Arts Council’s Re-imaging Communities Programme over the past five years. She has been Honorary Administrator of the Stewart Parker Trust and a Director of Creative Exchange Studios (East Belfast). Imelda has been Producer of Ulster Youth Theatre and of her own company Balcony Productions for a national tour of Marie Jones’ Somewhere Over the Balcony.

Foley holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin. Her book The Girls in the Big Picture: Issues of Gender in Ulster Theatre was published by Blackstaff Press, 2002. Not Another Troubles Play! was her contribution to 13 art form essays commissioned by Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2009 for the Troubles Archive held by the Ulster Museum.

Steven Hadley was appointed CEO of Audiences NI in June 2007. An experienced arts marketer, Steven has over 15 years’ experience in roles covering audience development, marketing, press, box office and project management. He has worked in venues ranging from a small regional arts centre to a classical concert hall, as well as freelance work for a classical music management company. Steven is responsible for the strategic direction of the agency and for leading and developing all areas of business activity. He was a board member of both Moving on Music and the Arts Marketing Association for six years and is currently a Director of Audiences UK. Steven holds an MA (Distinction) in Media and Cultural Studies, an Advanced Diploma (Distinction) in Management Practice, is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and has an MBA (Distinction) from Queen’s University Belfast.

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Belfast 2012

Alastair Hall studied architecture at Queen’s University Belfast and Cambridge University. Upon graduation he worked for Grafton Architects in Dublin before returning to Belfast where he worked in some local offices (such as Kennedy Fitzgerald) before co-founding Hackett Hall McKnight (now Hall McKnight).

Alastair has taught and lectured in Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster and has been a guest critic at Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Ulster, Dublin Institute of Technology and Dublin City University’s School of Architecture. He has presented lectures in Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and the Middle East and was a co-author of Modern Ulster Architecture (published 2007).

Hall McKnight are the architects of Belfast’s recently opened MAC and are currently working in Copenhagen where they have designed a new public square. Both of these commissions were won through international design competitions. The practice’s work was recognised in 2008 when Hall McKnight won the UK and Ireland Young Architect of the Year award.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Rob Harris was awarded a BSc Hons in Physics from Warwick University in 1975.

His commitment to theatre led to work as a professional sound engineer in London and Canada, sound mixing major musicals such as Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 1975 Rob studied for an MSc at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton University. He then worked at Acoustic Technology Ltd, mainly in the onshore and offshore oil industries.

A move to design consultancy Arup in 1982 led Rob back to design for the performing arts. Today, he is a leading international auditorium acoustic designer and theatre consultant. He is a Director of Ove Arup & Partners, the global leader of acoustics and theatre design in Arup and leader of the Arup Arts & Culture business in the UK, Middle East and Africa.

Rob’s auditorium acoustic design and engineering credits include Bridgewater Hall Manchester, City Recital Hall Sydney, Glyndebourne Opera House, Bruges Concertgebouw, Wales Millennium Centre Cardiff and the Royal Opera House London. His recent openings include the Kings Place Recital Hall, London; Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin and the Kristiansand Performing Arts Centre, Norway. Rob’s current projects include the major refurbishment of the Victoria Concert Hall and Victoria Theatre, Singapore and the new arts centre in Southampton.

Speaker Biographies

Kathy hayes returned to Northern Ireland in 2010 and has created, programmed and managed projects for a range of arts and event organisations primarily in Scotland, but also across the UK and further afield – from major civic celebrations, festivals and launches with UZ Events to innovative landscape and environmental work with NVA, new talent initiatives for dogtooth media and Channel 4’s IDEASfactory and product launches for experiential marketing and music promotions agency Better Days. Latterly, Kathy spent two years working with EventScotland on a major event-led tourism initiative and supported the development of a sustainable events sector in Scotland.

Patrick Hussey is the Digital Manager for Arts & Business. Employed to create a social presence, Arts & Business now has over 20,000 fans and followers spread across Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and various social platforms. This includes one of the most followed and influential Twitter accounts in the cultural sector (http://twitter.com/arts_business).

Recently he has been leading on digital projects and partnerships including joint initiatives with major organisations such as Google. He blogs regularly for the Guardian on digital meets the arts and will be speaking at a TEDx event later in the year.

Maureen Kennelly is a freelance arts producer and programmer. She is Primary Curator with the Mountains to Sea Books Festival, Dun Laoghaire. In 2010, she established Spool Communications with Fergal Cronin, a company dedicated to the production of live literature events and other arts projects. Current projects include The Science of Flann O’Brien and Whole World Round, both of which continue to tour nationally and internationally. She was Programme Director of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature in 2009 and 2010.

She was previously Director of Kilkenny Arts Festival, Artistic Director of the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray and has also worked with Fishamble, Druid, Crafts Council of Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Youth Choir.

She was a member of the judging panel for the Irish Times Theatre Awards for 2002 and 2006 and chaired this panel in 2003. She is a member of the boards of Kilkenny Arts Festival, Barabbas, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and The Dock Arts Centre.

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Belfast 2012

Emma Jordan is Prime Cut’s Executive Director and her directing credits for the company include: David Harrower’s Blackbird, Owen McCafferty’s Shoot the Crow, Fiona Evans’ Scarborough, Marina Carr’s Woman and Scarecrow, Dennis Kelly’s After The End and a staged reading of Fermin Cabal’s Tejas Verdes (Old Museum Arts Centre).

Emma’s acting credits include work with numerous theatre companies including: Charabanc, Tinderbox, The Lyric Theatre, Replay, DubbelJoint and Young at Art. Her producing credits for Prime Cut include Three Tall Women (Assistant Director), The Coronation Voyage, Shopping and Fucking, American Buffalo, Macbeth, The Chance, After Darwin, The Mercy Seat, Ashes To Ashes, A Number, Cold Comfort, The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek, Scenes From The Big Picture, Owen McCafferty’s version of Antigone and most recently Vincent River by Philip Ridley.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Brian Irvine, born in Belfast, has a huge body of work that reflects an obsessive love of music creation. It includes operas, orchestral works, large-scale community oratorios, film, theatre and dance scores as well as numerous ensemble, solo and chamber pieces.

His music has been performed all over the world and commissioned by many artists and organisations including Welsh National Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and many more.

Together with his own 12-piece ensemble he has toured extensively, appearing at some of the world’s leading music festivals and venues. He was Associate Composer with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and is currently Visiting Professor of Creative Arts at the University of Ulster.

Brian has also collaborated with, and written for, many artists across different genres as well as film makers, sculptors and animators.

Most recently, his opera Shelter Me from the Rain won the 2011 Irish Allianz Arts and Business Award and his large scale children’s oratorio Rain Falling Up was shortlisted for a 2011 British Composers Award. The junk opera Postcards from Dumbworld was also shortlisted for a 2011 Irish Times Theatre Award.

He is currently working on Nest: a multi-media installation for symphony orchestra, chorus, sonic processing, 5000 objects and film (London 2012 Festival commission) and on an opera with writer Owen McCafferty (Northern Ireland Opera commission).

Speaker Biographies

Louise Lowe’s work for ANU includes: Laundry (Dublin Theatre Festival 2011, Winner of the Best Production Award, Irish Times Theatre Awards and nominated for Best Director Award Irish Times Theatre Awards), World’s End Lane (Re-Viewed – Dublin Theatre Festival 2011, Dublin Fringe 2010: Winner Best Off-Site Production Award, Nominated Best Production Award, Irish Times Theatre Awards), Fingal Ronan (Robert Wilson Residency, Watermill Center New York), Memory Deleted (Winner Best Production Award Belltable), Basin (Dublin Fringe Festival 2009), Down The Valley (Belltable, Winner Spirit of Fringe Award) and Corners (Project, 2009).

Recent directing credits include: Across the Lough (The Performance Corporation), Evensong (Upstate), The End of The Road (Fishamble: The New Play Company), The Baths, Demeter Project: Still Life Still and Right Here Right Now (Prime Cut Productions) Come Forward to Meet You (Upstate), Tumbledowntown (Winner Spirit of the Fringe Award / Per Cent for Art Commission, Dublin Fringe Festival).

Louise is a founding member of Project Brand New and a Project Arts Centre Catalyst Artist. She is currently Associate Director with Prime Cut Productions and was the Resident Assistant Director at the Abbey Theatre 2008–09. Louise holds an MA (Directing) Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.

Jo Mangan is the current Jerome Hynes Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow working at the Barbican, London. She shares the Artistic Directorship of Ireland’s internationally renowned site-specific specialists The Performance Corporation with Tom Swift. Most recent directing credits for the company include Swampoodle – a large-scale performance in Washington DC’s Uline Arena, Slattery’s Sago Saga (nominated Best Director, Best New Play and Best Actor in the Irish Times Theatre Awards) and Power Point (Dublin Fringe Festival and Tampere Festival Finland).

Other work includes What the Folk (Siamsa Tíre), Bogboy (Tall Tales – winner Best Production, Best Director and Best Actress at the First Irish Festival New York) and Beware of the Storybook Wolves (The Ark).

Radio plays include The Flying Dutchman of Iniskill by Tom Swift (nominated Best Drama PPI Radio awards). Film and TV include A Life (Galway Film Fleadh and international festivals) and The 3rd Policeman’s Ball for TV3.

Jo curates The Performance Corporation’s SPACE Programme, an international multidisciplinary artists residency in Castletown House, Co. Kildare. She is a board member of the Riverbank Arts Centre and Visual Carlow, and has served on the boards of Theatre Forum and Fishamble.

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Belfast 2012

Helen Marriage is a co-director of Artichoke, which she founded with Nicky Webb in 2005. Artichoke is one of the UK’s leading independent production companies working to transform landscapes and expectations through its unique way of realising the ambitions of artists and the dreams of the public.

Artichoke is currently producing Peace Camp with Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw for the London 2012 Olympic Festival. 2011 projects comprised the magical Dining with Alice – a dinner party for 256 guests at a time, as well as the second edition of Lumiere, for the medieval city of Durham.

In 2010, the company presented Francois DelaRoziere’s Magical Menagerie as part of the first international festival in Milton Keynes. 2009 work included the inaugural Lumiere festival in Durham as well as Antony Gormley’s 100-day One & Other Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square. The company was responsible for the presentation of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant on the streets of central London in 2006, Paul St George’s bi-continental The Telectroscope in 2008 and La Machine – the highlight of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008. Helen’s previous work has included a seven-year period as Director of the Salisbury Festival.

Helen went to Salisbury after creating the first arts and events programme for the developers of Canary Wharf in London. Prior to that, she was an Associate Director of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). She began her working life with Artsadmin where she managed a variety of independent artists in the early 1980s.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Heather Maitland is an arts consultant, author, lecturer and Associate Fellow at the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick. Heather has worked as a marketer for a wide range of arts organisations: from small touring theatre companies to running the London end of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s marketing operation and including both classical and contemporary dance. She worked with over 100 organisations on audience, business and art form development as head of two of the UK’s audience development agencies. Her current projects in Ireland include the Theatre Forum Annual Benchmarking project, helping the National Craft Gallery research existing and potential visitors, contributing to the Arts Audience: Audience Development Programme and supporting companies funded by the Arts Council’s touring programme.

She has written nine books on arts marketing including Navigating difference: cultural diversity and audience development and Greater than the sum of its parts: a joined up guide to working in groups, both published by Arts Council England.

Her most recent book, The Jazz Services Guide to Getting Bigger Audiences for Jazz, is about to be published. She also writes regular columns for the Journal of Arts Marketing.

Speaker Biographies

Jimmy McAleavey was educated in West Belfast, Oxford University, Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast. His stage plays include The Sign of the Whale (Tinderbox, 2010) which won the Stewart Parker Award and was nominated for the Meyer-Whitworth Award and The Virgin Father (Tinderbox, 2009). Site-specific work includes Titans for the opening of Titanic Belfast (Kabosh, 2012) and The Joy (And Roy) of Irish (Kabosh, 2010).

He has written numerous radio plays and short stories for BBC Radio 3, 4 and RTé Lyric FM, receiving a Special Commendation in the Richard Imison Awards for The Ballad of Shane O’Neill (Radio 4, 2006). Moonmen (BBC Radio 3, 2008) was described

by The Daily Mail as “the perfect radio play”.

He has also been nominated for the King’s Cross Award and the Tony Doyle Award. He is currently under commission with Kabosh.

Patricia McBride is Director of An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal since it opened in 1999. She holds a BA Hons Degree in Performing Arts from De Montfort University, Leicester and a Masters in Cultural Management from University of Ulster. Her career in professional arts management spans over 20 years. In the UK she worked in various roles in organisations such as the Royal Academy of Arts, the Haymarket Theatre and Proteus Theatre Company. Returning to Ireland, she was Manager of Charabanc Theatre Company and General Manager of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Since moving to Donegal she has been an active member of the arts and cultural sector, serving on the management committees of Earagail Arts Festival and the Donegal County Cultural Forum. She is also currently a board member of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and is Chair of the Nasc Venue Network.

Vincent McCann is a drama and theatre studies graduate of Trinity College Dublin.

He also has an MPhil in Irish Theatre Studies and an MBA. His first professional role was as administrator for DubbelJoint Productions where productions included A Night in November by Marie Jones; Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten and Binlids which toured to New York. After this, he was administrator of The Lyric Theatre, Belfast where he produced shows including Brian Friel’s Give Me Your Answer Do; Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark and Marie Jones’ Stones in His Pockets. Since 1999, Vincent has been based in The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre in Armagh where he is currently the Acting Theatre Director. As a member of the Association of Regional Theatres, the Market Place co-produced all-Ireland tours of Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Hugh Leonard’s Da and Sean O’Casey’s Juno And The Paycock. Vincent is currently a board member of NITA and Maiden Voyage Dance.

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Belfast 2012

Paula McFetridge has been Artistic Director of Kabosh since August 2006. Founded in 1994, Kabosh is based in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. It is the only site-specific theatre company in the north and is committed to challenging the notion of what theatre is and where it takes place. For the company, she recently directed the premiere productions of Titans by Jimmy McAleavey for Titanic Belfast; A Better Boy by John Wilson Foster on the Belfast Barge; 1 in 5 by Marina Carr, Rosemary Jenkinson, Nicola McCartney and Morna Regan in the former Limavady workhouse; Belfast Bred by Seth Linder, a walking food and drink tour of Belfast; This is What We Sang by Gavin Kostick in the Belfast synagogue and at the Synagogue for the Arts NYC (winner of Best Production 1st Irish Festival 2010); Two Roads West by Laurence McKeown set in a moving black taxi; Carnival by Lucy Caldwell in a Speigeltent; Henry & Harriet by Carlo Gébler in working city-centre shops; as well as numerous bespoke theatre events for Healing Through Remembering, Trauma Recovery Network, Relatives for Justice, Tourism Ireland and Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Paul McEneaney is originally from Armagh and is the founder member and Artistic Director of Cahoots NI, which began operations in 2001. He has been involved in all the company’s productions. Writing/directing credits include Egg, Leon and The Place Between, Circus, The Great Carmo, The Family Hoffmann, The Snail and the Whale, The Flea Pit, The Travelling Teller, The Magic Hat, A Fairy’s Tale and Buster. He recently directed How I Became a Pirate at the Imagination Stage, Washington DC. Paul has worked extensively as a theatrical illusion consultant/designer creating theatrical illusions for many stage shows.

He was nominated for the prestigious Ian Charleson award and received a Commendation from the National Theatre for his performance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

To date, Paul’s work for Cahoots NI has represented Northern Ireland at many major theatre festivals/venues around the world, including South Korea, Germany, Malta and the UK. In November 2011, The Belfast Metropolitan College honoured Paul with an Award of Distinction for his contribution to the arts.

Anne McReynolds, as Chief Executive, is responsible for managing the vision and strategy for Belfast’s brand new multi-million pound arts venue, the MAC. Based in Belfast’s creative hub, the Cathedral Quarter, the MAC boasts two theatres, three visual art galleries, a rehearsal space, dance studio, artist in residence space, offices and a café/ bar. It opened its doors to the public on 20 April and is proving a major success with visitors and audiences from across Northern Ireland and beyond.

Anne is also a Trustee of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and a member of the Cathedral Quarter Steering Group. She has also been appointed by the Minister of State for Culture as a Trustee of The Theatres Trust, an Independent Advisory Body charged with protecting and preserving theatres throughout the UK. Anne was one of the co-founders of the Belfast Children’s Festival and chaired the Board of Trustees of that organisation for the first five years of its life. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Upstate Theatre, Drogheda. Prior to the MAC, Anne was the Director of the Old Museum Arts Centre since 1996.

Speaker Biographies

Jon Morgan is Director of the Federation of Scottish Theatre, a membership and development body which advances the interests of professional Scottish theatre and dance at home and abroad.

With over 110 members ranging from small scale theatre and dance companies through to major venues, touring networks and national performing companies, FST brings the sector together to speak with a collective voice, to share resources and expertise and to promote collaborative working.

FST undertakes advocacy at a national level with government and funding bodies, co-ordinates capacity building initiatives and provides training, advice and other services to members to secure the creative future of theatre and dance in Scotland.

Prior to joining FST in 2008, Jon has held positions at organisations including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Contact Theatre (Manchester) and TAG Theatre (Glasgow). He has also undertaken freelance work for a number of organisations including the British Council and the Scottish Arts Council.

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Belfast 2012

Lali Morris is the Artistic Director of Baboró International Arts Festival for Children.

She has over 30 years’ experience working with children from 18 months to 18 years.

Teaching positions have ranged from being a head teacher for a nursery school to being a primary school teacher and a drama specialist as part of an arts team for schools.

Although starting as a teacher, the arts have played a major role in Lali’s professional career. In the USA, she was a director, instructor and producer of a youth theatre and an adult improvisational theatre company; she has also led many teachertraining workshops in movement and drama. In Ireland, she started as a freelance teacher and director and worked with the National Chamber Choir, Gaiety Theatre Outreach, Galway Arts Festival, Performing Arts School, Galway and Cork Midsummer Festival. She was also the Director of the Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh before taking the position with Baboró in 2001.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Conall Morrison is a theatre director and playwright. He has directed numerous plays for the Abbey Theatre, including Hamlet, The House, Translations, The Dandy Dolls, In a Little World of Our Own, Tarry Flynn, The Colleen Bawn, The Big House, The Tempest, A Whistle in the Dark, Ariel, Freedom of the City, As the Beast Sleeps, Twenty Grand and The Last Days of a Reluctant Tyrant. For the Lyric, Belfast he has directed Dancing at Lughnasa, Conversations on a Homecoming, Ghosts, Juno and the Paycock and The Crucible. For the Royal Shakespeare Company he has directed Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew.

Some of his other productions include Martin Guerre for Cameron Mackintosh, La Traviata for English National Opera, Ludwig II for Festpielhaus Neuschwanstein, Richard II, performed in Arabic at Hisham’s Palace, Jericho, and at the Globe Theatre.

As well as original work, he has adapted and translated several plays.

Speaker Biographies

Helen O’Donoghue is Senior Curator and Head of Education and Community Programmes, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Currently working with six curatorial staff, they have devised initiatives for both formal and informal learning, engaging with all aspects of the museum. The department has developed pedagogical models which have been evaluated and subsequently published. O’Donoghue has contributed to Lifelong Learning in Museums, A European Handbook (2006) and has written for, and is series editor of, Curating Now and Access All Areas (2009) and MUSEUM21 (ed. Sophie Byrne), (2011), collections of papers arising from IMMA’s international symposia in 2004, 2006 and 2008. In addition to her work at IMMA, O’Donoghue’s published texts include Borderlines: David Jacques’ Garden, for Fire Station Artists’ Studios Dublin 2007 and a Book Review for the International Education Studies; Body Knowledge and Curriculum: Pedagogies of Touch in Youth and Visual Culture by Stephanie Springgay 2009; In the Works/Vu de I’interieur, foreword for monograph Gandon Publications 2011 and an article for the Irish Arts Review on Irish artists Cleary and Connolly 2012. Currently she is the External Assessor for the Dublin Institute of Technology’s Visual Arts BAVA course based on Sherkin Island, West Cork and a board member of The Ark, Poetry Ireland and Age & Opportunity, Ireland.

Chris Palmer joined Audiences NI in 2004 as Research Manager and is at the forefront of providing market intelligence on the arts in Northern Ireland, providing bespoke analysis to individual organisations, contextual benchmarks on the sector as a whole and consultancy to arts organisations looking to interpret and implement research findings into actionable outcomes.

One of the most proficient users of Mosaic NI, he provides a level of information on customer geo-demographics which would typically be beyond the price range of an average arts organisation. In addition, he provides advice on data capture, customer relationship management and data protection issues, while also delivering annual training on market research and customer profiling to arts organisations in NI. His annual sectoral benchmark reports, including the Audience Review, the Digital Review and the Black Book Report, represent a recent leap forward in the information available to funders and arts organisations on the audience for the arts in Northern Ireland overall. Tracking changes in the market and customer behaviour, these reports represent a strong basis for assessing success and planning for the future. Chris has a Diploma in Market and Social Research from the Market Research Society.

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Belfast 2012

ponydance are just back from Australia where they performed at Womad and the Adelaide Fringe where they… drum roll please… won Best Dance Show. They are currently associate artists with the brand new MAC and premiered a new show there in May this year. The summer sees them touring Yorkshire as part of I-Move, a Cultural Olympiad project and returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with DanceBase, supported by Culture Ireland. They have performed to less than 10 people in parish halls and to more than 10,000 people in the Aviva Stadium. Good looking, funny and charming, what’s not to like?

Katy Raines is regarded as one of the UK’s leading consultants on customer relationship management for the arts, and as such has developed and led research and implementation programmes for large and middle-scale organisations throughout the UK. She has a particular passion for using audience data to effect change and drive an audience-led approach to marketing for any arts organisation. Katy is known for her work on relationship marketing, customer loyalty and branding, and has been a regular speaker at conferences and events, both in the cultural and higher education sectors. She masterminded a rebranding project for the University of Durham, from where she received an MBA in 2005. She is a Visiting Lecturer at DeMontfort University and University of Central England, sits on the Marketing and Enterprise Committee of the Theatrical Management Association and is an Accredited Action Learning Facilitator.

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Belfast 2012

Speaker Biographies

Dylan Quinn has been working as a dance artist for over 16 years. His work has spanned performing, education, community and choreographic work. He spent a number of years working in England and for the last two years has been running Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre in his native Northern Ireland. Dylan has undertaken a range of innovative projects working with live theatre, film, site-specific projects, solo, company, professional and community performances. He has worked with young people, adults, special education needs groups, people in custodial settings and communities in areas with financial and social deprivation, to name a few. Dylan has particular experience in working with a combination of dance and peace education projects locally and internationally. He has presented solo and company performances at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Spring Loaded, Dublin Dance Festival and APAP New York. He has toured extensively, nationally and internationally, with a range of professional companies.

Speaker Biographies

Conor Roche is currently the Head of Broadcast and New Media at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. He is also a NESTA Fellow as part of the Clore Leadership Programme 2011/12, Digital Advisor for the Culture Learning Alliance (CLA) and Non-Executive Board Member of Alpha-ville, the international arts and technology festival. Conor is primarily interested in pursuing best use of new technologies to enable creative collaboration, enable artists to reach new audiences, encourage innovation in traditional art forms, develop new business models for the arts and promote innovation in learning.

His main interest is in developing new work specifically for online audiences while challenging the idea that true live experiences can only exist for audiences physically in the same space as the performance.

Kate Sanderson is a marketing and audience development specialist who has worked with a wide range of theatres and arts centres across the UK. Formerly Director of Communications for West Yorkshire Playhouse, Kate has a pragmatic, practical approach to creating marketing strategies which really make a difference. She is well known as a coach and trainer through her work with the Theatrical Management Association and the Arts Marketing Association.

Tom Sherlock has worked as a music business professional since 1982 when he began working with leading Irish folk music label Claddagh Records. He helped establish them as the world’s largest distributor of traditional music and opened up many international territories for the label and its acts. There he worked both as A&R Manager and Production Manager. He also established a retail arm there and successfully managed Ireland’s leading folk and roots music record store.

Since 1997, Tom has worked in music management and event consultancy, representing many acts including Altan, Liam O’Flynn, The Poet and the Piper and Karan Casey. He has presented Riverdance, The Chieftains, The Dubliners and Carlos Nunez and others and has worked with the world’s leading arts and folk music festivals.

He is Programme Manager for The North Atlantic Fiddle Convention running in Derry and Donegal in June 2012. He works as a Programmer with The Guinness Irish Festival in Switzerland and the Tonder Festival, Denmark. He is on the board of the Irish Traditional Music Archive and has served on the board for Open House Festival, Belfast and the Dublin Folk Festival.

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Hanna Slattne is the Dramaturg and Literary Manager at Tinderbox Theatre Company where she runs the dramaturgy strand of the company’s activities; working with writers under commission, production dramaturgy, writer’s development programmes such as The Writers Lab, playwriting workshops, script panel and Fireworks: Tinderbox’s annual Young Writers Programme. Hanna is a founder member of The Dramaturgs’ Network.

She provides wider support for writers at all levels in the region and regularly collaborates with BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen to run events for writers across the different media. She is working with many of the leading theatre companies as part of the Joint Sectoral Dramaturgy Initiative. She was dramaturg at the Space Programme, an interdisciplinary arts residency run by the Performance Corporation in spring 2008, 2009 and 2011.

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Speaker Biographies

John Tuomey was born in Tralee in 1954. He graduated from the School of Architecture, University College Dublin in 1976, gaining a Master’s Degree in 2004.

He worked in London for Stirling Wilford Associates and as an architect in the Office of Public Works. In 1988 he set up O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects (OD+T) with Sheila O’Donnell and in 1994 was raised to the rank of Fellow by the RIAI in recognition of his contribution to Irish architecture. Since 1981 he has been teaching at the School of Architecture UCD and he has also been an external examiner and lecturer at numerous universities.

He was managing director of Group 91 Architects during the Temple Bar Development. John was partner in charge of several OD+T projects including: Lewis Glucksman Gallery; National Photographic Archive; Gallery of Photography; Furniture College Letterfrack; Trinity Research Centre; Leinster House Press Room; An Gaeláras Irish Language Centre Derry and Lyric Theatre Belfast. Currently he is involved in works on Trinity Pearse St Development Plan; Photographer’s Gallery London; Coleraine Museum and Library; Students’ Centre for London School of Economics and Central European University in Budapest. He is the author of Architecture, Craft and Culture published by Gandon Editions. He is a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. He was elected as Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2010.

Carole-Anne Upton is Professor of Drama in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Ulster. Her research focuses on contemporary theatre practice, particularly in Northern Ireland, translation for performance, directing methodologies, and theatre and ethics. Recent work has examined documentary theatre and performance and ‘the real’ in Northern Ireland. She has previously published on modern Irish drama and postcolonial anglophone and francophone theatre in Africa and the Caribbean. She is the founder and principal editor of Performing Ethos: An international journal of ethics in theatre and performance. She maintains a passion for directing and her recent work includes a tour of Jordan by Moira Buffini with Anna Reynolds, and her own translation of The Blind by Maurice Maeterlinck. She is currently working on international projects including the first English translation of Armand Gatti’s Maze plays, set in Derry during the 1981 Hunger Strikes.

Speaker Biographies

Jamie Vartan has worked extensively, nationally and internationally, as a designer in theatre, opera and dance. He has represented the UK at Prague Quadrennials in 1999, 2007 and 2011. His work has also included three years as designer and artist-in-residence for the David Glass Ensemble on The Lost Child Trilogy, with residencies in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Colombia, followed by a multi-media installation at the October Gallery, London, based on his work on the overseas residencies. Recent designs for opera include The Saint of Bleecker Street (Opera Marseille), L’isola disabitata (Royal Opera House, Linbury Studio), Carmen (Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon), Falstaff (Teatro Farnese, Parma) and currently L’isola disabitata (Hobart, Tasmania).

Recent designs for theatre include Misterman at Galway Arts Festival 2011, St Ann’s Warehouse, New York and at the National Theatre, London (Lyttleton).

Karl Wallace is Chief Executive of Siamsa Tíre. Before this he was the Artistic Director of The Castle, Northamptonshire and the Belltable, where he oversaw the development and growth of the UNFRINGED Festival. As a theatre director his credits include; Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, Derby Playhouse, Lyric Belfast, Grand Opera House Belfast and Peacock Theatre. He was also founder member and Artistic Director of Kabosh from 1997–2006. During this time the company developed into one of Northern Ireland’s most successful international and award-winning companies with Karl leading the company’s direction into site-specific and installation performances with partners such as Belfast Festival at Queen’s and the Old Museum Arts Centre. His interest in this work continues today, being executive producer to What the Folk, a site specific theatre documentary performance directed by Jo Mangan and performed by the National Folk Theatre and also collaborator and partner in the development of Tralee Circus Festival led by Artistic Director, Con Horgan.

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Tim Wilson founded the Heritage Arts Company in 2007. Trained internationally in Theatrical Direction and Music in Havana, and English Literature in London, his previous work has included creative roles with Punchdrunk, the National Theatre, Secret Cinema and Norwich Theatre Royal and management or directorships with the Old Vic, the Roundhouse and PW Productions. He is a Courvoisier Future 500 member and a consultant with a number of performance companies. Heritage Arts produces its own work and also manages emergent artists like Silent Opera, Kindle Theatre and more. He is Creative Producer of the VAULT Festival, London.

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Speaker Biographies

Ray Yeates began directing and acting at UCD in the late 1970s. After some years freelancing, he formed Deilt Productions, an Irish language theatre and television company. He started directing at the Abbey Theatre in 1983 and was appointed Deputy Artistic Director in 1985 at the age of 24. He left the Abbey at the end of the 1980s and began to produce and direct in Ireland, England and America.

He emigrated to New York in 1992 where he was a resident teacher at the Irish Arts Center and at The American Academy of Dramatic Art, and he was Artistic Director of The Shades of Green Arts Festival in the Bronx. In 2004 he was appointed as Director of the Axis arts and community resource centre.

With Axis, Ray has toured to America, the UK, Belgium, Poland and around Ireland. He returned to acting in 2010 with The Parting Glass, Dermot Bolger’s long-awaited follow up to In High Germany. Directed by Mark O’ Brien, the production toured Ireland before transferring to New York. In August 2011, he was appointed City Arts Officer by Dublin City Council.

Belfast 2012

How to Book Conference fees include access to all sessions, lunch on both days, coffee breaks and evening dinner and entertainment.

We would like to thank the following for their invaluable assistance in organising this year’s conference:

Rates

Muireann Ahern, David Alderdice, Tania Banotti, Anne Bonnar, Una Carmody, Anne Clarke, Fergus Cronin, Richard Croxford, Jane Daly, Peter Daly, Maria Fleming, Brian Garrett, Noeline Kavanagh, Jo Mangan, Patricia McBride, Paula McFetridge, Declan McGovern, Angela McLaughlin, Deirdre O’Neill and all at the Belfast Visitor and Convention Bureau, Colette Norwood, Liz Roche, Tim Smith, Karl Wallace, Michael White, all at the Lyric Theatre; the MAC; Titanic Belfast; the Gaiety Theatre and the Abbey Theatre.

Members £84 / €95 Non-members £160 / €180 Special subsidised rate £65 / €75*

How to Book

Thank You

*Please note that there is a limited number of subsidised places for freelance writers, directors, producers and actors.

Please contact your members’ organisation for further information: karen.orawe@audiencesni.com; info@nitatheatre.org; info@theatreforum.ie

A big thank you to all our volunteers for their generous time.

A special thanks to the boards:

You can book by clicking on the booking link online which also includes the travel and accommodation offers. Please visit: www.audiencesni.com www.nitatheatre.org www.theatreforumireland.com

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Audiences NI: Eileen Mullan (Chair), Tony McCance (Vice Chair), Mary Canny, Lydia Gamble, Brenda Kent, Áine McVerry, Christopher Neill, Walter Rader, Mary Trainor-Nagele.

Northern Ireland Theatre Association: Stephen Beggs (Chair), Louise Rossington (Vice Chair), Emily DeDakis, Eimear Henry (Treasurer), Rachel Kennedy, Vincent McCann, Gillian Mitchell, Andrea Montgomery.

Theatre Forum: Loughlin Deegan (Chair), Mona Considine (Deputy Chair), Peter Daly, Padraig Heneghan, Emer McGowan, Cian O’Brien, Niamh O’Donnell, Liz Roche, Tim Smith.

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Conference Partners

Conference Map

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Chief Executive – Steven Hadley Marketing and Communications Manager – Sara Gunn Projects and Events Manager – Karen O’Rawe Research Manager – Chris Palmer Marketing Officer – Catriona Holmes Finance Officer – Clare Forker

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1. Lyric Theatre, 55 Ridgeway Street, Belfast BT9 5FB 2. The MAC, 10 Exchange Street West, Belfast BT1 2NJ 3. Premier Inn Waring Street, 2–6 Waring Street, Belfast BT1 2DX 4. Premier Inn Alfred Street, Alfred Street, Belfast BT2 8ED 5. Holiday Inn Express, 106 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HP 6. Park Inn, 4 Clarence Street West, Belfast BT2 7GP 7. Ibis City Centre, 100 Castle Street, Belfast BT1 1HF 8. Ibis Queen’s Quarter, 75 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HL 9. Belfast City Hall, Donegall Square, BT1 5GS

Programme design by Conor & David

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Our Funders

through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Our Sponsors