Siobhán McKenna Inaugural Lecture featuring keynote Caitríona McLaughlin

Tue Apr 16 2024 at 01:00 pm to 03:00 pm

O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance | Galway

University of Galway Arts in Action
Publisher/HostUniversity of Galway Arts in Action
Siobh\u00e1n McKenna Inaugural Lecture featuring keynote Caitr\u00edona McLaughlin
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We are delighted to announce Caitríona McLaughlin, AD of the Abbey Theatre as the inaugural Siobhán McKenna lecture keynote.
About this Event

To celebrate the 100th year of Siobhán McKenna’s birth on the 24th of May 1922 the family of Siobhán McKenna established the Siobhán McKenna Award and Lecture Series to support the next generation of creatives in Theatre at University of Galway.


We are delighted to announce Caitríona McLaughlin, Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, as the inaugural Siobhán McKenna lecture keynote.


Please join us for this inaugural lecture event on Tuesday 16th April

from 1-3PM in the O’Donoghue Theatre which celebrates the achievement and potential of several generations of women in honour of the force of Siobhán McKenna’s legacy.


This scholarship and lecture series honours Siobhán McKenna, the late world-renowned actress of stage and screen who was also a theatre director, translator, and activist. The scholarship is awarded annually based on previous practical experience and academic achievement to one individual whose application materials gives evidence of current and/or future potential in acting, directing, translation, politically engaged arts or/and use of indigenous/native language or languages in the arts.


This event is co-presented by Galway University Foundation, the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, Drama and Theatre Studies, Arts in Action and the Alumni Office.


We will also honour the 2022-2023 inaugural award winner Nouf Rafea as part of this event. In addition, the event will be opened by Professor Rebecca Braun, the Executive Dean of the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic studies with chairing by alumni Catherine Denning.


Caitríona McLaughlin – Artistic Director

Caitríona was born in Donegal and studied science at the University of Ulster before moving into theatre. She was Associate Director at the Abbey Theatre from 2017-2020, where her productions included: The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh (with Conall Morrison); Citysong by Dylan Coburn Gray (ITTA nomination Best New Play); On Raftery’s Hill by Marina Carr, (for which she won Best Director at the 2019 ITTA); and Two Pints by Roddy Doyle, which toured widely in Ireland and the USA. She also worked with theatre and opera companies on both sides of the border, including Wexford Opera, Hot for Theatre, INO, The Local Group, and Landmark, and she was the director on O’Casey in the Estate, a TV documentary shown on RTE.


Prior to moving into directing, with Patrick McCabe’s Frank Pig Says Hello at the Finborough Theatre in London in 2003, Caitríona worked as a drama facilitator in Northern Ireland, working with young people and in conflict resolution. In London, she directed numerous productions, focusing primarily on new writing, and collaborated with the Royal Court in sourcing and developing a new theatre space. She was awarded a Clore Fellowship in 2007 and subsequently spent six summers with LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York developing new plays for Artistic Directors John Ortiz and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, at their Summer Intensive. During this time Caitríona also directed a number of plays in New York including Killers and other Family (part of the OBIE award-winning Hilltown Plays) and plays at Atlantic Theatre, Rattlestick, and Bard Summerscape.


Nouf Rafea

Nouf Rafea, a multifaceted theatre-maker, wears many hats as a director, theatre maker, producer, educator, writer, performer, scenographer, storyteller, and a (new) theatre scholar. Her theatrical journey, rooted in childhood, began officially with a 'Scenography' degree from the Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts in Damascus, Syria in 2015. She expanded her horizons with a 'Theatre in Education' program at the ArtEZ School of the Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands in 2022.


In 2020, Rafea established 'Collective Pitjes United', amplifying themes of womanhood and oppression on stage: https://www.pitjesunited.nl/. Continuing her artistic trajectory, she completed the 'Music Theatre' Master's course at ArtEZ School in 2022. Currently pursuing a second master's in ‘Theatre Practice and Production’ at the University of Galway, Ireland, Rafea received the 'Siobhan McKenna Scholarship' for an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway in 2023. Rafea's mission is to work interdisciplinary on a global scale, diving deeper into interculturalism by creating theatre productions -without constraints- with women, exploring the spectrum of female independence to oppression, and building on existing, yet unheard, female stories to produce original abstract work, providing to women educational theatre experience, and audiences high artistic quality as a means to unite, laugh, educate, and lend a hand.


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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University Rd University Road, Galway, Ireland

Tickets

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