14:30 - 16:00

 How do the Irish performing arts talk about themselves? What is the quality of theoretical discourse where Irish theatre, dance and opera are concerned? 

 Certain established models of making, and of thinking about what is made, seem to be regarded as necessary, as fundamental; but there are other models, as the conversations constantly happening within other art forms - in particular that of the visual arts - show. 

Should we care about these other conversations, these other models? Or do conversations about ideas of the post-dramatic, the experimental, about artist-based ways of creating work lead inevitably down a rabbit hole of abstraction, confusion, even of pretension? 

Four panellists, with chair Willie White, will face these questions head-on, considering their implications for the health and the shape of contemporary Irish performance, and for its identity within a larger European context. They will discuss the ways in which Irish art forms grapple, or fail to grapple, with aesthetics, and will explore the extent to which an up-to-the-minute theoretical vocabulary needs to be present in the way Irish theatre, dance and opera thinks and talks about itself. 

 Note: This session is one of a choice of sessions running in the same time slot . For more information please refer to the schedule. 

Biographies 

 Jason Byrne’s most recent production was Comedy of Errors at the Abbey Theatre where he has also directed Romeo and Juliet , Julius Caesar , Turgenev’s A Month in the Country in a version by Brian Friel, Judas of the Gallarus by Donal O’Kelly, Living Quarters by Brian Friel, Treehouses by Elizabeth Kuti and Observatory by Daragh Carville. He was Staff Director at the Abbey Theatre from1988 to 2000. 

 Jason is Artistic Director of Loose Canon Theatre Company where he directed Phaedra’s Love (winner of an Irish Times Theatre Awards for Best Production in 2008), The Maids by Jean Genet, Julius Caesar , The Revenger’s Tragedy , Measure for Measure , The Duchess of Malfi , The Spanish Tragedy , Coriolanus (for which he received a Ford Sunday Independent Spirit of Life Award), The White Devil , Hamlet , In the Dark Air of a Closed Room , Macbeth (winner of Best Production Dublin Fringe 2001), Hedda Gabler , Fragments of a Dead Performance (nominated Sexiest Production Dublin Fringe 2003), Medea (a work in progress), h (an original performance based on Hamlet and The Orestia (nominated for a Judges' Special Award at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2005) and Waterfront Wasteland, Medea Material, Landscape with Argonauts . 

 Other work includes A Piece of Monologue , Not I, What Where by Samuel Beckett, Wedding Day at the Cro Magnons ’ by Wajdi Mouawad (Bedrock Productions), Wall of Cloud by Raymond Deane (Opera Theatre Company), A Whistle in the Dark by Tom Murphy and Festen by David Eldridge (Company Theatre, Toronto). 

 Richard Gregory is founder and co-Artistic Director (with Renny O’Shea) of Quarantine. Quarantine were Fellows in Theatre at the University of Manchester from 2005 – 2007. The company won Arts Council England’s art05 award for outstanding achievement. 

 Richard has directed see-saw, Frank, Geneva, Domestic Science (with Renny O’Shea), White Trash, Butterfly, Grace, Susan & Darren (with Renny O’Shea) and Old people, children & animals for Quarantine. He recently curated (with Renny O’Shea) Coming and Going, a large scale project for Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008, developed with artists, academics, activists and ‘ordinary people’
from Liverpool, Marseille, Istanbul, Naples and Gdansk. Susan & Darren won the Best production award at last year’s Dublin Fringe Festival. 

 He is currently developing Make-believe, an interrogation of belief; When you thought you were…, a wake for a living person; and Between us, we know everything, a festival exploring everyday life. 

Richard was also Associate Artist at Leicester Haymarket Theatre (2002-2003). From 2000 - 2001, he was Associate Artist at Contact, Manchester. From 1995-1998 he was Associate Director with Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne and Associate Director at Contact Theatre, 1991-1995. 

Richard was also one of the facilitators on MAKE which was a week-long artist development project for Irish and international theatre artists organised
by Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre and Theatre Forum that took place in March 2009. 

 Gavin Quinn is joint artistic director of Pan Pan which he co-founded in 1991 with Aedin Cosgrove. 

 Selected productions include: Mr. Staines by Dermot Healy, 1998, SamuelBeckett Theatre. Standoffish by Gavin Quinn, 2000, City Arts Centre, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Australia (Best Production, 2000, Advertiser Newspaper). Deflowerfucked (group creation), 2001, SFX City Theatre, Lublin International Theatre Festival, Poland. Amy The Vampire (& her Sister, Martina) by Gavin Quinn, commissioned by Corcadorca Theatre Company, 2002, Triskel Arts Centre. For The First Time Ever by Gavin Quinn, 2003, Project Arts Centre, TNT Theatre, Germany. MAC-BETH 7 by Shakespeare, 2004, Project Arts Centre (nominated for Best Production, Irish Times Theatre Awards, 2004), One-healing with theatre by Gavin Quinn, 2005, Digital Hub, Dublin, (nominated Judges' Special Award, 2005 Irish Times Theatre Awards), The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge, 2006, Oriental Theatre, Beijing. Oedipus Loves You by Simon Doyle and Gavin Quinn, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, 2006. The Idiots by Lars von Trier, Project Arts Centre, Dublin Theatre Festival, 2007. The Crumb Trail by Gina Moxley, FFT, Düsseldorf, Under the Radar Festival, New York, 2008/09. 

 Other directing credits include: The 4 Note Opera by Tom Johnson, 2000. The Magic Flute by Mozart, 2001, for Opera Theatre Company and English Touring Opera, (nominated Best Opera Production, 2001 Irish Times Theatre Awards). Hamelin by Ian Wilson, 2003, for Opera Theatre Company, The Factory, Sligo. The Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart, 2007, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire, London. 

 Gavin has also worked as a dramaturg for Rex Levitate’s Bread & Circus,2003. Gavin was joint Artistic Director with Aedin Cosgrove of The Pan Pan International Theatre Symposium, founded in 1997. (Nominated Judges' Special Award, 2001 Irish Times Theatre Awards). 

 Noelia Ruiz is currently a PhD Researcher in the Drama Studies Centre in UCD. The provisional title of her thesis is: Ireland in the Intercultural Context of Postdramatic Theatre. 

Her research focuses on companies in Ireland that have a specific approach to theatre influenced by postdramatic aesthetics and their impact on the way theatre is created: from dramaturgical approaches to initiatives that are shaping the Irish performing arts landscape. 

Noelia comes from Barcelona, she is a graduate in Philosophy and also holds an MA in Directing for Theatre (UCD, 2007, Intercultural Theatre and Devised Physical Theatre). She also holds several qualifications as an actress/performer. She has trained in Commedia dell’arte (Padova, Italy). Most recently she attended the Intensive Summer Course with Anne Bogart's SITI Company in Saratoga, NY, 2008.