I’m a performer, street theatre maker and now somehow a festival founder and director with a penchant for the absurd and a passion for bringing people together. I was awarded this Bursary from The Arts Council in April 2019. I was in a creation residency in Spraoi studios at the time and when my mam rang me to tell me there was a letter from the Arts Council, well the work had to pause for a little celebratory jump around session. To date I’ve co-created and toured three shows with Fanzini Productions; Circus Jukebox, Ballet Poulet and Spailp. I created and directed a four person site specific acrobatic show called Busy-ness in 2017 and have since created and directed Monumental Shifts as a special street theatre commission for Peace IV as well as co-directing the award-winning Caged by Femme Bizarre in Dublin Fringe and directing a special street theatre commission for Sea Fest in Cork looking at ocean clean ups. I also founded and am director of the annual multi-disciplinary Cavan Arts Festival since 2018.
www.fanzini.ie
www.cavanartsfestival.ie
www.circusfestival.ie
What did you do with your Bursary award?
I applied for this bursary to have the time and resources to search for a female mentor. It seemed to me while touring arts festivals around Ireland, Europe and Asia that there was a considerable lack of female voices in the creation and performance of street theatre. All the directors and co-creators I had worked with were male and I wanted a female guiding voice to learn from in the creation and dissemination of my work. I travelled to Fira Tarrega in Catalonia and to the bi-annual conference Fresh Street in Galway to talk with female leaders in the sector and to learn from them. I am delighted that I have found a mentor in Jo Mangan, Director of Carlow Arts festival and The Performance Corporation and former chair of National Campaign for the Arts with whom I will work, research and learn.
What has receiving a Bursary award meant to you as an artist/for your career?
Initially the honour of receiving such an award, the recognition by The Arts Council of Ireland as a professional artist, is the greatest feeling after years of slogging away and many moments of doubt. On one level, receiving this bursary has helped my belief in what I do, the importance of continuing even when it's difficult. On a practical level it has given me the time and resources to research from who I want to learn as well as what and how, in order to develop my practise and vision as an artist. It also made me a little bit sad because my dad would have actually floated off into outer space with pride were he still alive for me to ring him with that new.
How would you describe your creative process?
Long and drawn out, rapid fire, painful, joyous, ecstatic. Like running up a mountain backwards. Hard but with sweet new perspectives.
What is the best piece of advice you received as an emerging artist?
“Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die”
My Dad, a musician, used to say it a lot. Not because of a familial link with Goddess Nike or the poet Tennyson, or certainly not for any pro war connotations, but because it reminds me to stop thinking about it and just start making. I like it because I completely disagree with it and simultaneously live by it. Artists absolutely should question, everything, but sometimes I get lost thinking and imagining every potential outcome and need a reminder to kick start the active making.
What or who has influenced your practice the most?
The books that I read, the places I go, the people who let me listen to them. But mostly my mam and dad.