Rough Magic

I had the great pleasure to meet Lynne Parker, the Artistic Director of Rough Magic, a Dublin theatre company (see entry on The Bonefire). She came to speak to my class on Contemporary Irish Theatre in Context. It was really inspirational to hear her speak about the work they have done and the visions for the future, including an acknowledgement of the lack of training for the essential individuals in the infrastructure of theatre: producer, administrator, production manager, stage manager. They started the SEEDS program by commissioning scripts in order to develop the new work coming out of Dublin. They put no restrictions on the play content, although they do ask for manageable amount of characters to make staging them feasible.

This was so successful, they started SEEDS II and then SEEDS III, each time expanding the scope. They now include directors, producers, designers, and writers. And they 'teams' will stage something for a festival next summer/fall. They become their own mini-company and learn from the hands-on experience with resources, support, and guidance.

I will have to do a presentation for this class about funding and contemporary theatre in Ireland. If possible, I am going to focus on Rough Magic. They are doing some exciting and interesting stuff. And trying to change the template each time.