PERFORUM & PLAYREADINGS 2008

Perforum presents

Working in Two Worlds: Theatre and Film by Michael Murphy  

Granary Studio | Wed 23rd January | 6pm | €Free

The presentation is an overview of some of his recent productions in theatre and film and the learning and challenges he's faced in wedding the two worlds. Out of the presentation/discussion he hopes that we all might find an area or two that might be worth going into more either in a class or discussion at some other time, since the issues raised by this type of work can be a bit like Alice's rabbit hole, the meaning may not come out until the tea party and even then it's often in doubt.  Michael Murphy has joined the University of Montana in 1995 as an Associate Professor after 18 years of professional involvement in theatre, film and television as an actor and director, both in New York City and Los Angeles. Michael was also an established film and television presence, appearing in numerous televisions series and films, including "Lisa," "Boardwalk," "Kate and Allie," "Golden Girls," "thirtysomething," "Coach," "L.A. Law," "Father Dowling Mysteries," and "Murphy Brown." On moving to Los Angeles in 1988 he began directing for Circle Rep West and serving as Co-Artistic Director of that theatre.

Perforum presents

Drama in Education and Theatre Practice: What Can We Learn From Past Tensions and Disputes? by Dr. Mike Fleming

Granary Studio | Wed 6 February | 6pm | €Free

Mike Fleming's (Director of Research, School of Education, University of Durham)research interests are in the area of the teaching of English and drama, aesthetics and arts education, and intercultural education. His writing on drama and aesthetics has been extremely influential both nationally and internationally in integrating competing traditions from drama in education and theatre. He has also published on the relationship between drama and intercultural education. His research is currently focused on the implications for teaching of the 'high art' and low art' debate.

Granary Rehearsed Playreadings presents

LOVE AND MONEY by Dennis Kelly | directed by Ger Fitzgibbon  

Granary Studio | Wed 20th February | 6pm | €Free

Premiered at the Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in the autumn of 2006 in a co-production by Young Vic and Royal Exchange.
"Funny but heart-wrenching, this ingenious drama dares us to enter a dislocated world of bad debts and even worse desires."
"a corker of a ... play by Dennis Kelly, a rising star in the playwrights' firmament. ... a jigsaw puzzle of modern urban life, with a mystery fatality at its centre" (from The First Post, Jan 2008)

Author note: Dennis Kelly is an English playwright who has made a significant impact as a writer in the last few years: Osama the Hero (Hampstead Theatre London 2005) After the End (BAC 2004 and Paines Plough and the Bush Theatre at the Traverse, 2005) Debris (Latchmere Theatre, London, 2003) Best European Radio Drama at the Prix Europa, 2004 for The Colony. The Fourth Gate, Cottesloe, RNT, London, 2004 Taking Care of the Baby, Birmingham Rep Theatre, 2007 DeoxyriboNucleic Acid, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 2007.

Perforum presents

Spinal Snaps - Tracing a Backstory of European Performer Training by Jonathan Pitches

Granary Studio | Tue 26th February | 6pm | €Free

This illustrated lecture will offer one response to Miranda Tufnell and Chris Crickmay's challenge to 'give voice' to the spine (2004). Drawing structurally on the physiology of the spine itself and composed in different registers, it will propose a set of personal takes - or snapshots - on understandings of the spine in theatre and performance.
Jonathan Pitches is Chair in Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries He is Leader of the Theatre, Dance and Performance Research Grouping, Programme Manager of MA Performance Studies and Director of the Performance Research Lab.  His principal research interests are in performer training, specifically Russian theatre and performance, including the work of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Michael Chekhov and Anatoly Vasiliev; he is also very interested in interdisciplinary research methods specifically those drawing on science. He co-convenes the TaPRA C20th-21st Performer Training Working Group ( http://www.tapra.org/).

Granary Rehearsed Playreadings presents

IDIOT WIND by Neil O'Sullivan| directed by Tony McCleane-Fay  

Granary Studio | Wed 27th February | 6pm | €Free

Neil O’Sullivan's new play is a local play by a local playwright referencing local areas and written to be performed in a local Cork accent, the idiom of the piece is very contemporary – but contemporary North American not contemporary Ireland. The piece deals with relationships and the abandonment of children by their mother, it also deals with crime and ultimately murder. The writer's previous work includes HATCH 22 (Corcadorca) and MEAT (Asylum/Granary/Midsummer Festival).

Granary Rehearsed Playreadings presents

PATHEGONS by Albert Ostermaier| directed by Olan Wrynn  

Granary Studio | Wed 5th March | 6pm | €Free

A fractured mind searches for the reasons behind it's quarantine, it's repressed darkness spreads like a plague, a pathogen of thought.  Albert Ostermaier's deliciously-dark look inside a very disturbed and disturbing mind.

Granary Rehearsed Playreadings presents

THE EDGE by Steve Carley| directed by Kath Geraghty  

Granary Studio | Wed 12th March | 6pm | €Free

Marcus Adams has it all.  A successful business, a happy marriage and he’s looking forward to a blissful retirement. But now he has a brand new gift.  One which might give him even more than he desires, or might take him right over the edge.

Granary Rehearsed Playreadings presents

ACTION by Sam Shepard| directed by Adam McElderry  

Granary Studio | Wed 19th March | 6pm | €Free

Four young friends are gathered for a Christmas dinner. One carves the turkey, another loses his temper at his own ineptitude and smashes chairs, a third calmly sweeps up the broken pieces. At the same time there is an undercurrent of talk about dancing bears, a moth consumed by flames and Walt Whitman's expectations for America.
Sam Shepard's early plays deal with the collision of the inner self and the threatening world at large. As the characters go through behavioral rituals - eating, drinking, pairing off - they are shadowed by apocalyptical events beyond their comprehension.

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PERFORUM & REHEARSED PLAYREADINGS
Autumn 2007

All events take place at 6pm in the Granary Studio (except where indicated) and are free of charge.

Weds. 7th November:  “What Kind of theatre do we want to make?” William Galinsky (Director, Cork Midsummer Festival)

Tues 13th November: Post-show discussion with Writer and cast of Rough Magic’s Improbable Frequency at Cork Opera House.

Weds 21 Nov “Vincent “ written & directed by Kenneth Hickey

A tale of redemption through art, excess and prostitution. A recently widowed Vincent travels to the city of lights with a threefold plan for
self destruction. Firstly to view the works of his great dutch namesake, secondly for one last time to enjoy the company of a lady of the night and thirdly to throw
himself into the Seine. But things rarely work out the way they are planned.

Wed 28th Nov “Idiot Wind” written by Neil O’Sullivan, directed by Tony McCleane-Fay

Idiot Wind is a new play from Neil O'Sullivan, the writer of the Midsummer Festival hit show 'Meat' and writer/performer of Gullibles Travels seen at Granary in September.

Weds 5th December 'Feeling Spaces - a Performance Project' Dr Martin Welton, (Queen Mary University, London)

Thur 6th Dec “Elevator Music” written by Donnchadh O’Conailldirected by Cormac O’Callahain

Weds 12th December "The Artists' Initiative": Irene Murphy (Cork Arts Collective) and Julie Forrester (Cork Art Trail)

Wed 19th Dec "Shostakovich” written & performed by Jack Healy, directed by Cormac O’Connor.

Jack Healy reads from work in preparation for a one man show based on the life of the famous Russian composer. Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was born into Russia under the last Tsar and grew up into the emerging Soviet state. When his opera; "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" drew the wrath of Stalin, he came close to annihilation and was saved only by dint of his international reputation. He survived to live a life where he had to constantly mediate between the needs of his own personal aesthetic and the controlling impositions of the Communist State where the cultural needs of "the people" were paramount. He still managed to be hugely prolific and died in the seventies leaving an immense and varied body of work behind him.

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