FORUM ON FORM

// PEACOCK THEATRE_ dublin
16/11/19
11am - 5pm

///WORKSHOP

PROGRESS IS MOVING
Connor Schumacher
​11am - 1pm _ Peacock Stage

Is it possible that using abstract ideas in connection to the movement of the body can reveal and produce the metaphors we live by as social, physical human beings?
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Using research into the cognitive science called 'embodied cognition', paired with research into the effects of progressive, contemporary movement practices and their impact on how we move, we move and groove to the practice of being human. Structured through the dramaturgy of an exercise class, the workshop builds stamina in body as well as in the mind and its ability to move in all directions. 

Be prepared to persistently move, even if it's funny, soft, happy or the opposite.

Open to all always, no experience or expectations required. 
Bring your dog if you want. But no cats.
I'm a dog person.
 
To book a place, contact the Abbey Theatre box office directly on (01) 87 87 222 between 12pm and 7pm or email boxoffice@abbeytheatre.ie

PANEL DISCUSSION ///

2pm - 5pm _ Peacock Stage

THE DRAFF: FORUM ON FORM IS A LIVE CONVERSATION THAT BRINGS TOGETHER A DIVERSE GROUP OF ARTISTS TO CONSIDER WHAT FORM IN PERFORMANCE LOOKS LIKE NOW. 

THE 1950S AND '60S WERE A PIVOTAL PERIOD FOR THEATRE AND DANCE, WITH DEVISING EMERGING AS A METHOD OF MAKING IN DIRECT RESPONSE TO THE POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF THE TIME. THIS APPROACH TO MAKING WORK REFLECTED A DESIRE TO DISCOVER NEW WAYS OF BEING TOGETHER IN SOCIETY, USING PERFORMANCE AS A SITE FOR TRIALING IDEAS FOR UTOPIA.

ARTISTS WORKING TODAY HAVE INHERITED MANY OF THE METHODS AND TOOLS THAT EMERGED IN THE '60s. IN THIS CURRENT MOMENT WHERE WE SEEM TO BE EXPERIENCING A WAVE OF POLITICISATION ON A PAR WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE '60s, DRAFF ASKS THE QUESTION: WHAT DOES FORM IN PERFORMANCE LOOK LIKE NOW, AND WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT OUR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT? ​
TERRY O'CONNOR / FORCED ENTERTAINMENT
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​Terry O'Connor is a core member and performer with Forced Entertainment, a collective practice of six artists based in Sheffield who received the 2016 International Ibsen Prize for contribution to theatre. In 2009, she was awarded an AHRC Creative Fellowship at Roehampton University and in 2011 she was made Professor of Contemporary Theatre and Performance Practice at the University of Sheffield. In November 2016 she was awarded a Creative Fellowship as part of collaboration between the University of Birmingham, the RSC and the Shakespeare Institute. Her doctoral research practice (2019-24) investigates experimental and improvisational process and collaborative aesthetics within contemporary performance.
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TANYA BEYELER / EL CONDE DE TORREFIEL 
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Born in Lugano (Switzerland) in 1980, Tanya is co-director of the Spanish company El Conde de Torrefiel together with Pablo Gilbert. She studied drama, dramaturgy and Human Sciences. Since 2010, she has been the co-director of  El Conde de Torrefiel, a theatre project where the work is the result of an oscillation between literature and choreography. They have made a name for themselves with their somehow uncomfortable works about tension between individual and collective, the brittle disposition of European society and the hard to grasp sentiments of our time. Besides El Conde de Torrefiel, Tanya Beyeler also works as dramaturgist, mainly for dance projects such as the last three works by Eugénie Rébetez (Collective Big Bouncers), Eulàlia Bergadà, the flamenco project Bailes Collaterals, as well as a performer, mainly for the dance company La Veronal. 
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CONNOR SCHUMACHER 
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Connor Schumacher graduated from Purchase College Conservatory of Dance in New York. 
He has been based in Rotterdam since 2010 and has been producing work at Dansateliers since 2012. His practice can be found in museums, theatres and in community contexts. He has taken part in European research projects including Performing Gender (2014), Dancing Museums (2015-2017) and Empowering Dance (2018-present). This has majorly informed his practice on where and what dance can accomplish. He was awarded the Prijs van de Nederlandse Dansdagen in 2019. He is moving forward as an independent dance artist in November 2019.
SARAH BROWNE
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Sarah Browne is an artist based in Ireland concerned with non-verbal, bodily experiences of knowledge and justice. This practice involves sculpture, film, performance and public projects, as well as forms of writing and publishing in diverse contexts. In 2009 she co-represented Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale with Gareth Kennedy and Kennedy Browne, their shared collaborative practice. Browne is associate artist in residence with University College Dublin College of Social Sciences and Law. Current and forthcoming projects in 2019 include Sick and Desiring, an exhibition curated by Nora Heidorn for the Bergen Assembly. This winter she will present Public feeling, a public art commission for South Dublin County Council. This project explores the health impacts of austerity on the individual and collective body, the politics of 'resilience', and considers the gym or leisure centre as a space where the bodies of citizens are trained, transformed and cared for. Public feeling will be realised as a series of participatory performances in public leisure centres in the county, staged in the format of fitness classes.

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DYLAN TIGHE
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Dylan Tighe is an actor, writer-director and singer-songwriter from Dublin. His creations include: Pasolini's Salò Redubbed (2019), No Worst There is None (Best Production Irish Times Theatre Awards 2009), The Trailer of Bridget Dinnigan - a collaboration with Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group and The Irish Traveller Movement, and RECORD (2012). His radio-play of the same name was nominated for the Prix Europa 2013. Dylan contributed an essay to That Was Us: Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance (Oberon) and a chapter to Performance, Madness and Psychiatry (Palgrave). Dylan has released two critically acclaimed albums, most recently Wabi-Sabi Soul in 2016. 

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BEN KIDD (Moderator)
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Ben Kidd is co-artistic director of Irish theatre company Dead Centre. He studied English and Philosophy at Nottingham University, Professional Acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Directing at National Theatre Studio. Dead Centre productions include Lippy (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2013), Chekhov’s First Play (Dublin Theatre Festival, 2015) and Hamnet, a co-production by Dead Centre and Abbey Theatre (Schaubühne, 2017). Other productions as a director include Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind in a new adaptation by Anya Reiss (Headlong Theatre in London, 2014) and In the Night Time by Nina Segal (Gate Theatre in London, 2016).

// TICKETS \

Workshop: €10 
Panel: €15/€7 
Workshop/Panel combo: €20/€15
Conc. price for artists, students + unwaged.
Supported by the Arts Council, in partnership with the Abbey Theatre.