Have you ever wondered how a world appears on a stage or who designs what actors wear in a play? Sligo audiences will have an exciting and unique opportunity to see inside the world of theatre design at the final show case of IT Sligo Performing Arts Theatre Design Course students. Detailed scale models and costume designs for a range of plays in theatres in Ireland and the UK will be on display to the public. The event runs from Thursday 29 April to Saturday 1 May at the Factory Performance Space, Quay Street, Sligo. The course, which has been in operation for four years, is the only fulltime Theatre Design course in Ireland.
Frank Conway, film and theatre designer lecturing on the course, says: ‘The exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the magical world of the process involved in the creation of a piece of theatre. These students are graduates from the first ever BA Honours Degree course in the history of the state solely dedicated to theatre design. It’s a very exciting development in Irish Theatre, historic I would say, all our designers have traditionally had to travel abroad to access training. It’s a tribute to the vision and foresight of those in Sligo IT who initiated and developed this unique course. ‘
An invited audience on Wednesday 28 April will view four short costume showcase performances. The pieces include extracts from Flan O’Brian’s The Third Policeman’, Eunesco’s The Bald Soprano and Malcolm Hamilton’s Sanctuary and A Brief Taste of Lightening. Directed by Niall Henry of Blue Raincoat they will be performed by the Company members. Following the performances, the costumes will form part of the three day show case exhibition along with detailed scale models rarely seen by the public in the foyer of the Factory Performance Space
The exhibition will feature designs for plays by Shakespeare, Brecht, Eunesco, John Ford and Benjamin Brittan in a variety of theatres, including the Gaiety Theatre Dublin, The Factory Performance Space, The Tate Modern in London , IT Sligo and the Beckett Theatre in Trinity College. It will also include costume sketches and full costumes accompanied form various works done through the four years of the course.
The IT Sligo Hons. Degree in Performing Arts Theatre Design Showcase Exhibition takes place in the Factory Performances Space from Thursday 29 April to Saturday 1 May running from 10am to 5pm daily. For more information on the Performing Arts Programme at IT Sligo, see www.itlsigo.ie
Scale model of IT Sligo final year theatre design student Breege Masterson’s design for Romeo and Juliet at the Samuel Beckett Centre Dublin.
Scale model of IT Sligo final year theatre design student Angela Lindstrom’s design for Eunesco’s The Bald Soprano set in the Factory Performance Space, Sligo
Linda Campbell, final year IT Sligo theatre design student puts some finishing touches to her costume for Malcolm Hamilton’s A Brief Taste of Lightening in the Factory Performance Space Sligo.
For further information contact:
Frank Conway
Lecturer in Theatre Design
IT Sligo,