Irish Theatre Institute welcomes applications to participate in a two-day workshop:

Bilingual self-taping with Casting Director Maureen Hughes

19th & 20th January at Bow Street Academy, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

Irish Theatre Institute (ITI) invites applications from bilingual actors (English and Irish), who wish to participate in a 2-day self-taping workshop with Casting Director Maureen Hughes, to take place on 19th & 20th January at Bow Street Academy, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

Participants in this workshop can expect to learn new and improve existing self-taping techniques, improve Irish language competencies and gain confidence around the self-taping process. Actors will shoot one-to-one auditions in both languages with direction and critique, viewing their work onscreen together with evaluation and feedback. This is a professional development initiative, delivered as part of ITI’s Artists’ Supports Programme, with emphasis on the Irish language, which provides career supports and training to practitioners at all stages of their careers.

Here’s what some of last year’s participants thought of the workshop:

It’s a chance to learn what casting directors expect from a self-tape (Breffni Holohan, 2017 participant)

About Maureen Hughes:

Maureen Hughes began her career at the Druid Theatre, Galway in 1984. In 1991, she became Casting Director at the Abbey Theatre under the Artistic Directorship of Garry Hynes, where she remained until 1994. She joined UK Casting Director Susie Figgis in 1996 to find the lead casting for Neil Jordan’s ’The Butcher Boy’ and subsequently went freelance in film and television casting.

Maureen has cast over 50 Irish features and 30 dramas, with credits including ‘Once’, ‘Love/Hate’, ‘Acceptable Risk’, ‘Raw’ and most recently ‘Taken Down’ for RTÉ and has also cast on ‘Nightflyers’ for Netflix. Film credits include the low budget Irish film ‘Once’ which won an Oscar for Best Song in 2009 and ‘Six Shooter’ which won the Oscar for Best Live Short in 2006. Recently, she has cast for the Abbey Theatre, ‘The Unmanageable Sisters’ and ‘Raftery’s Hill’ and has just completed casting ‘The Country Girls’.  For the Gaiety Theatre, she recently cast ‘The Cripple of Inismaan’. Maureen continues to work as Consultant Casting Director with Druid Theatre.

Cost

• This training initiative is available free of charge by Irish Theatre Institute to eligible participants with project funding from Foras na Gaeilge.

Requirements

• Participants must be practising professional actors for theatre and/or screen, with professional acting experience in the Irish language and sufficient proficiency to work in the room. Previous participants have had varying levels of Irish which did not detract from their experience of the workshop.

• Each individual must submit a CV, outlining their recent professional acting experience for theatre and/or screen with a cover letter answering the question “How do you think this self-taping training opportunity would benefit you and your practice”? (150 words max)

• Participants must be fully available to complete the two-day workshop on 19th & 20th January 10.00am-4pm.

Selection Process

• Applications will be assessed by ITI staff, with a view to selecting participants who satisfactorily meet the criteria set. Places are limited. 

• Application is by open call to ensure fair selection and a diverse range of participants.

Application Deadline

• Applications should be completed in full and sent by email to Leigh Hussey, Programme Coordinator lhussey@irishtheatreinstitute.ie by Wednesday 9th January, 12pm (mid-day)

Acknowledgement

• All applications will be acknowledged by email. If you apply and do not receive an email, please contact us to ensure your application has reached us safely.

Irish Theatre Institute is proudly funded by the Arts Council /An Chomhairle Ealaíon.