Actress and director to giveWalsh lecture
THE 2017 Dr Tom Walsh Lecture will be given by Fiona Shaw, Irish actress and theatre and opera director, known for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films and her role as Marnie Stonebrook in season four of the HBO series True Blood (2011).
She has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, twice winning the Olivier Award for Best Actress for various roles including Electra in 1990, and for Machinal in 1994.
She won the 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for The Waste Land. Her other stage work includes playing the title role in Medea, both in the West End and on Broadway (2001-02). She was awarded an honorary CBE in 2001.
Born in County Cork, Ms Shaw trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and was part of a new wave of actors to emerge from the Academy.
The lecture will take place in Clayton Whites hotel on October 21 at 11 am. Tickets cost €10. The event is sponsored by Victoria Walsh-Hamer, and tea and coffee will be served after the lecture.
The lecture Operas Of The Past, Mirrors Of Our Present will be presented by Sylvia L’Écuyer, associate professor of musicology in the faculty of music of the University of Montreal, a broadcaster with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where she was director of music from 1996 to 2000 and producer of the Opera Saturday for Ici Musique.
Often inspired by the works of the greatest poets and playwrights, operas expose us to another perspective of our humanity. Gods and nymphs, dukes and queens, warriors and courtesans are inspired by the same passions and defeated by the same foibles as we are.
Today stage directors feel the urge to make the message clear, shedding crowns and gowns, and updating the drama to contemporary circumstances. At which point do these adaptations betray the true nature of the work?
It will be delivered in the Jerome Hynes Theatre, National Opera House, on Saturday, October 28, at 11am. Tickets cost €10. STUDENTS from the Corish-Wallace Performing Arts School will appear on stage in the Wexford Festival Opera production of ‘Medea’ directed by the renowned film and stage actress Fiona Shaw and in ‘Risurrezione’ with director Rosetta Cucchi.
Lucy Caulfield (9), Aoibhe Broaders (9), Anthony Kenny (9) and Rioch Kinsella (12) will perform in ‘Medea’ while Meagan Moran (8) and Niamh White (9) are appearing in ‘Risurrezione’.
The children were chosen by the the directors following a series of auditions in September. Student teacher Ryan Blanch was also successful in audition and will take part in ‘Medea’.
The Corish Wallace School has enjoyed an affiliation with the Opera Festival for over 30 years, providing young people for castings every year.
‘We are extremely proud of our students and happy that they are enjoying a platform to gain professional experience with international directors and performers,’ said director Lauren Corish Wallace.