PERFORMANCE ARTISTS ARE AWARDED ‘WELL RESIDENCIES
Recipients of short artist residencies for 2019 at the Hawk’s Well have just been announced. The theatre will be working with performing artists Ciaran MacCauley and Edwina Guckian as short residency artists for 2019 and also welcomes Karen Tansey as an emerging short residency artist for the year.
Time at the Well is the Hawk’s Well Theatre’s performing artist support scheme offering short residency opportunities. Open to practising performance artists with a proven track record and a new project that needs floor time for development, Time at the Well provides workspace (or studio space) and stipend to creative practitioners.
Performing artists Treasa Nealon, Miriam Needham, Michele Feeney and Kellie Hughes were all recipients of a ‘ Time at the Well’ residency in 2018.
Sligo based actor Ciaran McCauley is using his residency to explore and research the creation of a new theatre performance centred on the writer Flann O’Brien.
I am absolutely delighted and honoured to have been chosen as one of the recipients of the “Time at the Well” bursary awards 2019.
This generous award will permit me the time, the theatrical space and the financial support to pursue a long held ambition of mine, to explore the possibility of creating a piece of theatre adapted from the rich source of surreal and anarchic material contained within the collected writings of Flann O Brien.
Ciaran has been active in the Sligo theatre scene for 35 years ranging from productions with Sligo Drama Circle and Coolera Dramatic Society to being a founder member of the BlueRaincoat Theatre company. Ciaran holds an MA in Drama and Performance from University College Dublin. He delivers the Physical Theatre Module to the students of the Performing Arts BA, in Sligo Institute of Technology. Ciaran has experience as a Theatre Director working on productions with Blue Raincoat Theatre Co., Tubbercurry Youth Drama Group and the Ad Astra Students in UCD.
He has created and produced a workshop for Summerhill College 1st,2nd and 3rd year students to assist in answering a specific question on theatre production on the Junior Cycle English Paper.
He is an accredited member of the Association of Drama Adjudicators and has been the adjudicator for a number of Drama Festivals.
Sean Nós dancer Edwina Guckian will use her residency to explore the creation of a new performance piece looking at the journey of dance in Ireland and the struggles it and the people encountered over the past 100 years. Edwina hails from outside the village of Drumsna in County Leitrim. She learned her dancing from her mother and the local dancers of Leitrim and Roscommon.
“Sean Nós Dancing is quite a new term to be put on the old style of dancing. Previous to this we referred to it in my area as dancing the single turn. I like to describe my dancing as musical dancing. I dance with the tune and my steps and spontaneity are a reflection of the style of music in Leitrim. It’s been my greatest influence. I dance my interpretation of the music, I dance my thoughts, I dance my character, I dance as me.”
Music plays as much an important role as dancing does in Edwina’s life.
“As much as I love dancing, it would be nothing without the music”.
She began learning the fiddle from Irene Guckian and her grandfather Ned Lee at the age of 9. She then picked up the tin whistle learning from local man, Padraig Sweeney and Tipperary’s Seán Ryan and in recent years she has taken up the concertina. Edwina decided to further her love of music by studying it in St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra where she later achieved a degree in Music, English and Education and graduated as a primary school teacher in 2010.
Having started teaching dancing at the age of 15, Edwina has now taught her steps and toured with shows and bands in every continent all over the world. She has shared the stage with some of Ireland’s most influential acts such as De Danann, Dervish, Mairtín O Connor, Frankie Gavin, Kíla, Martin Hayes, Brendan Power, Tim Edey, Séamus Begley, We Banjo 3 and John Carty to name a few. Edwina worked as choreographer on director Ken Loach’s latest film, Jimmy’s Hall, nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. She also worked as a guest presenter on RTE’s The Beo Show that involved teaching children music and dance in a fun and unique way.
Edwina is the sole force behind her dance club “Sean Nós ar an tSionann”. She has singly revived the old style of dancing in her area and believes there is not a house in any parish in Sligo, Leitrim or Roscommon now that a child can’t get up and knock sparks out of the floor with a few steps. The club, which is now in its 13th year, has over 400 members, 8 teachers and is based in Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo and Longford with pop up weekend workshops around the rest of the country.
Emerging artist in residency for 2019 Karen Tansey will work in conjunction with Edwina on this project.
For all further information on these residencies and their resulting projects, keep an eye on the Hawk’s Well Theatre’s website, www.hawkswell.