The Irish Student Drama Awards (ISDAs) are here again, and this year our very own DU Players will play host to the festivities. Happening across 10 days, the festival promises the best of Irish student theatre as well as a gallery showcasing a wide variety of artistic submissions from young people around the country.
On Wednesday night, the launch was marked with a heartfelt ceremony where festival director and Trinity graduate Sophie Coote paid tribute to the hard work of all involved in making the event happen, stating that “our website is our theatre”. Similarly, chair of DU Players Dáire Ó Muiri took the opportunity to thank everyone involved and commend their positive attitudes in the face of adversity.
The launch event featured four performances of original work from students across participating colleges. From live music to spoken word, each one reinforced the running theme of resilience, the cosy glow of live performance over Zoom, and the power of this generation’s theatre makers.
The excitement from the opening ceremony is set to continue into the festival – in conversation with The University Times over Zoom, Coote and festival publicity officer Imo Redpath speak fondly about the process of putting the festival programme together. “I’ve been involved with Players since first year, working on everything and anything, and then I got asked to come and be involved with ISDA”, Coote explains. With a laugh, she adds: “When I signed up to it, I had a very different brief to the way it looks now.”
Redpath, a final-year drama student, echoes similar sentiments, describing how she was asked to come on board “over a year ago now” in DU Players’ Front of House. “It was after the [DU Players] AGM last year”, she says, “because I ran as publicity and communications officer for Players, didn’t get it, and then [Coote] asked me to be the publicity and marketing manager for ISDA.”
They explain that – after much discussion – the current ISDA committee committed to a virtual festival in November 2020. “I’m so glad that we decided that early on”, Redpath exclaims, outlining how moving the festival online at such an early stage allowed them to bring on more volunteers to help with the running of the festival. More technical volunteers also allowed them to “mess around and build a website”, Coote points out.
The pair also emphasise the wider scope of the ISDAs this year. The logistics of the awards mean that in a normal year, performances are only seen by the host college, but because of the online medium of this festival, “we all get to see each other’s work”, Redpath notes.
The festival will also feature panel discussions with industry professionals, many of whom have personal experience with the ISDAs. Among these is a panel hosted by previous chair of DU Players Ultan Pringle on the future of Irish theatre, which will take place at 1pm on Saturday, April 17th. “It’s cool to have industry professionals supporting the work of young makers because I think that’s something missing this year – being able to transition from college theatre to the industry”, Coote says.
One of the main attractions of this year’s festival, and – Redpath hopes – of years to come, is the addition of a gallery on the ISDA website. Inspired by the Tumblr galleries of DU Players’ previous virtual festivals and designed as a space to showcase the work of young artists, she hopes to platform work from young people outside of the six colleges taking part. “It’s important to give students a platform to showcase their work”, she says.
Redpath also states that “over time, if this website is taken up by the other colleges, the stuff that is on the gallery will continue to exist and be online”. The gallery will act as a “space of our time as young artists for what we’re making now”, she explains.
In terms of the awards themselves, DU Players has three original shows in the running:. The first, Transcend, is an exploration of gender identity, which is showing tonight at 7:30pm. The second, How I Learned to Eat Myself: And Other Stories, is an exploration of what it means to be a woman and will be shown April 13th at 1pm. DU Players’ final entry, Do As I Tweet, Not As I Do, follows one female influencer of colour as she examines the ethics of her job and her life’s pressures. This production will be shown on April 16th at 1pm.
Both Coote and Redpath encourage everyone to come to as many events as possible as part of their jam-packed festival programme, and with such a wide variety of events, the 10-day festival is sure to have something for everyone.
All ISDA performances will be streamed online for free, with tickets from the ISDA website: www.irishstudentdrama.com. More information on panels and other events can be found on the Irish Student Drama Awards Facebook and Instagram pages.
